Using real sharks and a minimalist approach to the sub-genre, director Chris Kentis struck killer shark gold with Open Water, released in 2003. Jackson’s epic death scene – a jump scare so effective that it even made Stephen King scream aloud! It’s big and dumb in the best of ways, and one of course can’t talk about Deep Blue Sea without mentioning Samuel L. Released in 1999 and directed by Renny Harlin, Deep Blue Sea paved the way for all of the goofy shark movies that Syfy has been unloading in recent years, but it’s home to a level of genuine fun that’s just not found in those purposely-stupid creature features – the network only wishes it could make a movie as entertaining as this one. In fact, as far as fun shark movies are concerned, it’s to date the reigning king. There are scary shark movies and there are just plain fun ones, and Deep Blue Seafalls into the latter category. The sequels, well, there’s a reason we don’t often talk about them. ![]() It’s pretty safe to say that no shark movie will ever dethrone Jaws, which is still keeping people out of the water over 40 years after its initial release. One of the greatest films of all time, Jaws is as perfect as horror movies can possibly get, loaded with fun characters, incredible dialogue, a host of memorable moments and some of the most genuinely terrifying scenes in the genre’s history. Of course, the shark movie that both did it first and did it best was Steven Spielberg’s Jaws, released to such massive success in the summer of 1975 that the film is widely considered to have paved the way for the summer blockbuster as we know it today. *These are in release date order, not ranked order!* So, which shark movies from both the distant and recent past are actually worth watching? There are only five that I consider to be the cream of the crop of this troubled sub-genre… perhaps it’s not too late to make sharks scary again after all. And then there’s the upcoming Cage Dive, which was recently re-branded to be part of the Open Water franchise…. ![]() This weekend, the Mandy Moore-starring 47 Meters Down (formerly In the Deep) is arriving in theaters after a planned direct-to-video release, and the mega-budget adaptation of Meg, starring Jason Statham, is on its way next summer. Sure, those computer-generated creature features may be fun to watch (provided you’ve got ample amounts of alcohol to consume), but they’ve done near-irreparable damage to the sub-genre as a whole.īut all hope is not lost, as the killer shark movie seems to be making a comeback. ![]() In the wake of Jaws, THE definitive shark movie, sharks have mostly been used as B-movie monsters for cheap ripoffs and silly Syfy fare such as Sharktopus and the weirdly popular Sharknado franchise (the fifth installment is headed our way this summer). What I also realized was that though the killer shark sub-genre may be massive, there aren’t actually all that many movies on that Megalodon-sized list that I would recommend watching. Earlier this year, I began putting together a list of EVERY shark movie ever made for a project I was working on, and what I quickly realized was that there are A LOT of shark movies out there.
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