“You yell ‘barracuda,’ everybody says ‘Huh? What?’ You yell ‘shark,’ we’ve got a panic on our hands on the Fourth of July.” That line from Mayor Vaughn in 1975’s “Jaws” captures the essence of the modern shark-horror movie.
This oddly specific subgenre came into the spotlight with Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster and has descended to straight-to-streaming cheapies. However, the sheer volume of watery horror means a lot of the best shark films have come out in recent years. There are only three official “Jaws” sequels, but there are hundreds of spiritual sequels.
A lot of them are bad, but we’re not here to talk about the “Sharknados,” only the movies that rise to the surface. For your holiday viewing pleasure (and/or terror), these are the 10 best shark horror films. Click on each title for my full review.
10. “Deep Blue Sea 3” (2020)
At the other end of this list are films that need no help from me to find viewers, but I’ll be happy to give a boost to “DBS 3.” Folks who watched the awful “Deep Blue Sea 2” (2018) might tend to skip this trilogy capper, but they shouldn’t. If the original “DBS” beefed up “Jaws 3,” you might say this one improves on “Jaws: The Revenge” as we follow the ticked-off super-smart bull sharks from “DBS 2.”
“DBS 3” starts with a climate-change theme in a striking setting: an abandoned fishing village on a tiny island off the African coast. Likable characters, decent acting, respectable CGI effects and one funny-great jump scare combine to make this an elite example among the glut of streaming shark flicks.
9. “Bait” (2012)
A year before the “Sharknado” series popularized Z-grade shark movies, we got this film that takes a ridiculous premise – sharks are loose in a flooded grocery store after a tsunami – but aims to entertain the viewer (as opposed to asking them to join in on the joke).
The logistics of how to escape the store are serious enough to provide suspense. But director Kimble Rendall’s modestly budgeted Australian film finds room for humor, particularly in the bickering between a couple trapped in an airtight car, not realizing the direness of their situation. Fans of Aussie teen mermaid show “H2O: Just Add Water” will enjoy reuniting with Phoebe Tonkin and Carbia Heine among a respectable cast of actors.
8. “The Meg” (2018)
Some shark horror movies are designed to scare you, but this one is all in good fun. It embraces “bigger is better”: The titular villain is a not-extinct-after-all Carcharodon megalodon, risen from the Jules Vernean deep. That said, there’s never a sense that director Jon Turteltaub and his team expect us to take any of this seriously. If we reflect for a moment, the run-of-the-mill great whites should be terrifying to the humans, but they barely notice them. (If you’re eaten by a shark, the relative size of the shark doesn’t change how dead you are.)
Like the recent “Jurassic Park” sequels – but with more openness about its silliness – “The Meg” is all about CGI effects and insane set pieces. It saves the best for last, as the meg encroaches on an Asian beach packed with revelers atop colorful innertubes that look like Life Savers candy from a super-shark’s point of view.
7. “Jaws 2” (1978)
Although casual observers of cinema lump the “Jaws” sequels together as being terrible, that’s actually because of “Jaws 3” and “Jaws: The Revenge.” The first sequel is quite respectable. “Jaws 2” finds suspense in a different fashion than the original, as director Jeannot Szwarc delivers unique attack scenes. This aggressive shark goes after everything from waterskiers to helicopters.
Both the artificial island (assembled off Florida’s Emerald Coast) and the shark look decent. The plot is similar to the original, but lending the sequel a fresh flavor is its “American Graffiti”-meets-“Jaws” conceit, as a bunch of teenage sailboat racers are the main characters. Although there are no future stars in the young cast, collectively they are believable and engaging.
6. “47 Meters Down” (2017)
The better of the competing “people trapped in a shark cage” movies of 2017 – beating “Open Water 3” – “47 Meters Down” features a realistically tense situation and excellent CGI effects. Mandy Moore and Claire Holt truly seem like sisters, and director/co-writer Johannes Roberts nicely illustrates the problems of their situation, including their limited air tanks and the danger in rising too fast and getting the bends.
Cinematographer Mark Silk knows when to make the water clear (so we know what we’re seeing) and when to make it murky (so we’re scared of what we’ll see). The film is a beautiful dark blue, punctuated by flashlights and flares. For everything “47 Meters Down” lacks in original plotting, it makes up for in slick filmmaking.
5. “The Shallows” (2016)
Although I rank a couple of minimalist shark-attack films higher on this list, Blake Lively gets credit as the standout actress in this subgenre since she must carry “The Shallows” on her sunburned shoulders. Director Jaume Collet-Serra builds an uneasy vibe. The American Nancy – foolishly surfing without a buddy — doesn’t understand the Spanish language spoken around her by fellow surfers.
The situation gradually worsens into a shorter-time-frame “Cast Away” (with a seagull instead of a volleyball), and the makeup artists brutalize Nancy rather than showcasing a glamorous actress who nicely fills out a wetsuit. On the other hand, Collet-Serra does showcase the colorful shallows, while also illustrating the spacing logistics, via overhead shots. Lively’s biggest co-star is the relentlessly circling shark, and he too delivers in his sparse appearances.
4. “The Reef” (2011)
Writer-director Andrew Traucki’s film is the best “Open Water”-style shark film other than “Open Water.” It’s made on the cheap compared to, say, “Jaws,” but Traucki maximizes his minimal budget in every way. Don’t worry, it’s only 94 minutes long, so it is a horror quickie in that sense. But, after efficiently meeting this group of likable Australian adults embarking on a day boating trip, “The Reef” is an intense series of “Wait, was that a shark?!” moments as the four capsized survivors hope to make it to the safety of a reef.
Helped by Rafael May’s subtle bass score, “The Reef” masters the “people putting on their goggles and peering into the murky water” cliché. The ending – which relies on a text crawl rather than a filmed scene – is a slight letdown, but “The Reef” remains a remarkably intense cheapie.
3. “Deep Blue Sea” (1999)
Not particularly appreciated in 1999, the most loaded movie year ever, “Deep Blue Sea” has – aside from some CGI shots — aged well. It takes the “Jaws 3” premise of people trapped in a contained area with sharks and puts it on steroids. Director Renny Harlin knows the language of action films, but what’s especially impressive is that the logistics of this group’s escape from the facility can be clearly followed.
Trevor Rabin’s score is an aggressive answer to John Williams’ slow build, and this group of one-liner-spouting heroes/victims (including Samuel L. Jackson, natch) is likable. The premise of super-smart sharks – as devised by the most supermodel-looking scientist this side of Denise Richards in the “James Bond” saga (Saffron Burrows here) – leans toward funny more so than the ominous vibe of “Jurassic Park.” I especially enjoy the scene where a shark swims backward. Nonetheless, “DBS” is smart as far as dumb action movies go, and I’m happy to see it has gained a following.
2. “Open Water” (2004)
Broadly, there are two branches of shark horror: One is the fun kind, like “Deep Blue Sea” and “Jaws.” The other is the harrowing kind, where we’re asked to truly imagine what it would be like to be stranded in the ocean with killer sharks circling. The best – and the modern progenitor – of the latter category is “Open Water.” Some find it exploitative because it’s based on a true 1999 story of a couple left at sea due to a counting error who are never seen again; it’s not for everyone. I’m not even sure it’s for me, but I can’t deny how good it is.
Excellent character actors Blanchard Ryan and Daniel Travis almost entirely act while bobbing in water, as the film subtly comments on the nature of marriage. Both blame the other for this situation they wouldn’t be in if operating solo, yet their love isn’t in question. Writer-director Chris Kentis balances a low budget with artistic sensibility. “Open Water” has a “vacation video” vibe with its handheld camerawork, yet the “cheapness” is a choice. Additional brilliance comes from Graeme Revell’s gradually sadder score and soundless cuts to land-based revelers. We reflect on the cruelty of the ocean’s deceptive hugeness as we absorb the harrowingly fatalistic conclusion.
1. “Jaws” (1975)
As far as theatrical directorial debuts go, Steven Spielberg sets the bar high. (Granted, he had made the suspenseful “Duel” before this, but that’s a TV movie.) “Jaws” sets the stage for the shark-horror genre and the modern “blockbuster” (which for a quarter-century truly did mean “people lining up around the block”). It’s hard to believe now – when reading a shark-horror rankings list — but at the time of “Jaws,” scientists and laypeople knew very little about great whites, lending the film a mysterious flavor. So does John Williams’ score, which jibes with the shark’s limited screen time (which was necessitated by the mechanical shark, “Bruce,” being temperamental).
“Jaws” keeps the non-shark stretches compelling due to the interactions of three alpha males (police chief Roy Scheider, scientist Richard Dreyfuss and seen-it-all fisherman Robert Shaw) forced to work together on a boat. It’s quotable as hell, both in one-liners and Quint’s war-story monolog, and it features an all-time top-three jump scare (joining “Exorcist III” and “The Haunting of Hill House”). “Jaws” is an obvious pick for No. 1 on every shark movie list, but it’ll never be a dull one.
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Main image by b0red via Pixabay.