Imagine: You’re in this big body of cold, blue water and you know damn well something is down there. None of your five senses can pick it up – you can’t see it, smell it, hear it, feel it or hear it before it’s too late. Somewhere in the depths of the ocean, this soundless behemoth is rushing up towards you, jaws open, eyes rolling back.
Bham!
Okay, you can swim. Go ahead. Knock yourself out. Swim as fast as you can dumbo, won’t do you no good!
No one can swim faster than a shark, not even Aquaman.
Here’s another thing that makes it scary: The shark exists in real life. We’ve seen documentary’s and pictures of it. People have even been in the water swimming with them. The shark from Jaws is a Supershark but it’s a Supershark with a history we already know and fear.
And here’s something else: The shark is, like any monster worth its salt, merciless, relentless and focussed.
All it wants to do is swim, eat, shit and make little sharks.
To help it catch its prey, the shark has ultra-senses that enables it be the efficient killer of the deep. It can pick up a vibration in the water over three miles away. It can scent a miniscule drop of blood in the water.
This shark has superpowers!
Above all shark can swim faster than you. You’re in its territory. Even if you’re on a boat you’re not safe. The boat can sink and, when there’s a Great White around, in books and films, the chances are the fecking boat is going to damn well sink.
The shark has a neat shape. No distracting tentacles, hideous talons or suction thingies, it’s just a big, sharp mouth on the end of a bunch of tight muscle. It’s perfectly, horribly simple. And that’s its real beauty. When you see it in the water it elicits a primordial fear in all of us. It’s the perfect product of evolution. A big, chunky, sharp toothed-fecking eating machine.
And finally: The shark has a great theme tune. Without the theme tune you really wouldn’t know that Monsieur Carcharodon carcharias was coming.
Face it, how many of you don’t know the theme from Jaws?
I rest my case, your honour.
So who’s your favourite horror monster and why? Answers as usual in the comments section below.
The wicked witch in the film 'the wizard of oz' scared the crap out of me. Ok I admit that if 'The Wizard of Oz' is classed as a horror film by me then not only is it very pathetic but it's bordering on tragic.
ReplyDeleteCertainly when I was aged 5+ the wicked witch & her flying monkeys were the most frightening creatures on earth! Arghhhhh the ideas of flying monkeys still freaks me out.
Let's face it, what is horror and what is not comes down to what scares the crap out of you and the wicked witch is up there with the best!
ReplyDeleteThe creature from John Carpenter's The Thing because it could be anyone.
ReplyDeleteI consider a horror movie to be great when you change your behavor (even temporarily) because of it. Two examples:
ReplyDelete-Shining (book was more convincing than the movie) - I was definitely scanning my own father for the signs of insanity (and no, we did not live in a hotel)
-Critters - I had a misfortune of running into someone walking a small dog right after I had watched "Critters". At night, the poor canine sure looked like to me like a furry teethy alien...to this day I DO NOT trust little dogs
I saw the post's title and came to say "Jaws" and what the hell do I find staring me in the fact when the page opens?
ReplyDeleteThank you for the jolt of adrenalin.
That's why Jaws is my favorite movie monster. :)