Fan creates 1950's Super Panavision 70 version of JAWS trailer
An AI-generated 1950s-style JAWS movie trailer has surfaced from the deep(fake).
It's a clever homage to both classic cinema and Steven Spielberg's 1975 shark blockbuster, mixing the two in a retro mashup.
The trailer cleverly reimagines the monster masterpiece as a piece of mid-century American filmmaking, with all the hallmarks of the era.
From the start, viewers are immediately transported into the golden age of Hollywood, where the ominous suspense of the ocean is accompanied by a - typical of its time - dead-pan narrator (think more Leslie Nielsen than Percy Rodriguez in delivery) who seems to think every moment is "the most terrifying experience of your life."
The narrator is classic 1950s, with a deep, booming voice that feels like it was pulled straight out of a Creature from the Black Lagoon (which the opening attack on Chrissie Watkins in JAWS pays direct homage to), Them! or The Blob trailer.
The visuals perfectly mimic the aesthetics of 1950s cinema, featuring eye-popping colours and exaggerated acting from characters, in full make-up.
That means we also get AI generated versions of Chief Brody - who almost looks Italian but is certainly no Roy Scheider (despite having his JAWS 2 perma tan), a bearded Matt Hooper ("the brainy scientist with all the facts" spouts the voiceover) hanging in his portable shower...we mean anti-shark cage, looking a hench Richard Dreyfuss, and a Quint who looks more like an older/saltier homeless Aqua Man, than a grizzled Robert Shaw.
And if that's meant to be the Orca, then a bigger boat is definitely required. Perhaps we'll just take Hooper's gizmo-laden one out instead!
Sadly there's no Mayor Vaughn, Pipit, Harry with his bad hat or even Alex Kintner (complete with pruned fingers). We do however get plenty of glorious great white shark shots, and that shark has plenty of um jaws. So he is certainly on brand in the mouth department.
In one shot we even have the shark pass by the screen complete with unfortunate victim in his mouth, and another with an oxygen tank just asking to be shot at.
Throughout the trailer the shark does seem to vary in size several times that we see him in - and coming out of - the water. There's certainly no attempt to do a Hitchcock and hide the shark here.
But that doesn't mean that there isn't some genuine nightmare fuel imagery here for us to swallow whole, such as a woman screaming in the water with the great white shark rising from the water behind her.
And then there's one of the final scenes as a bikini clad woman races on the beach as a great white shark propels towards her, almost as if he is going to beach himself to reach his prize.
The melodramatic narration plays off the campy visuals in a delightful way, making the threat seem both absurd and thrilling at the same time.
The trailer is rife with classic 1950s tropes: helpless damsels screaming, heroic men standing tall against impossible odds, and plenty of slow zoom-ins on terrified faces.
Overall, this AI-crafted JAWS trailer is a brilliant retro recreation, capturing both the charm and the limitations of 1950s cinema. It certainly packs a bigger punch than the likes of Cruel Jaws or The Last Shark.
The playful reinterpretation blends nostalgia, humor, and homage, creating a fun monster shark mashup that is a reminder of how timeless the thrills and fear of JAWS is, no matter in what format it is presented.
Words by Dean Newman
Words by Dean Newman
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