The Amity Horror: Jaws Horror Alumni

Jaws, the first film to bite through the $100 million barrier at the US box office. The original film and its sequels have left a lasting legacy and its stars - big and small alike - have featured in their share of horror films pre and post their dalliances with Bruce.

So, what better way to celebrate Halloween than a journey into that of the Jaws franchise horror alumni. We’ve got people from all four films, and we know what they did last summer dollars.

A Reflection of Fear (1972)

Robert Shaw stars in this strange troubled teen chiller that borrows in part from Psycho, but still has plenty to make it an interesting watch and a shock ending. Edited to gain a lower rating, it unfortunately shows and impacts somewhat on the talent both in front of and behind the camera. It was originally released as a double bill with The Creeping Flesh.

The film also starred then real life wife, Mary Ure, mum of The Shark Is Broken’s Ian Shaw. Alas, this was to be her final film - she was perhaps most famous for appearing in Where Eagles Dare with Clint Eastwood and Richard Burton - as Ure died of an accidental overdose on April 3rd, 1975.

The Omen (1976)

No one from Jaws featured in The Omen, but it is said that Roy Scheider turned down the lead role of Robert Thorn, who adopts the son of the devil, Damian. The part of Thorn would go to Hollywood veteran Gregory Peck, who earlier in his career had played Ahab in the film version of Moby Dick, a direct influence on Quint and the original book ending of Jaws. The grown up Damian would be played by Sam Neill in The Final Conflict, years later he would star in Jurassic Park for Spielberg.

READ: Jaws + Jurassic Park = Perfect Double Bill

The Amityville Horror (1979)

Murray Hamilton, Amity’s Mayor Larry Vaughn in Jaws and Jaws 2, was also a man of the snappy suits, but here he’s a man of the cloth in a supporting role alongside (an overacting) Rod Steiger,

James Brolin and Margot Kidder. Based on ‘real events’ and - like Jaws - a best-selling novel, by Jay Anson. Disappointingly at no point does Hamilton say “Amityville, as you know means friendship.” The trailer was narrated by Percy Rodrigues, who famously also lent his dulcet tones to the Jaws trailer.

Dracula (1979)

In between Jaws 2 and Superman (both 1978) and The Empire Strikes Back (1980), John Williams waived his baton over the score for John Badham’s Dracula. It featured an impressive cast, with Frank Langella - like Bela Lugosi before him - reprising his Broadway role. Sir Laurence Olivier was Professor Van Helsing and Donald Pleasance as Dr. Seward.

Olivier had played opposite Roy Scheider in Marathon Man and Dracula’s Director, Badham, would go onto direct Scheider in Blue Thunder.

You can hear some of Williams’ score for Dracula here:

Dracula II: Ascension (2003) and Dracula III: Legacy (2005)

I love Roy Scheider, even if he pretty much ended his career in direct to DVD fodder. And that is what these two sequels are to the Gerrard Butler starring Dracula 2000 (or 2001 depending on where you lived when it was released). Alas, don’t expect Scheider to be headlining these filmed at the same time sequels, it’s more of an extended cameo. It made me chuckle that we also got some ‘new’ vampire rules, such as vampires can’t resist knots.

Father Scheider absolving the sins of the weak and sharky

Quick, somebody get Chief Brody! There are some other familiar names running round New Orleans and Romania, such as Jason Scott Lee and - in part 3 - Rutger Hauer. Apparently Roy Scheider turned down the Gregory Peck role in The Omen (1976).

Piranha 3D (2010)

A remake of a Jaws spoof, featuring a star of the original Jaws. In the opening scene of the film we see Richard Dreyfuss wearing the same clothes as he did when he played Matt Hooper, this time in a small row boat. His boat doesn’t get eaten by a Thresher shark - as in the story recounted to Ellen Brody - he instead gets devoured by Piranha. You got city hands Mr Hooper, in fact that was probably all that was left of him.

View his death scene here, note him singing a certain familiar song at the start.

Day of the Animals (1977)

Poor Susan Backlinie, she can’t go for a midnight swim or go for a walk in the woods. Day of the Animals was part of the nature vs man cycle of films that Jaws formed part of. Alas, like in Jaws, Backlinie was the film’s first victim. The film also featured future Airplane and The Naked Gun star, Leslie Nielsen.

The film is often confused as a sequel to the similarly themed Grizzly (1976), which was the most successful independent film ever...until Halloween in 1978. Talking of which...

Halloween II (1981)

Taking place directly after the events of Halloween - although it’s events are ignored in last year’s Halloween - this follow up to the horror smash did the Jaws triple as it featured future Michael Brody (Lance Guest from Jaws the Revenge) and - playing to type - Jeffrey Kramer aka Hendricks as a police coroner. He legitimately could have thought the wounds were caused by Jack The Ripper. Michael Myers (originally played by Nick Castle) would here by played by stuntman Dick Warlock. Warlock doubles as Hooper in the anti shark cage scene when it was filmed in a tank on the backlot of MGM. The scene was filmed using a special close-up Bruce, an underwater camera / SFX crew with Spielberg directing outside the tank via megaphone. This was then intercut with shark footage shot by Ron and Valerie Taylor and a midget in a smaller cage.

I guess you could say he was The Shape in the water. Talking of water, Dick’s son also became famous for splashing about in the surf as he is Billy Warlock, who appeared on the first three seasons of Baywatch as Eddie. He’d carve out his own horror niche in Society and has a small cameo in Halloween II. And talking of Nick Castle - who played the original Michael Myers and reprised the role in the 2018 version of Halloween - he also directed Lance Guest in The Last Starfighter.

Deputy Hendricks and Dr Loomis solving the Jaws/Myers murders

Christine (1983)

John Carpenter may have only produced and written Halloween II, but he was back in the driving seat for the adaptation of the Stephen King book, Christine. And in the actual driving seat of the 1958 Plymouth Fury was Jaws 2 alumnus, Keith Gordon. Gordon himself would go and become a film director, his debut being the impressive World War 2 drama, A Midnight Clear with Ethan Hawke. Christine was of course the name of the Chrissie character in the original Jaws novel.

Cold Creek Manor (2003)

Dennis Quaid and Sharon Stone headline but the main thing that creaks in this disappointing ‘couple move into old house’ thriller is the decidedly dull and unthrilling plot. All the more surprising as it comes from Mick Figgis, the director of Leaving Las Vegas. The Haunting of Hill House it ain’t.

The Hand (1981)

Michael Caine has made horror films during his career, sorry that should say horrific. He’s also had several horror tinged outings from Brian DePalma’s typically Hitchcockian Dressed To Kill,

The Island based on the book by Peter Benchley (you may have heard of him) and the directorial debut of a certain Oliver Stone called The Hand about a vengeful severed hand of Caine’s comic book artist (!) that threatens to put a copy of Jaws the Revenge in the DVD player, probably.

In an interview Caine was reported as saying that he only made the film to put a down payment on a garage he planned to build. Hmm, we see a pattern emerging.

Something Evil/ Poltergeist (1972 and 1982)

Even Steven Spielberg couldn’t escape the horror genre, both pre and post Jaws. First up we have the TV movie Something Evil that was made post Duel and centred round a young couple who move into a farmhouse in rural Pennsylvania. All is not what it seems (surprise, surprise) and an unseen presence in the house - cue flashy visuals from the young Spielberg – that wants to possess the wife. Check out a Spielberg cameo at a party, and he just so happens to be nattering to none other than Jaws actor and co-screenwriter Carl Gottlieb.

WATCH: Interview With Carl Gottlieb (43rd Anniversary of Jaws)

What sets Poltergeist apart from most haunted house movies is that it is set in a nice house, in a nice neighbourhood and everything looks normal. There is no Scooby-Doo haunted mansion vibe, no evil eyes like the Amityville house. It could be our house or yours, and that is its power.

We are the Freeling family and that is what Spielberg does best, take an ordinary person or family and put them in an extraordinary situation. Just look at Chief Brody from Jaws, Roy Neary from Close Encounters or David Mann from Duel.

To many, Poltergeist was Spielberg’s darkness to E.T.’s light, they both came out in the same month in the US in 1982. He served as writer on this and Executive Producer, although it has oft been mooted he had a closer hand in direction as well, rather than Texas Chainsaw-helmer Tobe Hooper. But that is a whole other story. Not only were there persistent rumours of a Poltergeist curse - with a key cast member passing away during production of each film in the series, there was also the rumour of actual skeletons being used in the terrifying pool sequence. Which owes more than a passing nod to the Chrissie Watkins scene in Jaws.

By Dean Newman

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