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"Why ‘Jaws 2’ Is Technically A Slasher Movie"

posted 7 months ago by DoctorThirteen (13995)
13 replies | jump to latest

While it is not the masterpiece that the original is, Jaws 2 is a fun time. Jaws is lightning in a bottle. There is a reason it is regarded as one of the greatest films ever made. There is no replicating it and Jaws 2 knows this. Instead, Jaws 2 decides to reveal the shark earlier and up the body count. It even tips its toe into the horror genre, more specifically the teen slasher subgenre that is about to explode into cinemas. Jaws 2 preceded such films as Halloween, Friday the 13th, The Burning, A Nightmare on Elm Street, My Bloody Valentine, Happy Birthday to Me, Madman, Prom Night, Slumber Party Massacre, Terror Train, Final Exam, Student Bodies, April Fool's Day, and more. Yet it uses the tropes and "rules" of a horror slasher before they were even written down.

https://www.cultureslate.com/news/idnlk8u6is6igv0iqju1jtjc43mrzn

[–] Tam87 (1189) 7 months ago

Jaws 2 is not a slasher movie. Slasher movies are not PG and they don't have an absence of tits & gore.

Slasher movies just copied Jaws 2's set up of teens in peril (or perhaps it was coincidental). Jaws 2 is a monster movie/creature feature.

[–] DoctorThirteen (13995) 7 months ago

Of course Jaws 2 isn't a slasher. As someone said on Reddit, 'sharks can't hold knives - no opposable thumbs!' 😂

It is interesting though that for those who do think the first Jaws is an underwater slasher (and there are some), Jaws 2 is actually a better candidate.

[–] moviechatterer (15643) 7 months ago

"those who do think the first Jaws "
nobodys sayng that though are they?

Jaws 2 is the one the article in the OP is talking about.

[–] Martoto (5036) 7 months ago

I think it's because it gets compared with Psycho as an icon of suspense. Psycho isn't a slasher movie either. So the "slasher" label applied to Jaws is even lazier than it is with Psycho.

Can you imagine a slasher audience being promised a good time in the eighties and them sitting through more than half an hour of a bitter, frustrated real estate clerk trying performing an amateurish bit of embezzlement and clumsily trading in her old car.... It would have been a tough sell to eighties horror fans. And today it would be criticised for wasting half the movie being woke (i.e. portraying a woman with some dimension, empathy, hindered by mansplaining cops and car salesmen) instead of making a quality film....

I think slasher fans like to align the genre, which is 99% garbage, with two bona fide cinema classics.

[–] DoctorThirteen (13995) 7 months ago

'Psycho isn't a slasher movie either.'

Agreed. I see Psycho as a psychological horror/proto-slasher. It had an influence on the slasher, but wasn't one itself.

[–] DoctorThirteen (13995) 7 months ago

The article is about Jaws 2. I posted it because whilst quite a few people regard Jaws as a slasher, Jaws 2 has more similarities to that sub-genre.

[–] Martoto (5036) 7 months ago

It's no secret that the slasher sequel craze that followed in the wake of Halloween (1978), Friday the 13th (1980) and their respective second instalments both released in 1981, were molded by not only Jaws 2 but the original movie too. Clearly though, the setting up of a group of teens to be terrorised by the big bad while parental and societal authority is out of reach is immediately familiar to both movies.

There's no doubt that Jaws 2's success had the makers of slasher sequels salivating for that kind of payday. HAlloween II even has a "You caught A Michael Myers, not THE Michael Myers." plotline. Halloween II even borrowed the family connection plot twist that had featured in Empire Strikes Back. The two biggest sequels at that time had a massive influence in the producers of slashers sequels. There can be no doubt.

[–] DoctorThirteen (13995) 7 months ago

Absolutely. J/J2 aren't slashers, but the influences are there (nice post).

[–] millsey72 (10284) 5 months ago

It would have been better if we learned that the shark in this movie is the son of the shark in the original, seeking revenge for his fathers death

[–] Martoto (5036) 5 months ago

No it wouldn't.

[–] [deleted] 5 months ago

The openings of Jaws (I) and Friday the 13th (the first one) are nearly identical--teens gathered around a campfire singing songs. Two go off to frolic. The monster shows up.

[–] BKB (9914) 5 months ago

Um, I'd sure like to know who stated JAWS 2 was one of the Greatest films ever made because it's box office sure didn't reflect this at the time?? 🤔

[–] DoctorThirteen (13995) 5 months ago

That's about the original.

Jaws is lightning in a bottle. There is a reason it is regarded as one of the greatest films ever made.