10 Scariest Shark Movies!

7. Open Water

Shark Night
Lionsgate

Few, if any, shark movies are quite as grim and depressing as Open Water.

Another 'based on true events' picture, Chris Kentis' 2003 film took a loved-up couple, dropped them in the middle of the ocean, and then let the audience watch their descent into depression, anger, trauma, sickness, and ultimately death unravel for the best part of an hour.

Open Water isn't a film based on a rampaging shark offing swimmers with alarming regularity. Open Water isn't a gimmicky film designed to grab the attention with its outlandish premise. Open Water isn't a cash-grab that was designed to be the launching pad for a franchise. No, Open Water was just a gut-punching and glum movie whose terror was in the scarce reality of what it would really be like to experience being left to die in the middle of the ocean.

This all comes about after a scuba dive trip goes array when couple Susan and Daniel resurface to find their boat gone. And from there on out, these lovers are left to battle the elements in the hope that a rescue may come - all while more and more sharks begin to arrive on the scene to see what's on the menu.

Despite not being designed to be a franchise, mind, Lionsgate would later co-opt 2006's Adrift and 2017's Cage Dive to technically spin them into Open Water 2 and Open Water 3.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.