16 of 31 Horror Movies I've Never Seen 2016: Jaws 2 (1978)

Sequels.  If there is one thing that you will almost never escape in the modern cinema experience it is the sequel.  Some films deserve them, some films don't, and some films are made specifically for them.  My whole life I somehow avoided watching any of the sequels to Jaws because I 100% believed that they would be a sheer waste of time and effort to sit through.  Sometimes though, usually when sick or hungover, sequels are all one's brain can handle.  Jeannot Szwarc's Jaws 2 is one of those movies, easy on the brain, generally entertaining, and no where nearly as good as it's predecessor.

Three years after the events of Jaws a new shark shows up to cause mayhem for Chief Brody (Roy Scheider) and his family, as well as the town of Amity.  Once again, Brody sees all the signs of shark attacks and the town council dismisses his urges as those of a traumatized lunatic.  As we, the audience, know the body count is only going to increase.

Let's be realistic, if it weren't for Roy Scheider, this movie would be a god damn catastrophe.  The first two thirds of the film follow the plot points of the original film to a T.  Other than that the movie is shot pretty well, but it doesn't out do the first film in any real way.  There is a good deal more of pyrotechnic stunt work throughout, including a boat explosion and plenty of open water scenes.  Really the most interesting thing about the film is the trivia section of it's IMDB page though.  That and watching Scheider embody traumatic response to the reality of his situation.

All this aside, the film ended up being one of the most successful sequels of it's time, yielding such a lovely box office gross that Universal gave Szwarc the opportunity to make Somewhere in Time.  It's got a good reprisal of the theme in John William's score as well as returning actors Lorraine Gray and Murray Hamilton, but in all reality this is not a film that can be taken seriously in any way, and once you can get passed that fact you can probably enjoy it for what it is.  A shark exploitation movie.  Personally, when it comes to Animal Horror Exploitation films I tend to lean towards the Italians.  We just take ourselves a wee bit too seriously with our sequels over here.

Lousy quality, but the re-release trailers is 4 minutes long...