Steven Spielberg’s Jaws is one of the most influential movies ever made. It’s credited with creating the summer blockbuster phenomenon. Ever since the story of a 25-foot great white terrorizing a seaside town became the highest-grossing movie of all time, studios have been putting out high-concept tentpoles in the same release window every year in the hopes of recapturing its success.
The movie influenced some filmmakers in a much more specific sense, effectively defining the killer shark subgenre of horror cinema. In addition to spawning three sequels, Jaws has inspired a slew of knockoffs with varying degrees of quality.
10 Jaws: The Revenge (0%)
The Jaws franchise’s spectacular fall from grace culminated in Jaws: The Revenge’s 0% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Not a single critic gave this movie a positive review. Somehow, Michael Caine got roped into starring in it. The real star here is the hilariously fake shark.
Very few franchises can boast a first installment that ranks among the greatest movies ever made and a final installment that ranks among the worst ever made.
9 Jaws 3D (12%)
When 3D made a comeback in the ‘80s, a lot of horror franchises cashed in on the trend with sequels like Amityville 3D and Friday the 13th Part III. Jaws was no different. The third Jaws movie, which takes place in a SeaWorld-type park that’s been infiltrated by a giant great white, was released in 3D.
Watching it in 2D today, the tacky 3D effects are clearer than ever. Shots like the shark ramming into a glass window and breaking it are so slow and clunky that it looks like a kid with a video camera and some homemade SFX made it.
8 The Meg (45%)
Jason Statham is called in to save the day when a marine expedition opens up a trench deep in the ocean and accidentally unleashes a 75-foot megalodon in The Meg.
Audiences knew what they were getting with this movie. It didn’t promise to be a cerebral, thought-provoking work of art; all it promised was Jason Statham fighting a giant shark, and it certainly delivered on that front.
7 47 Meters Down (52%)
Two sisters go on a cage dive while vacationing in Mexico in 47 Meters Down. Unfortunately, the cable on the cage breaks, and they become trapped on the seabed, surrounded by great white sharks, out of the communication range of the boat.
While the movie doesn’t go quite as far with its intriguing premise as one would hope, there are plenty of shark-based thrills to enjoy and the mostly underwater setting creates a ton of tension.
6 Jaws 2 (58%)
The first sequel to Jaws is the only one that isn’t out-and-out terrible. The third and fourth installments are truly bad movies, but Jaws 2 is just a generic blockbuster capitalizing on the success of the original. It’s not great, but it’s at least watchable.
There are a couple of genuinely thrilling moments, Roy Scheider’s return to the role of Chief Brody is fun, and it has one of the greatest poster taglines of all time: “Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water…”
5 Deep Blue Sea (59%)
Perhaps the best-known and most talked-about of all the Jaws rip-offs, Deep Blue Sea takes the premise of Jurassic Park and replaces the dinosaurs with sharks that scientists are making more intelligent in a bid to cure Alzheimer’s.
Of course, the sharks escape and take on their captors. The plot is absurd, but there are interesting stakes in a shark movie with sharks that humans have modified to outsmart humans.
4 Open Water (71%)
Based on a true story, Open Water sees a couple going out into the ocean with a scuba group and getting left behind due to a mistaken headcount. So, they’re just paddling in the middle of the ocean, knowing they’ll probably never be rescued or even survive the night.
Instead of giant sharks that crave human flesh, the sharks in Open Water are much more realistic. They’re normal-sized and they don’t specifically target the couple, but they’re all around them, which is scary enough.
3 The Shallows (78%)
Blake Lively stars in The Shallows as a surfer who is marooned on a rock in the middle of the ocean when a great white unexpectedly pops up and targets her.
There are a lot of unnecessary subplots in this movie, like whether or not the lead character will finish medical school – apparently, being relentlessly hunted by a bloodthirsty beast isn’t enough of a reason for viewers to root for her – but the shark scenes are suitably terrifying.
2 The Reef (80%)
One of the most underrated shark-infested thrillers, The Reef sees a group of friends hitting the high seas in a yacht, only to capsize in the middle of the ocean with no land as far as the eye can see.
Eventually, a few of them decide to risk swimming from the overturned yacht to a nearby island, but on the way, they’re relentlessly pursued by a great white shark.
1 Jaws (98%)
Unsurprisingly, the first killer shark movie is still ranked head and shoulders above all its imitators. After a famously troubled production in which the mechanical shark broke and filming went way overschedule, Steven Spielberg delivered a Hitchcockian masterpiece of cinematic suspense.
The shark only appears briefly because of behind-the-scenes difficulties, but it ended up making the movie much better – an unseen monster lurking beneath the surface of the ocean is much more terrifying than anything that can actually be perceived.
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