10 Movies That Changed The Genre They Were Made In
2. Jaws
Speaking of keeping the monster hidden, we have here what may be the best example of that cinematic technique. Like The Blair Witch Project, budgetary and technical reasons kept the monster out of the frame for a solid chunk of Jaws' running time. Jaws was also a product of the New Hollywood movement and you can absolutely tell by Spielberg's deft direction.
He firmly plants his film in that cinematic territory by nodding to past Hollywood master filmmakers like Hitchcock and Howard Hawks, while updating and integrating their styles to create his own.
Where Jaws really worked to change the thriller genre was less in its filmmaking style and more in its cultural impact. Two years before the ludicrous success of Star Wars Jaws became the first blockbuster in America. You had previous mega hits like Gone With the Wind to look back on as precedents, but Jaws altered the studio system as a whole. Whereas, Gone With the Wind and other epics of its type were made by seasoned studio heads and professionals, Jaws was made by a relatively unknown/untrained young director.
This led Hollywood to further alter their studio system and basically give young talents like Spielberg (Scorsese, Lucas, Stallone) unprecedented creative control over their films.