9 Shark Movies To Prepare Audiences For The Meg

The classic. It was inevitable.

Spielberg's film revolutionized blockbuster cinema, creating a summer movie season that has become the constant decades later. It scared people so much that they stopped going to the beach and came to the movies instead.

And deservedly so. The film's handling of the shark is terrifying. The way Spielberg films the initial attacks in such a casual manner, letting Williams' iconic score build up to the attacks but then dropping out and letting the attacks play with wholly diegetic sound is horrifying and makes it all feel so real. Also, the characters are endearing and original, to the point that they are all still pop culture staples over forty years later.

It is a film that sees Spielberg showing off everything that would go on to make him such an esteemed director; his deft balance of humor, horror, action, and character. It's also the film that nearly every other film on this list (Blue Water, White Death excluded) borrows from. The entire reason there is a shark subgenre is because of how effective this film was.

And honestly, what can't audiences or the makers of The Meg learn from this film? It is the Holy Bible of shark films, a five-star masterpiece that shows precisely how one of the best directors of the millennium tackled a similar story. Judging from The Meg's theatrical poster, it seems to be well-aware of this fact, directly riffing on the classic Jaws poster. Here's hoping the entire film is as smart as it's poster.