5-Headed Shark Attack is third in a film series from The Asylum after 2-Headed Shark Attack and Three Headed Shark Attack.
Tropes:
- A Head at Each End: 4 heads in front, 5th head is in tail.
- Anyone Can Die: Standard for all Asylum films as long as you aren't a Sheppard.
- Big Eater: Between its various heads' appetites, the shark somehow manages to scarf down at least 20 people, two other sharks, and large chunks of a humpback whale over the course of the film. Apparently the thing has even more stomachs than heads...
- Covers Always Lie: The shark is advertised as "shaped like a terrifying starfish". Even though one of the characters says this (especially silly since they only knew of FOUR heads when they said it), it simply isn't true. The four anterior heads are all lined up at the front; they do not fan out like a starfish's arms in any way.
- Inspiration Nod: includes line "get out of the water" from Jaws which launched the shark horror genre.
- Militaries Are Useless: The monster shark is downing boats and gobbling whales in Puerto Rico's inshore waters, yet the U.S. Coast Guard is apparently willing to let a bunch of aquarium interns and local police boats take it on without any assistance ... never mind that maritime safety and marine environmental protection are both explicitly in their purview.
- N+1 Sequel Title: N+2 title actually as it skips over 4.
- Shout-Out or
Fandom Nod: Similar to Sharknado nodding to Z Nation, when confronted with a photo of the shark's anterior four heads they find it absurd, saying "that's absurd, like sharks swimming through tornadoes" - Spoiler Title: For the first half of the film you only see the 4 front heads, and the 5th is only seen halfway in as a reveal underwater. The protagonists do not find out about the additional head until even later than this.
