Tuesday 15 October 2013

My Favourite Horror Movies, Alphabetically:
Jaws

Jaws
Dir: Steven Spielberg. Starring Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss, Lorraine Gary, and Murray Hamilton. 1975

This movie still makes me nervous when I’m waist-deep in water. That’s because Jaws successfully exploits our fear of the unknown, a fear that can easily be transferred from murky water to dry land. Its simple plot, aped in countless slasher flicks – shark terrorizes holiday community – is given depth by adding interesting characters and exploring the theme of overcoming fear. For my money, Spielberg has never achieved this level of pure moviemaking again, not with Raiders of the Lost Ark and not with Jurassic Park. Here, he creates scenes that exist only to scare, and he succeeds with the help of John Williams' Psycho-at-Sea score and Verna Fields' spot-on editing.


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