Legend has it that after the release of Jaws in the summer of 1975, many people decided to stay away from the water during their summer vacations. Steven Spielberg‘s unique feature film, in addition to terrifying half the world with its savage depiction of the power—and evil—of the great white shark, gave rise to an endless series of imitators in a trend that extends to the present day and that we could define as jawsploitation.
Below, we offer a review of the 12 best killer shark movies in which sharks of all imaginable breeds, shapes, colors, and sizes (we even have abominable hybrids and genetically altered specimens) decide to have a good feast (or, at least, try to) at the expense of the group of suffering humans on duty.
“Open Water” (2003)
Director: Chris Kentis.
Cast: Blanchard Ryan, Daniel Travis, and Saul Stein.
Chris Kentis’ directorial debut was hailed as one of the best shark movies since Steven Spielberg’s legendary Jaws. And with good reason, since, with a highly effective narrative austerity and based on a chilling true story, the American director created an exercise with completely suffocating levels of tension. And if you know how to use them, two characters adrift in the middle of the ocean and an underwater threat can give a lot of themselves.
“The Shallows” (2016)
Jaume Collet-Serra is the director.
Cast: Blake Lively, Óscar Jaenada, Brett Cullen, Sedona Legge, Janelle Bailey, and Angelo Josue Lozano Corzo.
Catalan director Jaume Collet-Serra, who lives in the United States, gave Liam Neeson a rest and took Blake Lively to a remote beach on the Mexican coast, where she suffered alone on an islet while a huge white shark tried to eat her. Collet-Serra once again demonstrated his talent for thrillers with The Blue Heap, a brilliant exercise in which the tension and sense of spectacle shine with their own light.
“47 Meters Down” (2017)
Director: Johannes Roberts.
Cast: Yani Gellman, Santiago Segura, and Matthew Modine, Mandy Moore, Claire Holt, Chris Johnson.
Without leaving Mexican waters, let’s dive in with some sisters in a cage surrounded by sharks in the brainless and, at the same time, self-aware and recommendable ’47 Meters Down’. An example of how the sadness inherent in the spectator of this type of production can lift a mediocre film and transform it into more than worthy entertainment. 90 minutes of systematic torture of a suffering leading couple, with some particularly inspired passages.
“Deep Blue Sea” (1999)
Director: Renny Harlin.
Cast: Samuel L. Jackson, LL Cool J, and Jacqueline McKenzie, Thomas Jane, Saffron Burrows.
Take a bunch of Mako sharks and genetically modify them to increase their physical and intellectual abilities; add a cast with names like Samuel L. Jackson or Thomas Jane; season the mix with hints of thriller, science fiction, and slasher; and you have a succulent feature film entitled ‘Deep Blue Sea’ with a base as ridiculous as it is devilishly funny. Underwater terror with a good handful of shocks, deaths of the most varied kinds, and a sequel in progress planned for this year.
“Bait” (2012)
Director: Kimble Rendall.
Cast: Phoebe Tonkin, Cariba Heine, and Alice Parkinson, Sharni Vinson, Xavier Samuel, Julian McMahon.
A tsunami devastates the Australian coast and leaves a group of people trapped inside a flooded supermarket, along with a great white shark. Does the premise not seem attractive enough to you? Well, to give it added value, we have Sharni Vinson—protagonist of ‘You’re Next’—leading a band of survivors made up of walking clichés who, surprisingly, make ‘Bait’ an ideal entertainment for an afternoon of leisure in good company.
“The Reef” (2010)
Director: Andrew Traucki
Cast: Damian Walshe-Howling, Zoe Naylor, Adrienne Pickering, Gyton Grantley, and Kieran Darcy-Smith.
‘The Reef’, also from Australia, offers us a product that brings nothing new to killer shark cinema but manages to stand out among its peers thanks to a more than remarkable execution and an estimable management of the atmosphere. Its scant 80 minutes of footage pass like an amusing exhalation while we see how its protagonists swim desperately towards a safe place, fleeing from, of course, a great white shark.
“Shark Night 3D” (2011)
David R. Ellis is the director.
Cast: Sara Paxton, Dustin Milligan, Chris Carmack, Joel David Moore, Katharine McPhee, and Donal Logue.
As a die-hard fan of the ‘Final Destination’ saga, I couldn’t miss this ‘Jaws 3D: The Prey’, directed by David R. Ellis, who, in addition to having signed the second and fourth parts of the peculiar slasher without a killer, gave us that pinnacle of good bad cinema, ‘Snakes on a Plane’. On this occasion, the nonsense, the chaos, the death, and the destruction are so absurd that it is impossible not to fall at the feet of this by-product, nor of the always charming Sara Paxton, who stars in it.
“Sharknado 2: The Second One” (2014)
Director: Anthony C. Ferrante.
Cast: Ian Ziering, Kelly Osbourne, Tara Reid, Kari Wuhrer, Vivica A. Fox, Andy Dick, and Billy Ray Cyrus.
I could have chosen the first, delirious ‘Sharknado’, the ode to B-movie jawsploitation that aired on the SyFy channel in 2013. However, my candidate to represent the endless franchise—the sixth part will be released this year—is its second installment, a feature film even more self-aware, demented, cheesy, and devilishly funny than the original.
“Sharktopus” (2010)
Director: Declan O’Brien.
Cast: Eric Roberts, Sara Malakul Lane, Kerem Bursin, Liv Boughn, Peter Nelson, and Héctor Jiménez.
Continuing with the craziest selacimorphic B-movies, we couldn’t ignore the many mutations that the species has undergone in the seventh art, one of its best representatives being this ‘Sharktopus’, sponsored by none other than Roger Corman himself. A genuine guilty pleasure starring Eric Roberts and a hybrid between a shark and an octopus eager to dismember tourists. As terrible as it is, it is enjoyable.
“Blue Water, White Death” (1971)
Director: Peter Gimbel, James Lipscomb.
Cast: Tom Chapin, Phil Clarkson, Stuart Cody, Peter Lake, and Peter Matthiessen.
What better than real footage to be aware of the power and imposing presence of a great white shark? Especially if it is as overwhelming as the one Peter Gimbel and James Lipscomb managed to capture in this spectacular documentary, outstanding both on audiovisual and logistical levels. A genuine and fascinating love letter to an animal to be feared, respected, and, above all, admired.
“Jaws 2” (1978)
Jeannot Szwarc is the director.
Cast: Roy Scheider, Lorraine Gary, Murray Hamilton, Joseph Mascolo, Jeffrey Kramer, and Ann Dusenberry.
They say that sequels are never good, but this one of the original ‘Jaws’, despite not being at the unreachable level of its predecessor, offers a continuation without much room for surprises but with an irrefutable capacity to entertain. The work of Jeannot Szwarc as director is only overshadowed by a Roy Scheider on autopilot giving life again to a boss, Brody, who is already cured of fright.
“Jaws” (1975)
Director: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss, Lorraine Gary, Murray Hamilton, Carl Gottlieb, and Jeffrey C. Kramer.
As expected, we couldn’t end this list without this true masterpiece, not only of the killer shark subgenre but of suspense cinema in general. Little can be added to the gallons of ink spilled on a Steven Spielberg gem that, 43 years after its release, remains as perfect as the first day. Never has a defective mechanical shark managed to be so terrifying.
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