How scary a movie is Jaws?

Pretty scary. The summer it came out I was 21, and only rode on the big steel ferries back and forth to Fire Island, I wouldn’t get on the older wooden ones.
Didn’t do a lot of ocean swimming that summer. Even my friend, who had worked on the production crew on Martha’s Vineyard thought it was scary.

Go ahead and wimp put, little penguin!

^ Sounds good; penguins don’t like swimming with sharks!

Or leopard seals, either, I’ve heard. <3

Being eaten by a fish hits too close to home. I haven’t seen it.

Not scary…..

I saw it on TV recently and I didn’t think it was scary. I remember the year it came out, I was 9. EVERYBODY was seeing Jaws! I was too young and so I heard all about how scary it was but I could not see it. I think in a theater, when it’s dark, it’s probably really scary. On TV or on a beach, probably not too scary.

I was in Rhode Island this past week and they had movies on the beach, too. The day we were leaving, the movie that night was going to be Jaws.

What I think was most interesting seeing an “old” movie like that was seeing the old hair styles, the clothes, the old cars, the things like phones and TV sets and stuff that does not look like it did 40 years ago. Also, seeing people smoking all over, whereas now smoking is banned in most places. Drinking – people were drinking liquor at home all the time, it seemed.

I thought it was scary when it came out. I haven’t seen it since then, so I might think it is cheesy now.

There are a couple of scenes to make you jump. But, from memory, I remember it being more of a big fight than a fright movie.

I won’t watch violent films, but I would watch Jaws again.

Though I accidentally saw The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, thinking it was about Buddhism or something (no kidding!) and I really liked that.

@jca Narragansett beer brought back its 1970s label, and they market it as Quint’s beer. Honor the Man. Crush the Can

If for no other reason than it is a cultural icon – a classic film – you must see it.

It’s a thriller more than it is gruesome. Besides, some truly superb actors perform. See Richard Dreyfus when he was young.

It was scary when it first came out but our standards have changed a lot since then.
I saw it recently on TV and it was so predictable it was a little humorous. We have become so spoiled by hyper-realistic special effects these look amateurish. .

Did you see Alfred Hitchcock’s movie “The Birds”? That scared the pants off me when I watched it in the theater. Seeing it on TV it was borderline ridiculous.
Jaws is worth seeing because you can say you did it. And you will understand so many more cultural references in other movies and media. Da…. dum… da…. dum… da. dum. da dum dadum dadumdadum….
Enjoy! It will be a summer event.

If you are in the bath tub not bad, if you are swimming in a pool not bad , IF you are swimming a half mile from shore HOLY MACKEREL.

The scary part?
Put me off the whole movie at the time.
I disliked the whole movie, as a result.

I heard enough about it when it came out that I decided I could do nicely without it. Recently I thought, maybe after all this time it’ll look tame and I can stand to watch it finally, it being a sort of cultural icon and all.

And then I thought…nahh.

Back then, a bit jumpworthy. Now, a bit of a joke!

Years ago it was scary. I think it’s pretty dated now. I think you’ll be fine.

Pretty scary for it’s time, but compared to the gore you can see on the big and small screen nowadays, rather tame—at least to me.

Of course there IS that one especially famous scene…

When you see the shark up close, believe me it looks like a fake shark.

Spoiler alert** Plus you KNOW that when something like that is “killed” it’s really not killed and it will come back up one last time.

If you want to ease into it, got to youtube and search for “Jaws scary scene”. There will be a 3 minute clip of the “bad” scene. It is a lot less scary when you are watching it on your laptop while enjoying a cup of coffee.

Don’t be confused by the sequels: Jaws II, Jaws 3-D and Jaws:The Revenge.
Stick with the original Jaws.

@LuckyGuy That’s a great idea.

Be sure you don’t watch the parody – link

@elbanditoroso Ha!

Be sure you don’t watch the parody

But The Onion review is worthwhile. (Spoilers)

@Call_Me_Jay – that’s hilarious – I will never be able to see Jaws the same way again

@Call_Me_Jay That was excellent! I need to watch the movie again now that I know the symbolism. :-)

It was never scary, still a decent thriller movie though
My fave early Spielberg film is Duel, just thought i’d put that out there for no good reason

@Call_Me_Jay Hilarious!

Back in the summer of 1985, it was pretty scary, not for what you see, but for the unseen.
Today, with zombies everywhere, it is a simpler terror.

It’s scary and very well done. It’s scary because it’s well done. It’s scary because giant sharks, and the situations shown, are scary. I particularly appreciate the situations that develop which are not just victim situations, and involve thoughts and emotions other than just fear. I think it is worth risking the fright to see an actual good movie. Good movies are pretty rare these days.

It’s not scary in the modern sense of having shocking graphics, realistic gore, bloody entrails and so forth (there is some of that, but not as much as you’d expect in a ‘modern’ film). No, it’s scary to a thinking person, but in a good way, I think.

It’s good to know about the real horrors that exist in our world, and sharks are one of them. Real sharks can kill real people, and in the way that the movie demonstrates that – with a lot of implied violence – is well done. You won’t see people being eaten, for example, but you will know when it’s happening. You’ll be able to empathize with the victims – and their families. That’s scary enough, right? In that sense it’s more of a “horror” movie, but again, not in the sense that the genre is generally screened these days. (There’s also a certain bland horror in the politics of the thing, too. There was an excellent small example of how horror is done by a small-town politician with an agenda.)

To my mind, one of the scenes of utmost horror was a very calm, almost party-like wholly spoken-word scene among the movie’s three protagonists aboard the boat one night as the skipper recounts an actual horror – this was real-world history – as if he had been a participant. Again, many people might be bored by that scene – it’s just three guys getting drunk on a boat and chatting and singing more or less drunkenly, until one of them opens up about his past (but still “just talking”). It’s only horrible if you listen to what he says and project with empathy. It’s always my favorite part of the film.

See the movie; you’ll enjoy it. You’ll be frightened, and it might be a long time before you swim in the ocean again (and maybe never ever at night!), but how much of that do you do, anyway?

@Zaku has the right of it.

EDIT: And that Onion send-up of the film is fantastic. Simply wonderful. But definitely see the real movie first. And often.

@janbb: Let us know if you watch it and how you like it!

@jca Pretty sure I’m wimping out especially as there are other attractive things to do tomorrow night like a concert on another beach. But I’ll let you know.

I think maybe I’ll try to watch it at home during the winter and see how I feel about it for next summer.

@janbb: Compared to really scary horror movies, Jaws is not scary. It has some scary parts, but nothing horrifying.

there are other attractive things to do tomorrow night like a concert on another beach

Wait, it’s an outdoor movie showing of Jaws on a beach? Really?

I WANT YOU TO GO SO BAD! GO PLEASE!!

@Call_Me_Jay: She said that up above.

I just noticed.