Shark Movies: How this unique sub-genre of horror has changed over the years

Shark movies have been massively popular. It went on to become so popular that it is now considered as a sub-genre of horror. Hollywood has been making shark movies for decades now, and these films have seen significant growth over time. Here's how the genre has changed over time.

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The growth of Killer Shark movies

Hollywood has made several shark movies throughout the years. One of the oldest shark movies dates back to 1977. From then, the genre of killer shark movies has changed significantly, and the filmmakers have developed the genre from scratch. At first, these movies included key points such as highly intelligent sharks, or fantasy elements with humanoid sharks, but it did not seem to work much for the genre. To counter this, the filmmakers had to delve deeper into the numerous issues concerning human psychology, to understand how fear works. This led to their findings that sci-fi and fantasy elements are not compatible with the killer shark genre, instead of a setting where helpless humans are trapped with the hungry apex predator, in places where the latter has an upper hand scared the audience the most.

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The filmmakers studied how empathy worked and made characters and settings that the audience can relate more with. For example, in the scenes where a group of people get stuck on a boat, one of them goes in the water and is totally unaware of the sharks that are visible to the general audience. Instead of trying to depict something that was unrealistic, the filmmakers drew focus on realistic elements and scenarios.

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Steven Spielberg is widely considered as the leader of the movement after his iconic film Jaws revolutionised the genre. Shark Night (2011), Open Water (2003), Bait (2012), and 47 Meters Down, are some of the notable movies of this sub-genre of horror. Reports are that even the DCEU is set to make a shark movie. Fans are excited about this news.

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