Corey's Top 10 Best Shark Movies (After Jaws): Ranked

It's that time of year, something's in the water, and Movie Madness' own Corey Johns is here to toss you a life preserver for your covidboredom with his list of Top 10 Shark Movies. Take it away Corey!

Corey's Top 10 Best Shark Movies (After Jaws): Ranked 
It's "Shark Week." I just got finished watching "Mike Tyson vs. Jaws" on Discovery Channel.  I'm totally pumped up to watch some movies about sharks.

"Great white. Beautiful fish."

I've always been fascinated by sharks, amazing prehistoric creatures that predate even the dinosaurs and are still the apex predators of the ocean. Jaws, which is tied in first on my all time list of favorite movies, started my fascination with sharks. I still watch it multiple times per year, and it is a tradition that I watch it every 4th of July.

Jaws did an amazing job of capturing the beauty and mystery and danger of sharks; but in some ways, Jaws at the same time both created and ruined the shark movie sub-genre of movies. The film was so perfect that it has been impossible to make anything better. Maybe one day there might be a shark movie better than Jaws, but, of the hundreds and hundreds of shark movies that have been made since there hasn't been anything that good since. Most of the time, it's because shark movies forget what made Jaws so great. The shark didn't make Jaws a great movie. The shark was barely even in it. What made Jaws so great was the characters, the story, the mystery of the shark, and the dramatic tension that was built throughout the movie. And most scenes that had the shark, actually just have barrels representing the shark floating around the water.

Roy Scheider as Martin Brody was an in-over-his-head police chief who had no clue what he was doing but was trying his best to do his job and keep people safe despite consistent opposition from the Mayor. Robert Shaw as Quint and Richard Dreyfus as Matt Hooper were at great odds their entire time on screen, with Quint refusing to trust Hooper's science, and Hooper refusing to trust Quint's instincts.

The movie was also split into two different parts, with the first half of the movie consisting of the trauma caused on the beach and Chief Brody being slapped in the face (sometimes literally) no matter what decision he made, while the second half was just the three stars of the movie going out to find the shark.

Every single scene featuring water there was tension and fear that the shark could do something big to put everybody in danger. But the tension was built even more by the characters butting heads so we never knew what would happen or how the plot would go. The movie was not predictable.

But most shark movies ignore this and focus on the shark, making it bigger and badder and meaner and scarier, and more destructive than ever. The Nicholas Cage movie USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage should have been a dramatic tension-filled movie. The way Quint explained a fictionalized version of his endurance of the USS Indianapolis disaster was slow but terrifying. Just listening to him tell the story had me invested, but the actual movie that was made to show this story on the big screen put too much focus on the sharks. It ignored the plot, and the real story of terror, and made the movie more about the sharks. When Quint explained that in the darkness, he would just see guys all of a sudden screaming and hollering, because they didn't know when the shark would come by because they couldn't see them, that is frightening. The men were in the water, with sharks, but had no clue what was going on. USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage ignored that and focused on ridiculous shark scenes and shark attacks that went over-the-top to an unnecessary level that destroys the movie while trying to be serious.

Then there are the movies that try to be ridiculous but even fail at that. If Megashark vs. Giant Octopus wants to give us a stupid movie of two giant creatures fighting, sure, we're had that and loved it in Godzilla and some other monster matchup movies. But don't be boring. When the megashark jumps out of the water and grabs an airplane out of mid-flight, it's terrible because the dialogue during that moment was awful, the acting was worse, and the rest of the movie surrounding those types of moments put me to sleep.

There are a few movies, though, that avoid these missteps enough to be watchable. While none have caught up to Jaws, which is the best shark movie and it's not even close, here are my next top 10 shark movies (that I've seen so far).

10. Jaws: The Revenge

We're gonna need a bigger bigger boat again again.

Having Jaws: The Revenge as the No. 10 best shark movie after the franchise originator shows you how shallow this sub-genre is. This movie isn't very good. It's cheesy, the story is ridiculous, and at this point in the franchise, nobody seems like they want to be in the movie. It is sad how far things fell. But, this Jaws sequel beats out Jaws 3-D to be No. 10 on this list for one reason: Michael Caine. At the very least, Jaws: The Revenge has Michael Caine being awesome, charming, and fearless. He's great. Jaws 3-D, despite starring Dennis Quaid, Lea Thompson, and Louis Gossett, Jr., was just boring, and that is the only thing worse than being bad.

9. 47 Meters Down

Editor's Note (Brett): I thought this was pretty badass, especially as Claire Holt (left) and Mandy Moore (right) are essentially the only characters in the film and are not damsels in distress here.

47 Meters Down doesn't exactly have the most interesting set-up, but it does well on focusing on tension and drama more than the sharks. Mandy Moore and Claire Holt play sisters who decide to go watch sharks from a diving cage, but the cage wire snaps and falls...47 Meters Down to the bottom in shark-infested waters. The sisters have to figure out how to get to the surface before they run out of oxygen. Sadly, the movie is better if you ignore the ending, and that is never a good thing for a movie.

8. Sharknado

Editor's Note: The actual F.

Remember when I was mentioning Megashark vs. Giant Octopus and how ridiculous it was but it was boring? And how USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage tried to be serious but went over-the-top ridiculous with the shark scenes? Sharknado knows it' a stupid movie, but, it fully plays into it, and the actors are fully committed to being over-the-top ridiculous. Sharknado somehow manages to walk the fine line to be something you can sit through if you're interested in a ridiculous plot that includes sharks getting swept up in a water spout and being thrown all over the place and causing tons of added chaos to an already chaotic event.

7. Open Water

Editor's Note: Swipe left, hard pass.

Finally, we're at a movie that I would say is solid. Open Water is somewhat based on the true story of Tom and Eileen Lonergan, who were accidentally left behind by their diving group when the boat crew failed to take an accurate headcount. Nobody knows what happened to that couple while they were stranded out at sea, but knowing something like this happened makes this movie frightening. Open Water gets bonus points for using real sharks, so it's not awful CGI, but the movie is never really about sharks. It's about the traumatic situation of a couple being left out in the wide-open ocean, and knowing there are sharks so close by and threatening them, make each moment even more dramatic.

 

6. The Reef

Seven years after Open Water came out, The Reef told the story of another true story, this of Ray Boundy, who was the sole survivor of a similar incident as shown in the movie. The movie does make a lot of changes to who survives, and who dies, but the overall story is similar. This group goes out on a boat, it capsizes in the open ocean, and they have to decide whether they sit on the boat, that is sinking and drifting further out to sea, or if they swim 12 miles toward an island they can't see. And the water on the way there is infested with sharks. The Reef is absolutely beautiful. The cinematography is tremendous and like Open Water, they use footage of real sharks, so it's not terrible CGI. The blending of the shark footage and actors is seamless as well. There are so many moments where the point of view looks into the water is just into a blue abyss. But we know there is a shark there. We just can't see it. It's nail-biting. There are so many moments I found myself grabbing the edge of my seat waiting to see what happens. It was when the shark wasn't there that was the most terrifying.

5. Bait 3D

Editor's Note: nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope. 

I had low expectations for Bait 3D, and the first couple minutes of the movie nearly led me to turn it off. The first scene is very slow, but if you get through it, the rest of the movie more than makes up for it. By the end of watching, I felt I had a great time. This one is a lot different than the two similar open ocean movies just mentions – Open Water and The Reef. This movie takes place inside a grocery store and a connected parking garage. Yes, sharks in a grocery store and parking garage, but the set up makes it make sense. During a whale migrating season there is an increased number of great white sharks off the coast of this town in Australia. In the grocery store, we see former lifeguard Josh, who is trying to get over regret that his best friend got eaten by a Great White Shark while covering for him while he was hungover just a year earlier. In the grocery store, there is a robbery taking place, but in the middle of the robbery, there is a freak earthquake and tsunami that floods the city and fills this grocery store and parking lot, both of which are dug into the ground. And in the flood, there are great white sharks that get washed in. Now, the surviving robber and hostages must work together to figure out how to get out and avoid being eaten by the sharks. The movie makes it all work because it is more about the relationships and interactions between all the people more than the sharks, though there are a few ridiculous shark scenes, but not too over the top that they don't work. There was one unnecessary love story, and one character arc that never got fully resolved, or at least explained properly, but Bait ended up being one of those movies the could have been another cheesy ridiculous shark movie but actually had characters that I was invested in – rooting for some, rooting against others. And some great and awesome shark moments, but managed to not be over-the-top insane.

4. Deep Blue Sea

Editor's Note (Brett again): Ladies. Cuba Gooding Jr. Thomas Jane. Samuel L Jackson. Heck yes.

Deep Blue Sea was better than it probably should have been, but again, they left the sharks there as something to fear, but the movie was about the characters doing everything they could to get to the surface of their sinking facility. There are some crazy shark scenes, but they are also genetically modified sharks with giant brains, so it's acceptable that they are plotting throughout the movie. But Deep Blue see made a movie where the giant killer sharks were there, but not the star of the movie. It worked.

3. Jaws 2

Jaws 2 went heavier action than its predecessor did, but Roy Scheider had us invested and rooting for him to save the day once again. It just beats out Deep Blue Sea probably unfairly because of the connection I feel I have with Martin Brody from the first movie, but it is still a solid movie with tense scenes and nothing too over the top ridiculous going on.

2. The Shallows

The Shallows did an amazing job of having pretty much one character stuck in one location and not having boring moments. Maybe it also helps the movie is an hour and a half of Blake Lively in a swimsuit, but what she is going through is amazing. She is injured, stuck on a rock, and a killer shark is circling her. She doesn't know how to get back to shore, and time is running out because the tide is coming in and is bringing the shark closer and closer. The tension builds every minute of the movie until the end. It's thrilling.

Honorable Mention: Kon-Tiki 

I saw this movie on one list as a highly-rated shark movie and was excited to watch this while preparing to right this article. This movie was absolutely beautiful. It was based on a true-story of a Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl setting sale on a balsawood raft built just like it would have built 1,500 years ago, to try to prove that Peruvians were the ones who discovered Polynesian from the East rather than civilizations expanding from the west. The movie has an absolutely incredible scene with a whale shark, which isn't usually what you think of when you think about shark movies, but it was awesome. There are also some intense moments with great white sharks as well. But, after watching the movie, I don't think I can consider it a shark movie. Sharks were there, and the scenes are incredible, the movie was a great adventure story. The sharks were part of the real story, so they were included, but I don't consider this shark movie enough to be included in this top 10.

 

1. The Meg

Remember when I said shark movies too often try to make the shark the star of the movie and it doesn't work and shark movies are best when they just let the shark's presence built tension and are best left off-screen? The Meg is a major exception to that. The Meg is awesome because it is a giant prehistoric megalodon going toe-to-toe against Hollywood badass Jason Statham. If it wasn't Jason Statham being Jason Statham, this movie would not have worked, but it was every bit of awesomeness I expected it to be considering what it was. There were funny moments, the characters grew, but it was the giant killer shark vs. Jason Statham and over-the-top in all the best ways. Everything came together perfectly. If any piece of the parts didn't work, this would have flopped, but somehow it all works together.