The Real Phantom Menace

Rating: Null/10 (16 September 2001)

One of the things that struck me upon watching `Jaws' again recently was how little we see the shark. I remembered the shark being in this movie much more, and killing many more people, but the actual film is different. Instead, the film relies much more on suspense than on shock  you know the shark is out there, but you don't know where he is or when he will appear. It makes the time he does appear than much more powerful.
There's a lesson to be learned here, filmmakers: less is more. The anticipation of the event is much more powerful than the event itself. Hitchcock understood that; Spielberg understands it (or did back when he made `Jaws,' not too sure anymore). A movie need not move from shock to shock, from special effect to stunt; if there is a story, it will have legs of its own. `Jaws' works because it plays on our fear of the unknown, of being eaten alive, of the deep water and what might be down there. It's real fear, much more personal and chilling than any werewolf or vampire because we know there are such things in the oceans.