7 Ways The Meg Was Much Better Than You Expected
2. Jump Scares
While The Meg never tries to blend its action/science fiction style with horror, there are a few snack spilling shocks laced throughout.
As you’d expect in a movie about a giant shark, there are several moments where the creature sneaks up on us. Whether that’s by crashing into ships or just seeing a flash of beady eye or spiky teeth, there’s the constant sense that the shark could attack at any time. A lot of movies with an expensive shark might flaunt it, having long and detailed pans around its entire body. Not The Meg. We very rarely see the whole creature, giving it a dreaded sense of the unknown.
Not only that, tension is kept constantly high when the shark doesn’t appear. Indeed, the creature seems to miss some cues in the movie’s early phases, leaving you wondering where this monster could be. Why isn’t it attacking? But it all pays off in the long game.
Because we’ve seen how unpredictable the megalodon is, we’re left biting our nails on the edge of our seat. Will it show up? When? Who will it kill? Just when the movie seems safe, that’s when the shark is its most deadly.