50 Years of Fear: How Jaws Changed Horror Forever

The Legacy of Jaws

Half a century ago, Jaws (1975) crashed onto screens, ready to take a massive bite out of Hollywood and reshape an entire industry—and genre—in one razor-sharp crunch. Directed by Steven Spielberg, this seemingly simple tale of a great white shark terrorising a small beach town became a cultural tsunami, forever changing cinema. It wasn’t just a movie about a man-eating fish — it was a masterclass in suspense, sound, and raw, primal fear that still grips audiences today.

Jaws and its many sequels have left a huge legacy that still echoes loudly 50 years later, standing tall as one of the most culturally significant films to ever grace our screens. Beyond redefining horror, Jaws practically rewrote Hollywood’s playbook by inventing the summer blockbuster. With its massive marketing campaign, wide release strategy, and repeat-viewing crowd-pleasing formula, Jaws turned the traditionally quiet summer months into the most lucrative season for movies. Studios scrambled to replicate this success, changing film distribution and promotion forever—and proving that a shark could bite not just box offices but the entire industry.

So, let’s take a moment to look back at Jaws and dive deep into the crystal-clear waters of Amity to discover why a film about a shark changed everything.

Here’s 50 Years of Fear: How Jaws Changed Horror Forever.

Behind the Scenes: Making the Monster

As with many films, the stars aligned for the production of Jaws. Universal Pictures producers Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown both heard about Peter Benchley’s shark novel and, after reading it in one night, decided it would make a damn fine film—buying the rights before the novel was published. A 26-year-old Steven Spielberg had just finished his first film, The Sugarland Express (1974), for Zanuck and Brown and spotted the unpublished novel sitting on a desk during a meeting. After reading it, Spielberg felt it perfectly mirrored his very first film Duel (1971), and he landed the director’s role after the original director, Dick Richards, was dropped (apparently due to his constant referral to the shark as a whale). However, just as production started, Spielberg wanted out so he could make 20th Century Fox’s Lucky Lady (1975) instead, but thanks to some pretty rock-solid contracts, the studios sunk the director’s plans to abandon ship!

The film was given an estimated budget of $3.5 million and started shooting on May 2, 1974, mostly on Martha’s Vineyard. The production faced major challenges, including frequent mechanical failures of the three pneumatically powered shark props nicknamed “Bruce,” harsh sea conditions, and extensive delays that stretched filming from the planned 55 days to 159. Spielberg’s perfectionism and insistence on shooting in open ocean rather than a controlled tank meant constant battles with nature and equipment, nearly derailing the whole project. The technical issues on set led the crew to rely heavily on suspense techniques—like showing only the shark’s fin or using floating barrels—to hint at the threat. While this might have seemed like a disaster during shooting, ultimately it heightened the film’s tension and suspense beyond what was originally imagined.

Despite production woes and budget overruns (costs doubling from $4 million to $9 million), Jaws became the first major film shot largely at sea and basically set new standards in filmmaking. It might not have been the world’s first big-budget creature feature, but it sure was the first major studio film to take such massive risks on a huge budget.

The Fear of the Unknown: How Jaws Changed Horror

Before Jaws, monster movies were usually defined by films like King Kong and Universal’s monsters—Frankenstein, Dracula. These post-70s creatures tore up cinemas and turned screens into screams. But with Amity’s worst kept secret lurking in the dark depths of the 70s, everything changed.

King Kong ruled the cinema—filling every inch of the silver screen. Dracula rose at night, staring down screaming teens in the front row. Frankenstein’s monster stomped and moaned through the whole film. Jaws… well… you barely saw the titular fish. Thanks to major technical problems during filming, Spielberg had to improvise, shooting whatever he could—a fin, a barrel—or relying on underwater POV shots to make up for Bruce’s camera shyness. This was never planned, but damn, was it powerful.

The intense atmosphere created by hiding what the audience came to see made for a tangible cinematic experience. Forget cats jumping out of bins—the new scare was showing almost nothing. After Jaws’ success, studios took note. In the following years, this new horror style crept onto screens everywhere. Alien withheld the xenomorph; Piranha hid its fishy menace in feeding frenzies; Blood Beach buried its monsters under sand; Halloween kept Myers behind hedges and POV shots. Friday the 13th, Pumpkinhead, The Thing, Blair Witch, The Descent, It Follows, and many more all borrowed from the blueprint Spielberg laid down for his “silly little shark film.”

And then there’s the score. Fifty years later, those two ominous notes still haunt us: dun… dun. Spielberg often credits much of Jaws’ blockbuster success to John Williams and his Academy Award-winning score. Those simple, haunting notes have become fear’s heartbeat—proof that sometimes less really is more.

So how did Jaws change horror? It made filmmakers rethink their projects and gave cinematographers room to get creative with their setups. It pushed fresh ideas, emphasised music’s power, and scared half the world into fearing what they couldn’t see. Sharks weren’t just big fish anymore—they were major predators lurking just below the sea’s surface… and in our imaginations.

Cultural Impact: From Beaches to Pop Culture

When Jaws hit theatres in 1975, it didn’t just scare moviegoers—it changed the way the world looked at sharks and the ocean forever. Suddenly, people were terrified of what may (or may not) be lurking in the sea. Jaws’ infamous tagline, “You’ll never go in the water again,” was a tongue-in-cheek comment that actually predicted a major change in the shared human psyche. After Jaws half swallowed the crew of the Orca, no one felt safe in the ocean ever again.

Whilst shark attacks are extraordinarily rare, Jaws transformed the great white (and any other type of shark) into one of the world’s most dreaded sea-dwelling boogeymen. In the back of your mind, you always knew there might be something deep down in the depths… waiting. Any body of water—ponds, lakes, oceans—if they were deep and murky, there might be things with teeth. The film was believed to be responsible for a massive decline in beach attendance following its release, with many people reporting fear of going into the water after seeing the film. Oh Bruce, you dastardly fish, you went and broke beaches for all of us!

Jaws also ignited a tsunami of shark-themed media. Its success spawned three direct sequels—Jaws 2 (1978), Jaws 3-D (1983), and Jaws: The Revenge (1987)—none of which captured the original’s magic but helped cement the shark as a horror icon. Beyond the official sequels, Jaws inspired countless imitators and parodies, from cheesy “shark attack” movies like Sharknado to video games and TV episodes riffing on the concept. The film’s influence extends into pop culture everywhere—whether it’s the menacing two-note theme popping up in cartoons or commercials, or the image of a dorsal fin slicing through water becoming shorthand for lurking danger. Jaws helped establish a shared language of fear that everyone understood.

Jaws was a madman in a mask. It wasn’t some demon or creature from a dark pit. It was mother nature’s creation. This was a film about a shark (albeit a rather large one) doing what comes naturally to sharks. Jaws delivered a REAL threat deep into our cinematic landscape. This was something that really could happen—and maybe even on your favourite beach!

The film tickled a part of our primal brain that had not been awake for centuries—the fight or flight instinct that kept us alive during a more simplistic time of human evolution. But more importantly was the delivery. It was no longer just in the cinema; the introduction of home cinema brought it into your living room, advertising riffed on it in newspapers, it was on billboards, splashed across lunchboxes and thermoses. Jaws was a pop sensation that never stopped screaming in the back of our minds.

The simple fact that we are still talking about it en masse today is amazing. Jaws is simply one of the most culturally important films ever. It’s more than just about a shark… Jaws taught us to fear again.