Exactly 42 years ago, Jaws gave rise to the summer blockbuster as we know it. And with it came countless fears and deep-seated nightmares that still persist to this day.
Why are so many people so afraid of sharks, despite the deep sea predators actually posing very little threat to humans? Much of that credit, for better or worse, must be given to Steven Spielberg’s Jaws, which has been keeping people out of the water for four decades now.
An adaptation of Peter Benchley’s same-named novel, released just one year prior, Jaws wrote the book on summer blockbusters as well as shark attack films. With the tale of a Great White terrorizing the fictional Amity Island, Spielberg crafted a horror film that may very well be the best one ever made.
Everything you could ever want from a horror movie is found in Jaws, driven by such incredible storytelling, character work and acting that it’s so much more than a “scary movie.” It’s arguably not even the shark itself that has kept horror fans coming back again and again over the years… but holy shit is that shark still terrifying after all these years.
Jaws is loaded with truly nightmarish scenes, including two jump scares that no horror film may ever match. I’m referring to the shocking appearance of Ben Gardner’s severed head during a late night dive and, of course, the shark breaching the surface while Martin Brody is chumming the waters.
But what’s the scariest moment in the entire film? If you’re asking me, it’s one that is much more subtle than the aforementioned jump scares. And it’s one of the film’s many moments that benefited from, oddly enough, the mechanical shark being the most reluctant actor in horror history.
Infamously, Jaws took a less-is-more approach to many of its early shark appearances out of necessity more than anything else; it’s not until the 1-hour mark that we actually catch a good glimpse of the shark for the first time. That glimpse comes courtesy of the “estuary attack” scene, wherein an unlucky boater has his leg chomped clean off by the razor-toothed menace.
At first, we see the shark approach the man from a birds-eye-view angle. The shark is completely turned on its side and is only faintly visible underneath the surface of the water, before eventually lunging its head out to give us a much better look. But it’s the initial glimpse of the shark that’s the true nightmare fuel, as it’s an exercise in restraint that makes one thing crystal clear: it’s often what we don’t quite see in horror movies that is the scariest.
When I tweeted about this particular scene just last night, many of my followers chimed in with some great insights…
- “This scene shows just enough to send your imagination into overdrive. A perfect one-frame lesson in restraint.” – @BluGilliand
- “To this day, it’s this scene that still freaks me out.” – @ArenaBrothers
- “Yeah this is probably the most shocking scene. Just the silhouette of the shark in the water is creepy. Less is more in my book.” – @BeeWilsonBeeman
- “The most frightening shot of the film. And the leg dropping to the ocean floor is disturbingly realistic looking.” – @KyleWarner3000
In a film so loaded with terrifying moments, it may seem impossible to pick just one to hold up as the scariest of the scary. But to this day, I’m not so sure that I’ve ever seen a moment in a horror movie that defines the overused term “nightmare fuel” as well as this one from Jaws. Even over 40 years after its original release, a more bone-chilling movie moment has arguably never been brought to the screen.
And that’s the power of Jaws: the most timelessly terrifying movie of them all.