The 10 best shark movies that aren't Jaws (or it's sequels)
Ever since the 1975 premiere of Steven Spielberg’s Jaws, audiences have been thirsty for shark movies - and Hollywood has been more than happy to oblige. But how do you recreate the monster box office success and thrills of a perfect classic without re-treading old waters?
With recent shark films, there seems to be two ways to go - shark-tension or shark-camp, both serving a healthy dose of gore. The ‘shark-tension’ movies usually have a contrived scenario with a bunch of underwritten, hapless souls getting picked off one by one in increasingly spectacular ways. ‘Shark-camp’ movies go completely the other way. The scenario is so ridiculous (Sharknado, anyone?) that you just have to accept it and go along for the ride of corny lines and literal over-kill.
Unless you have characters the audience cares about, do you even have a movie?
But the biggest draw to any shark movie is the shark itself. What will it look like? Will it be realistic? How will it be created? Back in 1975, Steven Spielberg and his crew didn’t have green screen or CGI so had to rely on a 25ft animatronic shark built especially for the movie. ‘Bruce’ as it came to be known (named after Spielberg’s lawyer) has become the unofficial 4th main cast member of Jaws, just as beloved as the actors who played Quint (Robert Shaw), Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) and Brody (Roy Scheider). New shark movies use predominantly, if not entirely CGI shark, usually for both script and budgetary reasons. Knowing actors aren’t really interacting with something other than a virtual shark can rob the films of a true sense of jeopardy and danger; but when done right, they can produce stunning results and terror.
As a genre, the shark movie genre is still a wonderful cinematic lagoon to swim in. And here are our choices for the 10 best sharks movies that aren’t Jaws - or it’s sequels.
10. SHARKNADO (2013)
When a freak hurricane swamps Los Angeles, nature's deadliest killer rules sea, land, and air as thousands of sharks terrorize the waterlogged populace.
Shot in only 18 days, Sharknado is the ultimate ‘shark-camp’ movie and is a joy to behold with its insane premise and pushing it to the limit with some of the corniest lines and craziest kills ever seen on screen. Suspend your disbelief (and perhaps lobotomise yourself too). It’s worth it.
BEST LINE: “We can't just wait here for sharks to rain down on us.”
9. THE MEG (2018)
A group of scientists exploring the Marianas Trench encounter the largest marine predator that has ever existed - the Megalodon.
Based on the popular series of books by Steve Alten, The Meg easily gets its name into NatGeo by proving bigger doesn’t always equal better. The Meg blurs the line between shark-tension and shark-camp. With a macho leading man in Jason Statham, The Meg could easily have ended up being Rambo in a wetsuit, but with its tongue firmly in its jaws, this film aims to be a CGI comic camp crowd pleaser and on the whole, succeeds.
BEST LINE: Chew on this, you ugly bastard.
8. THE LAST SHARK (1981)
James Franciscus tries to save hundreds of swimmers in a coastal resort after a Great White Shark starts terrorizing the area.
THIS MOVIE ROCKS! But for all the wrong reasons. When it was released back in 1981, the producers of The Last Shark were sued by Universal Pictures for plagiarism, resulting in the movie being pulled from cinemas in North America. Not only that, but it everything that made Jaws great and flips it on its head. It’s the perfect example of how not to make a shark movie. The shark is a combination of stock footage and practical effect which does look kind of cool in a few shots. But on the whole, this movie is a joke well worth telling.
BEST LINE: One thing's for sure, it wasn't a floatin chainsaw.
7. 47 METERS DOWN (2017)
Two sisters vacationing in Mexico are trapped in a shark cage at the bottom of the ocean. With less than an hour of oxygen left and great white sharks circling nearby, they must fight to survive.
Taking the thrilling cage scene from Jaws and turning it into a 90 minute is a brace way to go with a shark movie. But the premise is solid and with decent CGI shark effects and a genuinely claustrophobic setting, 47 meters down definitely pulls off the tension it’s aiming for but is tough to sustain for it’s run time.
BEST LINE: Oh, it's like you're going to the zoo - except you're in the cage.
6. SHARK TALE (2004)
When a son of a gangster shark boss is accidentally killed while on the hunt, his would-be prey and his vegetarian brother decide to use the incident to their own advantage.
With an all-star cast including Will Smith, Robert DeNiro and Angelina Jolie and produced by Steven Spielberg’s Dreamworks, Shark Tale is great fun and the only movie on this list that put sharks into a good light - as they are the central characters. While not hitting the heights of other animated movies like Toy Story, this is a solid effort and a fuzzy family experience.
BEST LINE: Sorry, pop. Lenny had a little accident. He was born!
5. DEEP BLUE SEA (1999)
Searching for a cure to Alzheimer's disease, a group of scientists on an isolated research facility become the prey, as a trio of intelligent sharks fight back.
I was so hyped when I heard a new shark movie was coming out. The trailer was a good mix of action, tension and laughs with an interesting premise. The pictures of the sharks in the papers looked excellent with the refreshing choice of a different species of shark this time round. With the Jaws homage in the opening soon out the way, Deep Blue Sea sets about being its own movie. Turning up the action, the science and the sharks, Deep Blue Sea does not disappoint. However, it has not aged well with some of the CGI effects being truly awful and the stereotypical characters producing some truly cringe moments. It’s a film of its time and should be enjoyed for it’s big action and truly incredible practical sharks!
BEST LINE: She may be the smartest animal on the planet, but she's still just an animal. Come to mama.
4. KON TIKI (2012)
Legendary explorer Thor Heyerdahl's epic 4,300-mile crossing of the Pacific on a balsawood raft in 1947, in an effort to prove that it was possible for South Americans to settle in Polynesia in pre-Columbian times.
Not many people have heard of Kon Tiki. It’s technically a foreign language film (Norwegian) but an English-language version was shot at the same time. Based on a true story, the premise is solid and is marketed as more of a true-life drama but sharks play a big part in the story. There is a real sense of impending danger. The ocean is immaculately filmed. The marine life is beautiful and savage with the sharks stealing the show. The actors are not well known (to me anyway) but this casting adds to the believability and investment of the characters - just like Jaws.
BEST LINE: Maybe I should introduce you first. This is Thor. A pompous, self-centered weirdo, but a very good leader. And because he is, we are about to do what Tiki did 1500 years ago.
3. THE REEF (2010)
A great white shark hunts the crew of a capsized sailboat along the Great Barrier Reef.
It's a low budget, ultra-realistic account of five backpackers who find themselves trapped in a shark-infested ocean when their yacht capsizes. What follows is by turns thrilling, horrifying and utterly suspenseful, which is mainly thanks to the bravura direction of Andrew Traucki. The sharks are real - no CGI nor animatronics which adds a sense of danger sometimes lacking in shark / creature movies. Definitely worth a watch!
BEST LINE: You look like a seal in that. Sharks love seals.
2. OPEN WATER (2003)
Based on the true story of two scuba divers accidentally stranded in shark infested waters after their tour boat has left.
This movie is TENSE. The film is loosely based on the true story of Tom and Eileen Lonergan, who in 1998 went out with a scuba diving group, Outer Edge Dive Company, on the Great Barrier Reef, and were accidentally left behind because the dive-boat crew failed to take an accurate headcount. Filmed over two and a half years, the sharks used in this film were Caribbean Reef Sharks. The cast wore chain mesh under their diving suits for protection and though none of them was bitten by the sharks. Its genius is the focus on character and realism. You really feel for these two people, living a nightmare with an heart wrenching ending, this is one shark movie that packs an emotional punch as well as a shark bite.
Fun fact: The last names used for the main characters in Open Water - Watkins and Kintner - are the same last names as the first two victims of the shark in Jaws: the woman who goes swimming at the beginning was named Christine Watkins, and the little boy on the yellow raft was named Alex Kintner.
BEST LINE: Where's the boat. Daniel. Where's the boat?
1. THE SHALLOWS (2016)
A mere 200 yards from shore, surfer Nancy is attacked by a great white shark, with her short journey to safety becoming the ultimate contest of wills.
This was the shark movie we had all been waiting for. Where others had relied on implausible premises, super sharks and corny lines, ‘The Shallows’ is a fully realised survival film, a 90 minute version of the end of Jaws when Chief Brody goes head to head with the shark. The set up is simple. A lone surfer has a negative shark encounter and is then stalked by the predator in a remote lagoon. The shark looks and behaves authentically having been created using a combination of CGI, animatronics and real footage (on one occasion blended in with human footage for maximum shock).
The Shallows is a text book in next-gen creature feature story telling. The action and environment is shot beautifully. The shark is gradually revealed to the audience but its power and ferocity is placed firmly in our minds - one negative encounter is experienced totally through the horrified reaction of the main character. Director Jaume Collet-Serra clearly paid attention to the craft behind Jaws. The Shallows is hands down the best shark movie (to date) since Jaws. It’s smart, tense, has all the right ingredients and cooks them all to near perfection.
BEST LINE: Uh. My friend, you know. You know, the girl we left back at the hotel? You know, she smelled like Don Julio and bad choices.
Compiled by Ross Williams
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