The Lowdown on Jaws Rip-Offs

With Jaws 5, erm, I mean Shark Night 3-D opening this weekend, it’s time to look back at the history of movies that ripped off Jaws.


Before we get to the rip-offs, let’s reflect for a moment on the original.  Jaws hit theaters in the summer of 1975.  It was a box office smash that is credited with creating the summer blockbuster.  Two years later, Star Wars would forever change the way movies were made.  But Jaws actually started the trend.
The movie holds up remarkably well.  That’s because the movie focuses on suspense and human drama rather than a fake-looking mechanical shark.  Jaws was a very troubled production.  Originally, the plans called for the shark to have a much bigger on screen presence.  But when the mechanical shark failed to operate in salt water, Steven Spielberg was forced to improvise.
The result is certainly a better movie.  Instead of showing us the shark, Spielberg uses point of view shots beneath the water to suggest the creature stalking his prey.  It taps into the fear every swimmer has that there is something below the water that they can’t see.
I could go on about Jaws for pages.  It’s one of my favorite films of all times.  But it’s time to move on.  The success of Jaws inspired countless imitators.  In spite of the fact that none of these rip-offs has come close to the original, they are still making them almost 40 years later.

For sheer stupidity, it’s hard to beat 1977’s Tentacles.  This Italian-American co-production starred screen legends John Huston, Shelley Winters and Henry Fonda.  As you can guess from the title, a giant octopus replace the shark.  The giant rubber octopus ultimately meets its demise (after eating a baby) when someone convinces two trained killer whales to take it down.

Speaking of killer whales, there’s 1977’s Orca.  The giant great white shark from Jaws was replaced by… Shamu.  The plot of Orca is hysterical.  While Richard Harris and his crew are hunting sharks, they are rescued by a killer whale.  To show his gratitude, Captain Harris decides to capture the whale instead.  By accident, the whale is killed in the capture attempt.
As it turns out, the whale was pregnant and has a miscarriage right there on Harris’ boat.  The movie actually showed the orca fetus.  Meanwhile, the orca’s mate watches from the ocean and vows revenge.  I mean, you don’t hear him vowing revenge because orcas don’t talk.  But vow revenge he does.
The vengeful orca terrorizes Harris and his crew.  Most famously, he bites of Bo Derek’s leg!  It’s the kind of craziness that can only come from Dino De Laurentis.

The Deep was also released in 1977.  It was not a Jaws rip-off in the sense that it did not follow the formula of a sea creature attacking swimmers.  (Although that did happen too.)  Instead, it was based on another novel by Jaws-writer Peter Benchley, featured action in the water and included Robert Shaw in its cast.

The story centers on a couple of vacationers played by Nick Nolte and Jacqueline Bisset who stumble upon buried treasure.  Soon the divers are being attacked by tiger sharks and moray eels.  Although the reviews were terrible, the Jaws connection was enough to make The Deep a hit.

Roger Corman is known for making cheap B-movies cheaply.  He doesn’t care about the content, so long as the films are cheap.  Corman’s productions have been a training grounds for a lot of talent that eventually went on to bigger and better things.  Among them were the makers of 1978’s Piranha.
Piranha was written by John Sayles and directed by Joe Dante.  Like Spielberg in Jaws, Dante had the good sense to realize his limitations and make the best of them.  Faced with a miniscule budget and the ridiculous notion of killer piranha’s attacking campers far from their natural habitat, Dante opted to play to his strengths.
With no money for effects, Dante focuses on cheap gore and clever satire.  As a result, Piranha is a highly entertaining movie in its own right. 

1978 also saw the release of Jaws 2.  After the success of Jaws, Universal could not wait to get a sequel in theaters.  Spielberg refused to come back.  Roy Scheider had to be convinced.  However, since he was contractually obligated he eventually accepted a large raise to reprise his role as Chief Brody.
Unlike the original, Jaws 2 wasn’t coy with the shark.  They figured they couldn’t recreate the tension of the original, so they just threw the fake-looking shark up on the screen as often as possible. 
Instead of focusing on the drama of a few characters trying to deal with the attacks, Jaws 2 goes for more of a slasher film approach.  Much of the movie centers on a group of teens (including the Brody kids naturally) who go out for a joy ride and are attacked by a shark.
As a follow-up to Jaws, Jaws 2 is weak.  But compared to most of the movies on this list, it’s not bad.  If you are looking to see 70’s-era teens eaten by a mechanical shark, Jaws 2 delivers.
Plus it had one of the best taglines ever.  “Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water…”  I still get chills.

1980’s Alligator was also written by John Sayles.  Like Sayles’ Piranha, Alligator knows to make fun of itself a little.  Which makes this movie about a man-eating alligator in the sewers of Chicago kind of fun.

The 1980 Italian film, Great White (aka The Last Shark) was such a rip-off of Jaws that Universal successfully sued to have the film removed from theaters in America.  The plot is almost identical to Jaws, but the shark is even less believable.

The first Piranha was actually a big hit for Roger Corman.  So naturally, a sequel was made.  Amazingly enough, Piranha 2 was the feature film debut of future “King of the World” James Cameron.  How ridiculous is Piranha 2?  The piranha are mated with flying fish (or something) and fly on land.
Much as he did with Aliens, Cameron retains much of what worked in the original while raising the stakes.  Piranha 2 is by no means a good movie.  But as Cameron himsel has said, it’s “the best flying piranha film ever made.”

In the early-to-mid 80’s, there was a short-lived 3-D craze.  At the peak of that fad came Jaws 3-D.  Jaws 3-D was about a shark attacking Sea World.  And amazingly enough, Sea World let them film the movie in their park!
No way Roy Scheider was coming back for this one.  So instead, a young Dennis Quaid played Brody’s son.  And Oscar winner Louis Gossett Jr. began the downward spiral that would be his career post Officer and a Gentleman.  A young Lea Thompson also plays a shark victim.
The movie is horrible in every way.  And the 3-D effects make the shark look more fake than ever before.  The climactic scene features the shark swimming towards a pane of glass as everyone looks on in terror.  But the shark isn’t moving at all.  It’s completely stationary as they move it closer and closer to the screen.  In the time it takes the shark to reach its final destination, the cast could have hopped a tram to nearby Disney World and escaped.

After the fiasco of Jaws 3-D, the Jaws franchise, Jaws rip-off and the 3-D craze all slowly faded away.  But given that Jaws 3 did make money, it was only a matter of time before someone decided to try to wring a few more dollars out of the series.  And thus, Jaws 4: The Revenge
Where Jaws 2 had one of the best taglines in history, Jaws: The Revenge had one of the worst.  “This time it’s personal.”  Yeah, the shark is holding a grudge!
That was the actual plot of the movie.  A shark had a beef with the surviving members of the Brody family.  When Scheider refused to come back and die in a cameo, he was killed off off-screen instead.  In his place, a shark killed one of his sons.  That left Mama Brody to fly off to the Bahamas for a get away.  And the shark followed her!
You don’t need me to tell you Jaws 4 is bad.  Everyone knows Jaws 4 is bad.  Everyone thought you couldn’t make a Jaws movie worse than Jaws 3 until they released Jaws 4.  And now we know, Jaws 4 is as bad as a Jaws movie can get, right?  Right? (Please don’t answer that Hollywood.)
The great tragedy of Jaws 4 is that Michael Caine was called back for reshoots and had to miss picking up his Oscar for Hannah and Her Sisters.

1999 saw a resurgence in the Jaws rip-off genre.  To kick things off, there was the TV movie Shark Attack.  I usually don’t cover TV movies, but I mention Shark Attack for two reasons.  One it stars Casper Van Dien of Starship Troopers “fame”.  Two, it launched a series of Jaws rip-offs on the Sci Fy channel which have become a genre unto themselves. 

Back in thearters, audience were treated to Lake Placid.  Lake Placid desperately wanted to be a big budget Alligator.  But it couldn’t duplicate the original film’s sense of humor.  So instead, it ended up being neither funny nor scary.  Sadly, the film was one more nail in the coffin for Bridget Fonda’s career as well.

A couple weeks later, Deep Blue Sea was released.  Deep Blue Sea is something of a guilty pleasure for me.  It’s not good.  But it’s entertaining as hell.  Yeah, the CGI sharks are kind of weak.  But they are no worse than the rubber sharks in most of these movies.  And it has one of the best death scenes ever.  If you haven’t seen it, watch it just up until that scene.  You’ll know the one.
The plot is actually the same as Rise of the Planet of the Apes, just with sharks instead of Apes.  These are super intellegent sharks which can, um, open doors by banging against them.  Honestly, I think a shark of below avergae intelligence could probably outsmart Michael Rappaport.

In 2003, Open Water took a more realistic look at shark attacks.  Based on a true story, Open Water focused on a pair of divers who were accidentally left behind by their tour group.  It’s really not a Jaws rip-off per se save for the fact it’s a movie that prominently features sharks.
I have never seen Open Water and this is why.  (Spoilers ahead.  If you don’t want the movie spoiled for you, skip ahead.)
I was speaking to my brother’s girl friend at the time.  I describe her to people as “the dumbest person I’ve ever met.”  And I don’t think that’s being unfair.  She asked me if I had seen the movie, Open Water.  I said, no I had not seen it.  But I really wanted to.  She said, “I can’t believe they both died at the end!”
I wanted very badly to punch her in the face.

In 2010, they dusted off the Piranha franchise for Piranha 3-D.  Like Snakes on a Plane, the movie tried to be “so bad it’s good.”  But that never works.  You have to be bad by accident.  Like Deep Blue Sea.  Amazingly, the movie coaxed Elisabeth Shue and Richard Dreyfus into making appearances.
Piranah 3-D was actually popular enough to spawn a sequel.  Piranah 3-DD.  Yep, a boob joke.  I think that’s all you need to know about the current state of the Piranah franchise.
That brings us to the latest Jaws rip-off, Shark Night 3-D.  Who wants to bet Shark Night 3-DD will be out summer 2013?
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tbob1
12 years ago

There have been very few “Holy sh!t, did you see that…” death scenes like the one in Deep Blue Sea. It startled the hell out of me like nothing else ever has on screen. The original Poltergeist had a few moments too, but for pure out of the blue shock value it was awesome. Not a terrible movie either; I enjoyed it.
I haven’t seen a lot of these movies you mention, but I’ll tell you what bad as they are I don’t swim in the ocean much anymore. Too many sea monsters down there whether real or imagined.

Sarah
12 years ago

Sadly enough, I have seen almost all or at least part of all the films you mentioned. Jaws is probably the first time I can actually say the movie was better than the book. I am still a sucker for shark movies though. If they came out with Jaws 5, I’m sure I would catch it on Net Flicks.

Geo
Geo
12 years ago

Uh, excuse me, Lebeau, but I thought this blog was all about fairness and I see no mention of two of the greatest films in this genre!
MEGA SHARK VS GIANT OCTOPUS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fa7ck5mcd1o
MEGA PIRANHA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFhSogGnu4I
Mega Piranha even stars the great Barry Williams for crying out loud!

Geo
Geo
12 years ago
Reply to  lebeau

The company that made those movies (The Asylum) has some serious guts putting out garbage like that. I took a look at their filmography and it’s nauseating. They put out copycat junk multiple times a year, all based on what’s playing in the theaters. Their budgets are painfully low, and they always find some ex-nonstar to be in the film (Lorenzo Lamas, Bruce Boxleitner, and Barry Williams of course!). Check out the wikipedia chart that shows the movies they release listed next to the real movie that they’re copying. The scariest thing is that Mega Piranha is actually their copycat… Read more »

Geo
Geo
12 years ago
Reply to  lebeau

Oh definitely more power to them! And quite frankly I enjoy watching their trailers. Nothing like seeing an overly super gigantic shark take out the Golden Gate Bridge, or an airplane…in flight! I also enjoyed the “kick the piranha” segment in the Mega Piranha trailer. Absolute priceless garbage.

tbob1
12 years ago
Reply to  Geo

This is awesomely funny. I love that list of sounds-like titles. I’d never heard of The Asylum until you mentioned it. Several of them are actually available on Netflix streaming. Sadly I did try Battle of L.A. Got about 15 mins in and had to stop. Just terrible. But it’s funny that this outfit gets has-beens or never-was’s to “star” in these cheap knock off’s. Wonder if that works in bars for these guys: “Hey baby, maybe you saw me in Transmorphers.”
Hysterical.

Michael
Michael
12 years ago

I really enjoyed Lake Placcid (especially for Oliver Plath and Brendan Gleeson … not to mention Betty White) and didn’t mind Deep Blue Sea (THAT scene and LL Cool J got it over the line for me).

Michael
Michael
12 years ago
Reply to  lebeau

I kind of gloss over that Fonda and Pullman are even in Lake Placid. Hahaha. I watched it again about two years ago with my wife and she enjoyed it too. I love almost everything Platt has done. I’m a big fan.

remembertheredskins
12 years ago

Here and I thought I was the only Oliver Platt fan around. He is always interesting to watch. One of those actors who truly seems to “live” onscreen. Definitely underappreciated (hmmmm….. is that another category to go along with “whatever happened to” and “so fetch.”).

Geo
Geo
12 years ago

I’m sorry, but I really don’t want to let this go. Coming to your local RedBox this January…
2-HEADED SHARK ATTACK
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVNn559SV_w
Yes, The Asylum strikes again!

nickofthyme
8 years ago

What? No Snowbeast? I know, I know, it was only on TV but could you possibly do another article focusing on the TV efforts from the era to re-create Jaws? Same formula: out of control beastie, the Winter Carnival, July 4th, Rutabaga Festival et al that can’t be stopped because “we rely on tourism” the ironic unconcern for selfsame tourists, etc. etc.
Always great reading you lebeau!

nickofthyme
8 years ago

I’d be interested in your take on it. The acting is well, leaves something to be desired. On youtube in public domain. https://youtu.be/iELllKW-f7Q

Arthur Dumais
Arthur Dumais
8 years ago

What about 2007′ Primeval?

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