Secrets of Sharknado, the low-budget SyFy disaster film the world fell in love with

There is a craving in the human spirit that can can only be satiated by ridiculous low-budget disaster films with questionable plots and acting, preferably involving sharks. That’s why last night’s Sharknado, staring Tara Reid, created such a frenzy.

How much did Sharknado cost to make?

Sharknado cost under $2 million, which is peanuts in the movie industry these days, especially for a film requiring as much CGI as Sharknado does, but it’s a huge budget for it’s production company The Asylum, which frequently cranks out straight to DVD movies costing only $200,000 a piece.

Before Sharknado premiered on the SyFy network last night, it had already made a profit at the Cannes marketplace, not to be confused with the artsy Cannes Film Festival. Paul Bales, a partner at The Asylum explained CNN “It’s like any other marketplace, instead of selling vegetables it’s selling crappy films.”

The Asylum is also responsible for another classic SyFy shark movie: Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus, not to be confused with Sharktopus.

Is Sharknado inspired by any sort of real science?

Sharknado script writer Thunder Levin spoke with io9, and revealed that yes, it was. Sort of.

“There are numerous confirmed reports of fish falling from the sky, sometimes even on a clear sunny day. We just took it to the “logical” extreme,” Levin says.

Dr. Greg Forbes, a severe weather expert, wrote on Weather.com about two separate incidents in the US where it was literally raining fish.

On 23 October 1947 between 7 and 8 AM fish ranging from 2-9″ in length fell from the sky at Marksville, LA. Fish averaged one per square yard in places. Several people were struck.

– On the morning of 28 June 1957, small fish, frogs, and crayfish fell by the thousands during a rainstorm at Magnolia Terminal near Thomasville, AL. Many of the fish were alive and placed in ponds and swimming pools. There was an F2 tornado 15 miles to the south near Whatley.

Sharknado isn’t remotely plausible, but that’s part of the magic.

How did you like Sharknado? If you haven’t seen it, you know you want to.