4. A Giant Shark - Jaws (1975)
I am not a mainstream Hollywood fan. I am not a Steven Spielberg fan. I don't swim in the sea. But Jaws terrified the crap out of me. It is simply a great monster movie. Jaws may be a mechanical monstrosity, but by golly, he looked like the scariest big fish in the pond to me! The cast is awesome and they gel together especially well. The location is great and the minimalist music deserves its place in the cannon of great movie scores. The approach of the great shark onto his oblivious victims is filled with tension. We know they are dead meat but they are blissfully unaware, splashing and fooling about in the water. There are some truly great - "It's behind you!" moments. The idiotic mayor refusing to close the beach really rankles in the face of Brody's expertise. The bravery of a few guys taking on a twenty five foot, three ton shark is stirring and scintillatingly suspenseful. Water is an extremely common symbol in dreams. Just pray Jaws does not swim his way into yours...