Jaws started it all back in 1975 and Hollywood has been chasing that high ever since. Last year marked the 50th anniversary of the film, and I think that has something to do with why shark thrillers keep showing up lately. It's like the whole genre got a second wind.
I’m not a hardcore shark movie fan, but whenever one shows up I end up watching it.
Under Paris had a giant shark loose in the Seine during a triathlon in Paris. The Meg and Meg 2 were about a massive prehistoric megalodon threatening a deep sea research station. Thrash, which I wrote about here, dropped bull sharks into a flooded coastal town during a hurricane.
I still have Dangerous Animals and Deep Water on my list.
There's something about the shark thriller that filmmakers just can't quit. Part of it is Jaws casting such a long shadow that everyone wants a shot at it.
But part of it is also just math — streaming platforms figured out that shark content gets more engagement in summer, so they keep scheduling it, and now audiences expect it. It's become a feedback loop. Every year someone finds a new setting — Paris, a flooded town, an underwater cave — and drops a shark in it. The formula stays the same. Only the water changes.
Salon put it well: the long hunt for a great shark movie never really ends.
