“My first trip after being smacked by a van and almost killed was to the movies (Deep Blue Sea, as a matter of fact; I went in my wheelchair and loved every minute of it).”

-Stephen King

You know that movie about the killer sharks? No, not Jaws (or Jaws 2, 3 or 4). Not The Shallows or Open Water either. Don’t even think about mentioning Sharknado (or Sharknado 2, 3 or 4). I’m referring to Renny Harlin’s oft overlooked classic Deep Blue Sea, which turns 17 today. The film is a masterpiece of American cinema, and I demand that it receive the recognition that it deserves.

***SPOILERS for a 17-year-old film below.***

I jest, of course. I’m fully aware that Deep Blue Sea is not what you would call “high quality cinema.” It’s a glorified B-movie (albeit a B-movie with a $60 million budget), but it’s damn entertaining. If you’re a regular reader of my posts, you’ll know that nostalgia plays a large part in my affection towards lesser-loved films. I have many fond memories of Deep Blue Sea from growing up in the 90s and 00s. I wasn’t allowed to watch R-rated movies as a kid, and this was one of those movies that aired all the time on TBS. I would sneakily record R-rated movies on a blank VHS tape, stopping the recording during the commercials of course, and re-watch them constantly (I Know What You Did Last Summer is another one I performed this ritual with). So I have a long history with Deep Blue Sea. The film takes two of the best horror sub-genres and merges them together: the slasher film and the aquatic horror film. Except instead of a bunch of stupid teenagers getting killed by a psychotic killer it’s a bunch of stupid scientists getting killed by intelligent sharks.

It’s no secret that 1999 was not the best year for horror (1997 was a much better year). Boasting the releases of such films as The Rage: Carrie 2, The Haunting, Stigmata and End of Days, there wasn’t a lot to offer. The biggest critical successes of the year were The Blair Witch Project and Stir of Echoes. Shockingly, 1999 also saw the releases of quite a few creature features, a genre typically ignored by mainstream Hollywood: Lake Placid, Bats and Deep Blue Sea. It is unclear why studios were going on a creature feature bender, but it would be the last of its kind. 17 years later and we still haven’t seen another onslaught of theatrically released creature features.

A common complaint about killer shark movies is that the sharks in question do not behave like normal sharks (looking at you, The Shallows). Deep Blue Sea goes out of its way to explain why the sharks are behaving the way they are, giving it a science fiction angle. It’s simple yet convoluted at the same time: a group of scientists have hypothesized that a protein in sharks’ brains can cure Alzheimer’s. They come to this conclusion based on the fact that sharks don’t show any sign of brain damage as the age. When they realize their test sharks’ brains aren’t large enough to harvest sufficient amounts of the protein for use in their experiments they use gene therapies to enlarge them, thereby making them smarter.

Deep Blue Sea is not without its flaws. Are there things that don’t make sense? Absolutely. I still want to see how Carter (Thomas Jane) got the shark onto the loading platform after he tranquilized it. Are there plot points that rely too much on coincidences? Sure. It was mighty convenient that that helicopter crank got jammed when it did. And why does Thomas Jane seem to fall every five minutes? I’m sure I don’t know, but you know what? None of that matters. Deep Blue Sea doesn’t take itself too seriously and neither should you. It’s not trying to be the next Jaws and you shouldn’t hold the fact that it’s a silly shark slasher against it.

There are a ton of memorable moments and set pieces in Deep Blue Sea, the most notable of which is Samuel L. Jackson’s character’s death. That scene has been discussed ad nauseum so we won’t go into it further here. Other memorable set pieces include the claustrophobic ascent up the elevator shaft (RIP Janice), the underwater trek to activate controls to open a door to the surface (RIP Scoggins) and the climactic sequence on the surface (RIP Susan). The CGI in the film looks dated now (animatronics were used for everything except the underwater shots), but for 1999 it wasn’t half bad.

It would be a disservice to the film if we didn’t mention it’s shark food characters. You don’t really care about any of the characters in Deep Blue Sea. Oddly enough, it is Saffron Burrows’s Dr. Susan McAlester who garners the most vitriol from viewers, but she ends up being one of the more likable characters in the film if only because she is the only one given any sort of character development beyond her stereotype. Motivated by her experiences with her father who had Alzheimer’s, she is the Frankenstein to the sharks’ monsters. Even though her actions were reprehensible, she more than redeems herself by the time she dies. The other characters are your basic stock characters: the whiny one (Jacqueline McKenzie’s Janice), the token black guy (LL Cool J’s Preacher), the billionaire with a secret (Samuel L. Jackson’s Russel) and the street rat who is able to hold his breath for unbelievable amounts of time (Thomas Jane’s Carter). The characters don’t matter in a film like Deep Blue Sea though. You came to see the sharks cause mayhem, and mayhem definitely ensues.

The script, credited to Duncan Kennedy, Donna Powers and Wayne Powers, isn’t particularly clever other than the whole “smart sharks” gimmick, but it keeps everything moving at a fairly brisk pace. Kennedy must have made a decent impression with Deep Blue Sea as his only other film writing credit is for the additions he made to Russel Mulcahy’s script for the Australian shark film Bait. The idea for the film came from Kennedy seeing a shark attack victim washed up on the shore near his home. This gave him a recurring nightmare in which he was trapped in a hallway with sharks that could read his mind. To work through his fears, he wrote a screenplay that eventually became Deep Blue Sea. It being a killer shark movie, he was all too aware of the comparisons that would be made to Jaws.

While Deep Blue Sea is commonly seen as a ripoff of Jaws, it actually knows this and uses it to its advantage by paying homage the Spielberg’s classic film. First, the license plate that Carter pulls out of the tiger shark in the beginning of the film is the same license plate pulled out of the tiger shark in Jaws. Second, the sharks all die the same ways as the sharks in the first three Jaws films (first by explosion, second by electricity and third by explosion). Trevor Rabin’s score, specifically the main title theme, immediately calls to mind the two haunting notes from John Williams’s iconic score. Disappointingly, Deep Blue Sea‘s score is still unavailable in its entirety (though you can still listen to it on YouTube thanks to user Justin S). Similarities aside, it still manages to stand on its own just fine. My personal favorite is this segment from the climax of the film.

Interestingly enough, Deep Blue Sea is rather tame for an R-rated film. The word “fuck” is only used twice and other than a passing reference to a vibrator and two or three bloody deaths, it would almost seem like Harlin and Warner Bros. were aiming for a PG-13 rating (I swear I have come cross one or two DVDs of the film that do have a PG-13 rating on them). If that was the case, bless them for not making cuts to get the lower, and more marketable, rating.

Deep Blue Sea grossed $73.6 million when it was initially released. While not a stellar gross, it is impressive for an R-rated movie about killer sharks (something the world desperately needs more of). Fortunately for Warner Bros., it also grossed $91 million internationally, making it a financial success. It is still brought up in discussions today, but usually in an unfavorable light (unless you’re WIRED’s Brian Raftery, who sees things my way).

Deep Blue Sea has created a legacy of its own, even going so far as to inspire the scripts for Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Jurassic World (Seriously, watch them all back-to-back. They’re remarkably similar.). So take 105 minutes today to pull Deep Blue Sea off your shelf and celebrate its 17th anniversary with a celebratory viewing. While you’re doing that, try to find the below shot, a frequently used promotional image, in the film. 17 years later and I still haven’t seen it. Why do movie studios do that? Use an actual shot from the movie!