Jaws at 50: Celebrating How the Original Summer Blockbuster Created a Whole New Subgenre in Entertainment
Boasting an incredibly tight narrative, superb character work, and some truly horrifying moments – as well as that epic practical shark – Jaws has rightly become an icon of cinema. It’s so much more than what we’d now call a shark movie, perfectly ramping up the tension through some very real human stories.
Such is the legacy of Jaws, from its invention of the summer blockbuster to the instantly recognisable theme, that its re-release at cinemas for its 50th anniversary has gone swimmingly. Second only to runaway horror sensation Weapons, Jaws debuted at $8.1 million across 3,200 theatres in the US. It beat Caught Stealing and The Roses.
However, Jaws’ influence wasn’t just on film – it had a huge impact on entertainment media as a whole. To this day, we can see creatives toying with what exactly about Jaws made it so popular. So here, we’re delving deep into the ocean of fishy horror media that can all give thanks to Jaws for charting the course.
Combining Cosy Fishing Fun with Abject Horrors
Jaws made a whole generation of people scared of going for a dip, and it continues to inspire newspapers to publicise any and all possible shark encounters and sightings. In the realms of gaming, however, its premise of the horrors that can lie beneath the surface of the water has been taken in all kinds of directions.
Easily the most prominent release in this regard has been Dredge. The eldritch horror fishing game offers you aberrations of fish, the need to avoid deadly illusions, and the risk of spotting great monsters of the deep if you venture out a bit too long. At the time of its release, smaller releases like Lure had also made a mark for this fishing-horror combo.
Now, there are a few new horror fishing releases on the horizon. Out Fishing looks to be the most promising, daring you to keep fishing for the one thing that’s never meant to be found while surrounded by an increasingly daunting forest. Gone Fishing will be taking the survival horror angle for its fishing adventure, too.
Even hit fishing game series in online gaming have expanded into the horror genre. The best bingo app hosts both of the Big Bass Halloween slots, which go big on drawing from hit horror franchises. This year, there may even be a third on the way! Even alongside the hit horror slots, Big Bass Halloween II continues to be the biggest draw.
A Swarm of Cinematic Releases
In 1975, Jaws made sharks and horrors under the waves incredibly enticing to audiences. By 1983, cinemas had shown two more Jaws films and two Piranha films, with Piranha II: The Spawning being James Cameron’s directorial debut in 1982. The success of most of those outings, particularly the Jaws series, continue to inspire more today.
On the freshwater front, riding the wave of 3D arguably made popular by Cameron’s Avatar, Piranha 3D was pretty close to a remake of the original, leaning into the horror comedy, and did well at the box office. In the deep blue sea, 1999’s Deep Blue Sea is famed for its foolish human antics while a shark hunts them down.
Much better fish-horror films have come since the turn of the millennium, like 2003’s Open Water, 2010’s The Reef, and even The Meg from 2018 – which fully leans into the insanity of its premise while doing decent character work.
All of these blends of horror and the denizens of the deep have been spurred on by the incredibly lofty – and as yet unbeaten – bar set by Jaws five decades ago.
