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  • In the ocean, they have no rival. And on cable, they have their own week. Our fascination

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

  • oft-misunderstood prehistoric species into a bloodthirsty killing machineeven 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 HAMthat'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

  • areand 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 waterslowly 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 filmedand you never even see the shark. The sense of building dread as you watch Police

  • Chief Brody tryand repeatedly failto 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 timepast, present, and future. Maybe it's time we stop

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

  • Thanks for watching! Subscribe to our YouTube channel to see more videos like the one you

  • just saw. Leave us a comment to let us know which shark movie was your favorite...

In the ocean, they have no rival. And on cable, they have their own week. Our fascination

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