Shark Bait! Our Obsession With Shark Films

Don’t Go In The Water

Like tasting blood in the water, audiences have been lured to movie theaters to watch shark films for decades.  While 1956’s The Sharkfighters is considered the first shark attack film, it was 1975’s Jaws that really put the horror sub-genre on the map.  Within just a few years of Jaws‘ release, multiple shark films hit screens both big and small.  While most of them paled in comparison to the granddaddy of them all, these films consistently filled chairs at the movies.

Films such as Cyclone, Mako: The Jaws of Death, and Great White capitalized on the success of Jaws. On television, movies like Shark Kill did so as well.  There were even three Jaws sequels, each worse than the previous one.  None of these films lived up to the popularity or excellent story of the original Jaws.  We would have to wait until 1999 before we got another solid shark film and that film was Deep Blue Sea.  Deep Blue Sea isn’t in the same league as Jaws, but it was an entertaining film that took a standard shark attack film and added the element of science messing with nature.  The sharks in the film, Mako sharks, managed to gain enhanced intelligence thanks to research on Alzheimer’s Disease by the female lead, Saffron Burrows.  The sharks then systematically eliminated the scientists and skeleton crew remaining in the research facility as they flooded each level in an attempt to gain access to open water.

Despite the surprise success of Deep Blue Sea, it didn’t trigger another wave of shark attack films like Jaws.  Yes, there were a few moderately successful films to hit the big screen like Open Water and The Reef, but shark films have remained on the back burner at the theater with a few releasing over the last twenty years.

Where shark attack films thrived post Deep Blue Sea was on the small screen and through direct-to-video/direct-to-digital options.  Most of these films were outright silly.  Each one seemed to try and outdo the absurdity of the previous one.  Almost all of them have been SyFy Channel originals and that, in my opinion, has seriously hurt shark films that are attempting to be genuinely scary.

With terrible CGI and even worse scripts, films such as Three-Headed Shark Attack, Snow Sharks, and Ghost Shark have become standard Saturday evening fare on SyFy Channel.  Obviously they bring in ratings, as SyFy has consistently been releasing these terrible films since the early 2000’s.  I have to admit that I do enjoy some of them, but most of them are wretched.  One of my favorites is Sharktopus, a Roger Corman production starring Eric Roberts that knew exactly what it was and didn’t attempt to be something greater.

Then you have the Sharknado franchise.  Like Sharktopus, the first film knew exactly what it was and played to its strengths, making it a fun film.  The sequels, however, attempted to up the stupidity and did so in spades.  All five….yes, all FIVE…of the sequels were horrible, but they still managed to pull in audiences.  It was as if SyFy was intentionally making each film more terrible than the previous ones in order to see just how bad the films could get before audiences tuned out.  While the popularity of the series seems like a good thing, it means that fans of shark films that attempt to be at least somewhat serious, such as the made-for-TV Red Water, have to wade through the murky waters of tons of bad shark movies in the hopes of finding a gem.

Thankfully, major production companies seem to care at least somewhat about the quality of the shark movies that they put in cinemas.  With a higher risk of losing profit, the major studios have done one of two things in recent years.  They’ve either placed a minimal amount of money into a theatrical shark film release (almost insuring some type of profit) like The Shallows and 47 Meters Down or they throw a hefty chunk of cash at a film loosely based on a successful book series like they did with The Meg. The Meg has critics reeling, as they tore the film apart in their reviews and it is still chewing away at profits.  Its worldwide haul so far has eclipsed $400 million in its third week, and with audiences reacting to the film positively, it’s almost a given that a sequel will be coming in the near future.  The film definitely has some humorous moments in it, but for the most part it has an intelligent group of characters facing off against an unstoppable eating machine.

The Meg was definitely a big risk for Warner Brothers, but it has paid off big time.  Hopefully this will see the return of intelligent horror films in the shark sub-genre.  Granted, you can only do so much with sharks as the baddies in a film, but they are so much better than the schlock fests that SyFy cranks out.  Those cheesy films have their place, but I’m personally tired of seeing so many of them being produced.

I have no doubt that SyFy will continue to make bad shark movies as long as people keep tuning into them.  My only fear is that if and when another serious shark movie hits the screen, it will suffer because people expect shark movies to be bad.  The Meg wasn’t perfect, but it did have a few “jump” scares and some genuinely tense moments.  On top of that, it was a fun film to watch.  Hopefully we will see more movies like it in the future.

Because of The Meg, I’ve been revisiting some of the older shark movies from my past.  I’m currently going through all of the Jaws films.  The first Jaws movie that I saw in theaters was Jaws 3-D (Jaws III).  It wasn’t a great film, but I did enjoy it.  I liked the fact that it took place at SeaWorld in Orlando and I was more worried about the dolphins getting killed than I was about the humans getting eaten by the shark.  If you haven’t seen that film, know that its cast features Dennis Quaid, Bess Armstrong, and Louis Gossett, Jr.  It is also the first feature film for Lea Thompson, who my fellow nerds will remember from the Back To The Future franchise and Howard The Duck.

My favorite moment in the film is at the end when (spoiler alert)……….Mike Brody finishes off the shark by blowing it up.  When he does this, the shark’s jaws fly at the screen.  In 3-D, the jaws appear to be coming right at you, so naturally one would be extpected to at least flinch when the jaws “come out” of the screen.  On the night that I saw this film, the front row was full of young teens who screamed throughout the film.  When the jaws came flying at them, a couple of them literally climbed over their seats into the row behind them.  Everyone in the theater laughed at them, and that’s probably why I appreciate this particular sequel more than any other Jaws sequel.

I have a soft spot in my heart for shark films.  I’m not drawn to them as much as I am to werewolf flicks, but there’s something about them that pulls me in and won’t let go of me.  Is it the fact that I’m a poor swimmer and would probably be swallowed instantly by a shark?  Maybe.  Is it the lack of truly great shark films out there and the feeling I get inside whenever I discover one of them?  Perhaps. Whatever the reasons might be, I’m pretty sure that at least one of them is the off chance that I might get to see Lea Thompson in a bikini!

Thanks for reading.  Be sure to check out some of the films that I linked in this article.  Many of them can be watched for free on streaming services such as Netflix or Amazon Prime.  If I had to pick any specific ones, I’d go with Jaws, Deep Blue Sea, and Red Water.  Open Water is pretty good as well, but it can be a task to watch if you prefer action over suspense.  Give it a shot, though.  You just might like it.