Continuing the countdown of my favourite 11 horror films.
#5 “Jaws” (1975)
My Mother and Father went to see ‘Jaws’ at the cinema on it’s initial release in 1975. I was a big movie buff, even at the age of 7, and every time that they would go to the cinema I would ask them to buy me a programme or if there were no programmes of the film they were seeing then a copy of (and I might be mis-remembering the name) ‘Film Review’ magazine. Upon their return from watching ‘Jaws’, which my parents raved about, I was presented with a copy of the programme.
I still have it (it’s quite tatty now) but with the rave reviews from my parents, the fascination I had (and still have) in sharks, along with the great pictures inside the programme I knew it was a film I just had to see. My parents had other ideas though. I was too young, they said, and in retrospect they were right.
However, this did not stop me from badgering them at every opportunity and when the film was re-released about two years later my Mother agreed to take me to see it. Suffice to say I made it up to the part where Ben Gardner’s head pops out the bottom of the boat and no further. From that point on I sat myself on the floor and refused to look at the screen. My Mother, who had paid good money to take me, allowed me to sit there for the next ninety minutes, terrified by the sounds coming from the screen, whilst she finished watching the film. I don’t blame her. I would have done the same.
Several years later and with a brand new blu ray copy of the film in hand I decided to screen it for my eight year old Son. We closed the curtains, turned down the lights, pumped up the amplifier and settled down. He was engrossed. Sure, he jumped when Ben’s head floated out of the hole in the boat, but he still had the guts to carry on. Perhaps I was just more sensitive as a kid. He thoroughly enjoyed it and I think it’s a film that will never get old.
The Decaying Dead 