There is no doubt that Jaws is one of the greatest thrillers of all time. If you haven't seen it yet, I envy you that first experience. For the other 300-odd million of you, here are three other intense thrill rides you can watch right at home.
If you weren't aware yet, Jaws and all three of its sequels are now available on Netflix. The original is a must-see. Jaws 2 is worth watching, but frankly, I'd stop there. No, to see something that can conjure similar scares and equal tension, you'll need to look beyond that franchise.
There are dozens of great movies you can watch when you're in the mood to scare yourself 7/8ths of the way to death. I mean, why go halfway, right? But I wanted to stay with the framework of the seemingly mindless, implacable killer we see in the great white shark. Just remember, terror can come from many places. What you won't find here are killers like Hannibal Lecter or the villain in one of the latest horror thrillers. No, we're sticking with creature features here. Well, mostly.
Open Water - 2003
It's hard to believe that this movie came out over 20 years ago. Then again, Jaws itself is half a century old. Spielberg's landmark film has been imitated to - dare I say it - to death. It may be hard to believe, but there are actually worse shark movies than Jaws: The Revenge. That's not counting the intentionally awful, hence wonderful, Sharknado series of films.
Open Water was one of the first and few movies to resurrect that slow build-up of terror. Made for a whopping $500,000 (or about one week's catering budget for the average blockbuster), it grossed $55 million worldwide. That's fine, but what matters is that it is one intense swim. A couple on a dive trip are accidentally left behind in the open ocean. And we all know what lives in the ocean. One reason the film works so well is that all the sharks are real. No mechanical sharks to break down, no CGI sharks to flicker and fade. Just grinding, relentless terror.
Open Water isn't currently streaming on any subscription services, but is available for rental/purchase at the usual sites of Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Fandango at Home, etc.
Alien - 1979
Odds are, I don't have to tell you much about this one. Then again, it did come out 46 years ago. While Aliens is a worthy sequel, it's a very different kind of film. James Cameron made a loud, action-packed rollercoaster of a movie. Make no mistake, I love it. Frankly, he was wise to take a completely different approach to the story. Because there's no topping the original for sheer terror.
Ridley Scott did the opposite in the original film. He made a quiet, extremely creepy haunted house film. As the tag line read, "In space, no one can hear you scream." Well, scream we did, as the Xenomorph - that's the titular alien to the uninitiated - was just as unstoppable as the great white shark in Jaws. No matter how many times I watch it (and it has to be at least a dozen by now), certain scenes still make me jump. You've been warned.
Alien is available to stream on Hulu, or for rental/purchase.
Duel - 1971
Okay, I started with a shark movie. That makes sense, right? Next up, we moved into the furthest reaches of space. But we still had a killer creature. So why did I end with this, a made-for-TV movie at that? Those of you who know it already know why I chose a film about an average guy chased endlessly by an eighteen-wheeler. The truck functions as the monster here, as we never fully see the driver, and can only guess why he's pursuing our hapless hero.
Duel was Steven Spielberg's first feature film. The original version was just 74 minutes long, so it would fit into the TV time slot. When it was so well-received, Universal had Spielberg film new scenes to stretch the running time to 90 minutes. Both versions are tightly written exercises in tension. They should be, as the great Richard Matheson wrote the screenplay, based on his own short story. Trust me, I'm still nervous around tractor-trailers.
Duel is only available for rental or purchase.