In 1975, Steven Spielberg changed film and horror forever with Jaws. Not only was it the first big summer blockbuster, but it has led generations to fear going into the water. The chum scene with Chief Brody (Roy Scheider) is one of the most famous jump scares of all time. The entire franchise is filled with many memorable, frightening scenes, but the scariest scene of the franchise doesn’t come from the original 1975 film. Believe it or not, it can be found in a movie considered so bad that it put an end to the franchise. We’re talking, of course, about 1987’s Jaws: The Revenge. Yeah, it deserves its reputation, but it’s not all awful. Before it goes off the rails, there are several effective scenes. Among them is the first kill, a moment so tragic and heartbreaking that it’s even more terrifying than anything Steven Spielberg gave us.
The Chum Scene in ‘Jaws’ Is Regarded as the Scariest

Many of the scares in Jaws come from John Williams’ pulse-pounding score. It’s one so familiar that you don’t even have to see the movie to be familiar with it. With the mechanical shark breaking down often, the music became the monster, but there are still many effective visual scares, whether we see the shark or not. The beginning set the tone with Chrissie (Susan Backline) going into the water and becoming the first victim. We never get a glimpse of the beast beneath her, but the way her body shakes and her pained screams will give you nightmares. There’s also the jump scare with the decapitated head popping out of the boat, the geyser of blood from when little Alex Kintner (Jeffrey Voorhees) is taken under, and the first shark reveal when it takes down the man in the estuary, leaving behind only his leg. Still, it’s the chum scene that’s the most memorable.
That scene works because, although we’ve seen the shark briefly, this is the first time it’s up close. Forget Jaws 3-D, this is the moment where it feels like the great white could come through the screen. Still, no one dies here, and the tension is relieved a bit with a moment of levity when a shocked Brody tells Quint (Robert Shaw) that we’re going to need a bigger boat. There is no relief from the tension when Martin Brody’s son dies in Jaws: The Revenge.
The First Kill in ‘Jaws: The Revenge’ Is More Terrifying

Image via Universal Pictures

Chief Brody is the star of Jaws and Jaws 2, but Roy Scheider thankfully got out before the disastrous third movie. He was actually pitched to return for a cameo in Jaws: The Revenge, in which his character would die from a shark attack, but when he declined, the fourth film took out his son instead. That was actually more effective. It’s one thing to watch an older man die, but to witness his offspring, who we’ve seen as a character on screen since he was a toddler, meet his end is beyond tragic. And Jaws: The Revenge made sure to make it scary as hell, too.
In the fourth film, Chief Brody has passed on, having died of a heart attack. Older son Michael Brody (this time played by Lance Guest) lives over a thousand miles away, so in Amity, all widowed Ellen Brody (Lorraine Gray) has left is her youngest boy. Sean is now a cop like his father, a career choice that shows how much his dad meant to him. He wants to be just like him, so perhaps he’ll be our hero. No, instead, he’s going to be the deadly catalyst for everything to come.

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The first time we see Sean, he’s with his mother as she’s fixing dinner. The big smile on Ellen’s face and Sean joking with his brother and niece on the phone proves how close this family still is. Later, at night, Ellen is out with Sean and his fiancée. It’s Christmastime, with lights everywhere, which only adds to the atmosphere. Sean is asked to take a boat out to clear a wood pile that has drifted into the channel and become stuck on a marker. He does as he’s told, but as he’s clearing the mess, a great white leaps from the water, ending his life but beginning the film.
The Fourth Film Falls Apart After Sean Brody’s Death

There are so many reasons why this Jaws: The Revenge death is the scariest. For one, it’s a rare night attack in the franchise. We can barely see anything in front of us. Sean is not around a group of people either. He is all alone like Chrissie in the first movie, but unlike her, we know this guy, which adds an emotional weight to what comes next. On top of that, he’s so close to the shore, with the lights of Amity and the sounds of carolers just feet away. When the shark attacks, we don’t get much of a score. Instead, the terror is found in the contrast of a band playing to Sean’s screams when he looks down and sees his entire left arm gone, blood spurting all over his yellow raincoat.
He screams into the night, begging for help, but no one can hear him. It’s equal parts frustrating and eerie to have safety be so close yet so far away. When the great white comes up again, it pulls him into the water. Sean desperately tries to stay afloat, but his wails are abruptly cut off as he’s taken down into the darkness. The eerie silence that marks his death is deafening. Unlike his father and his older brother, Sean won’t be the hero who gets to save the day.
The failure of Jaws: The Revenge is not building on that tone. The film could have set itself apart from the adventurous previous movies and been something darker and more sinister, but instead, the plot gets goofy, with it turning into a slasher movie, as the great white swims over a thousand miles to track down the family and Ellen is able to telepathically link to it. The intense fear created in the first act is stripped away by the absurdness of everything that follows. Still, for a few minutes at least, Jaws: The Revenge is the scariest shark movie ever made.

Jaws: The Revenge

Release Date

July 17, 1987

Runtime

89 minutes

Director

Joseph Sargent