Variety Magazine Article Names JAWS As 'Cozy Horror'

Steven Spielberg's Jaws has been described as many things, but until now cozy horror hasn't been one of them. Which now they mention it kinda makes sense.

Cozy horror is dubbed as such due to the period aesthetics, locations and fashions of ’70s and ’80s horror that give you that er warm and fuzzy feeling right alongside the frights and jump scares.

The curious list was come up by Matt Gourley and Paul Rust, whose podcast With Gourley and Rust analyses horror franchises.

The pair talked up Roy Scheider as Dad Cozy, Richard Dreyfuss as Nerd Cozy and Robert Shaw as Macho Cozy.

Other horror films that make the cozy cut include the likes of John Carpenter's Halloween,  the adaptations of Stephen King's Misery and The Dead Zone, and even the belated sequel to the Alfred Hitchcock classic, Psycho II.

Gourley's opening gambit about the classic shark film was that a lot of people won't  think of summer as cozy because it’s often hot, but this is East Coast summer with cool nights. And who doesn't love a Jaws jumper as modelled by Scheider, Shaw and Dreyfuss?

You can explore the cozy side of horror and their top ten of Halloween,  Misery, The Dead Zone, Friday The 13th Part 2, Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, Fatal Attraction, Jaws, Krull (?), Sleepaway Camp and Psycho II right here.

Let's not forget, although Jaws was set during the height of summer, filming actually began at the beginning of May in 1974, meaning that that sun and water wasn't red hot.

The first day of shooting included Cassidy and Chief Brody (Roy Scheider) walking along the beach and then having their conversation interrupted by the piercing whistle of Deputy Hendricks (Jeffrey Kramer) as he quite literally stumbles across the remains of Chrissie Watkins (Susan Backlinie).

Would you describe Jaws as cozy horror? And what other films do you think should have made the cozy cut?

Words by Dean Newman

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