Here’s where JAWS places in Empire’s 50 best horror movies list
A good horror sticks with you, gets under your skin and makes you jump, whether or not you think JAWS is a horror movie or not, it is – to quote Matt Hooper - “a miracle of evolution”.
It does all those things and more and has pure nightmare fuel moments like the death of Chrissie Watkins, young Alex Kintner, the estuary victim and Ben Gardener’s head scaring the bejesus out of us, each and every time.
Just in time for Halloween, Empire Magazine have put together a list of the 50 best horror movies, and we are pleased and happy to repeat the news that JAWS doesn’t just make the top 50 but is swimming in the top ten list.
One other Steven Spielberg film makes that list higher up though, and that is Poltergeist (1982), which he produced and wrote and was helmed by Tobe Hooper. That modern day ghost story comes in at number 40, between Nosferatu (1922) at 41 and The Conjuring (2013) at 39.
The top ten best horror movies list, according to Empire, unfolds like this:
10. The Wicker Man (1973)
9. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
8. JAWS (1975)
7. The Exorcist (1973)
6. Evil Dead II (1987)
5. Scream (1996)
4. The Thing (1982)
3. Halloween (1978)
2. Alien (1979)
1. The Shining (1980)
Of JAWS Empire said: “Needing to keep the toothy villain off screen as much as possible just ratched up the tension that much more. Primal fears fuel a thriller that also feels human thanks to Scheider, Shaw, Dreyfuss and the rest. Not forgetting John Williams’ iconic, simple and terrifying score. JAWS sticks in the brain and makes the heart beat that much faster.”
High praise, and an on the money analysis, but what horror elements work best for you, or made you hide behind the cushion when you first encountered JAWS?
Words by Dean Newman
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