SyFy’s ‘Stonado’ Movie Is Like ‘Sharknado’ But With Rocks
New England is no stranger to a mix of odd weather—warm days in November rapidly shifting to wind chills and single-digit temperatures— but no one was prepared when a “mysterious storm” hit Boston over the weekend, hurling large stones to the ground from a tornado, in SyFy’s latest low-budget film.
On Saturday, the makers of the viral hit “Sharknado,” about a surge of shark-filled tornadoes destroying much of the continental U.S., aired a film with a similar motif, but instead of man-eating sharks soaring from sea-to-land, whirling twisters were launching massive rocks towards the city of Boston.
In “Stonados,” nothing was safe from the catastrophic strikes of the rocks after a tornado appeared in the waters just south of the city, approaching the shoreline and eventually destroying Swan Boats and buildings like the Prudential center.
According to the SyFy network, here’s the premise of the film:
Former storm chaser Joe Randall is intrigued by the unusual weather. But as twisters begin to strike across the Boston shoreline, Joe quickly realizes this is no ordinary storm front. As the storms threaten to move inland, the citizens of Boston find themselves trapped in a tempest turning deadlier by the minute. With the city under siege, Joe, his sister Maddy and his old storm chasing partner Lee realize they’re dealing with a never before seen weather phenomenon known as Stonados. The only chance of stopping the storm is an untested theory about weather manipulation… the same theory that Joe has been trying to prove for over a decade.
In the movie, as the “Stonado” drops meteor-sized rocks on top of residents, it quickly shifts, taking over the entire Eastern seaboard.
According to Deadline.com the movie was created long-before “Sharknado,” and was originally supposed to air on April 27, but after the devastation on Boylston Street, when two bombs went off during the marathon, they decided to wait, mostly because the tagline was “Boston is about to make history…one last time.”
“In light of recent events in Boston, the Syfy Original Movie Stonados has been removed from the schedule,” the network said in a statement at that time, according to Deadline.com.
When “Stonados” finally aired over the weekend, it was met with mixed reviews, with viewers harping on the fact that it’s the same premise as all of the latest films they have produced, just with a different element added to the deadly storms.
“I get it…you just combine stuff…sharks and tornadoes mostly,” one person wrote underneath a video preview of the film.
Another person said the SyFy channel is running out of ideas.
But it wasn’t all negative. On Twitter, a viewer called the latest storm story cinematic gold. “You are missing out if you don’t watch ‘Stonado,’” she said.