Jaws — 4/5 (rewatch)
What strikes me most about this rewatch is how much of this movie feels like it's just a step above a TV movie. Everything about it is an example of something poorly made, done well. There is no large character arc with anyone involved, just a lot of texture in who those characters are. Shaw doesn't change, Hooper doesn't change, Brody doesn't change—but 'who they are' is very identifiable and pinpoint-able. They are rich. They are islands on a map. The plot is paper-thin: shark attacks > go kill shark. And then when the shark appears, despite the dun-DUN of it all, it appears so casually. It is just a thing that exists beneath the waves, slicing through water. The fear of the Leviathan isn't that it is coming for us; it is that it is already here, just below us. The movie has a confidence in how big it needs to be in order to work. It doesn't need to push on the primal nature of it all, just press. And, of course, that "confidence" is just an accident, a byproduct of unpredictable machinery. That's just how it goes, you know, you know.
And, plus, my own theory of successful horror movies is laid out in this movie — "will it make you afraid to _________ again?" Freddy Krueger > "fall asleep," Jason Voorhees > "go to summer camp." Any time I walk into the ocean, I scan the horizon.
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