with sharks has given filmmakers endless opportunities to prey on audiences' fears, turning this

oft-misunderstood prehistoric species into a bloodthirsty killing machine—even if you're

not in the water. Sharks in the desert, sharks in space, sharks in a tornado, or sharks who

come back from the dead to haunt you in your backyard...shark movies are now firmly embedded

as their own subgenre. Let's take a look at some of our most beloved movies starring Hollywood's

favorite maneater.

Shark Night 3D

If you were a teenager in a movie, why would you ever go to a lake? Nothing good ever happens

there. That goes double if you're trapped on an island with no cell service, and your

ex-boyfriend and his buddy fill the water with sharks so they can film the carnage.

Despite some neat twists, slick production values for the genre, and Sara Paxton and

Katherine McPhee in bikinis, Shark Night 3D was ultimately sunk by a PG-13 rating and

near comical death scenes. But hey, at least the dog survives.

Open Water

The premise? Pure nightmare fuel. A couple on a scuba diving vacation are accidentally

left behind (with a lot of sharks) when their boat crew forgets about them. While the film

is more of an exercise in psychological horror and focuses on the broken relationship between

the two main characters, the constant and palpable fear that a shark may strike at any

time makes Open Water one of the most terrifying shark movies in recent memory. The only happy

ending? It made ten times more than its $500,000 budget.

Deep Blue Sea

If you can ignore a premise that involves scientists thinking Mako sharks are, like,

the best cure for Alzheimer's disease...because sharks' brains don't age, apparently...you

can appreciate this outrageously fun B-movie. It's got genetically altered, super-smart

sharks going HAM—that's "hard as a Mako, friend"—in an underwater research facility.

And if that weren't enough for our team of scientists to worry about, the screenwriters

threw in an impending hurricane...just because. Boasting incredible CGI for its time and Samuel

L. Jackson chewing up all the scenery the sharks left behind, Deep Blue Sea has earned

cult-classic status.

Plus, you can't beat that LL Cool J rap theme:

(music playing)

Pure magic.

Bait

You have to at least give the Australian production Bait a few points for originality. The last

thing you'd expect after a freak tsunami is sharks swimming down the frozen food section

at your local grocery store, which by some miracle still has electricity. Yet here they

are—and they're the most believable thing in the movie. You can tell everyone involved

really tried to make something serious here, but how serious can it be when the hero takes

out a great white with a taser? This would probably be considered a classic by now if

the filmmakers had been a bit more self-aware and called it Sharks in a Grocery Store. Chalk

that up to a missed opportunity. If a group of mildly annoying survivors trapped in a

supermarket with sharks is your thing, be sure to add this to your queue.

The Reef

Another classic from Australia, 2010's The Reef proved that you don't need a big budget

or a convoluted plot to give your audience legit scares. The tale of five friends who

set out for Indonesia only to capsize on a reef is an exercise in hopelessness. Do they

stay with the boat and risk the very real possibility of dying of thirst and exposure?

Or attempt swimming to shore in shark-infested waters? No unnecessary CGI, no cliched tropes,

just people in the water…slowly being eaten alive, one by one. Delicious.

Soul Surfer

Real-life events can be difficult to dramatize, but the true story of surfer Bethany Hamilton

getting her left arm ripped off by a tiger shark, and her subsequent struggle to surf

again, was a story made for celluloid. Based on Hamilton's 2004 autobiography Soul Surfer:

A True Story of Faith, Family, and Fighting to Get Back on the Board, it didn't blow critics

away. But found a home among audiences who like their shark attacks with an inspirational

message of hope. Of course, for the audiences who have no need for dumb things like hope

or inspiration, there's...

Sharknado

Syfy's Sharknado knows full well that it's a movie about, well, a shark tornado, and

it embraces that insane premise with every frame. In between the actors winking at the

camera, Sharknado gives you some of the most outrageous and over-the-top sharks to ever

hit the big screen. Running down the B-movie checklist (and marking off many items more

than once), this movie can even be considered a work of art considering the glorious lengths

it takes to not take itself seriously. The dialogue is almost as bad as the color correction,

the character development is more unbelievable than the plot, and the CGI is almost as painful

as the one-liners. But you know what? It works. It delivers in every way possible. If you

don't like Sharknado, you don't like fun.

Blue Water, White Death

The only documentary on our list, Blue Water, White Death follows filmmaker and underwater

photojournalist Peter Gimbel's arduous nine-month trek across the globe to capture a great white

shark on film for the very first time. And where did he find one? Right where he probably

shoulda started: South Australia. With spellbinding footage, Gimbel shows us the legendary great

white in its full (and terrifying) glory. Fun fact: Crew members Ron and Valerie Taylor

provided Steven Spielberg with great white footage for Jaws. Speaking of which...

Jaws

The opening sequence of Steven Spielberg's Jaws boasts the most terrifying shark attack

ever filmed…and you never even see the shark. The sense of building dread as you watch Police

Chief Brody try—and repeatedly fail—to convince officials in his coastal town to

close the beach during peak tourist season is enough to make you never want to set foot

in an ocean again. John Williams' iconic score will make you pause before entering a pool.

We won't even mention the classic lines, because you know them all.

Okay, maybe just one…

"You're gonna need a bigger boat."

So good. Of course, a movie this good just has to have a sequel, right?

Jaws 2

"Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water"

...now that's a tagline for a sequel. A sequel, we might add, that Roy Scheider only agreed

to star in to get out from under his contract at Universal. It's debatable whether even

Spielberg could have saved the script for Jaws 2. And you'd think Amity's mayor would

be more inclined to listen to Police Chief Brody when he cries "shark!" this time around.

But despite not coming close to the original, Jaws 2 does offer up some scary moments. As

well as perhaps the greatest shark electrocution death scene in movie history:

"Watch out!"

"Come on! Come on! Open wide! Open wide! Say aahhhh!"

Well...not that there are too many shark electrocution death scenes to choose from, but you get the

idea.

Seriously, though, no matter how many bad sequels it spawned, the original Jaws is without

a doubt the greatest shark movie of all time—past, present, and future. Maybe it's time we stop

making them. After we get Sharknado 4, of course.

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