10 Shark Movies to Sink Your Teeth Into (That Aren’t Jaws)

Under Paris carries an ecological message and emotional gravitas that elevates the convoluted plot and silly concept into something genuinely exciting to watch. A grieving scientist named Sophia (Bérénice Bejo) must rescue Paris from a giant shark lurking in the Seine. Conveniently, Lilith is the very same shark that killed her husband, making their conflict far more personal and emotionally charged than it would be with a random, evil shark. While Sophia tries to hunt Lilith down, there’s a triathlon taking place that the mayor refuses to postpone (sound familiar?). This results in the grisly deaths of countless athletes. The militaristic efforts to destroy Lilith are over-the-top, and Under Paris as a whole requires a lot of mental gymnastics to appreciate. But it’s got a great payoff that reminds us of the unstoppable force of nature. The upsetting fact that Lilith is mutated by a polluted, waste-filled ocean makes you stop and think just as much as the rest of the movie makes you clutch your seat.

The low-budget production company The Asylum isn’t exactly known for high art. It mostly churns out cheap copycats of previously released blockbusters like Top Gunner, Transmorphers, The Terminators, and Battle Star Wars. The films are a waste of time and money, and it’s hard to say why they even exist, but one of their original movies became an overnight sensation after airing on Syfy in 2013. In Sharknado, Tara Reid is tasked with saving Los Angeles from a tornado that, somehow, is filled with sharks. Part of the film’s charm lies in how fully it embraces being a winking send-up of the Sharksploitation genre. With sharks out of their natural ocean habitat and raining down from the sky, there’s plenty of room for colorful and outlandish deaths, and Sharknado more than delivers. It may be one of the most shallow shark movies out there, but it’s undeniably worth watching, if not only for its cultural impact.

It’s hard to believe that megalodons were real. Their open jaws were much taller than a full-grown man and their body longer than an entire school bus. When I was a little girl, I had a theory that they still existed near the bottom of the ocean. This is exactly the premise of The Meg, which should give you a clue into the maturity and believability of this movie. You just have to ride the wave of this intentionally campy blockbuster—much like the ass-kicking Jason Statham, who hangs onto the fin of the massive prehistoric creature, flies through the air, and somehow still survives. The Meg fully embraces its ludicrousness, which is fitting because a creature as enormous as a megalodon ever existing is bonkers enough on its own.

Bait is one of the most creative entries in the Sharksploitation genre. It feels like the filmmakers said: “Sharks in the ocean? Yawn. Let’s put them inside a supermarket!” Director Kimble Rendall tosses Jaws, The Impossible, and Stephen King’s The Mist into a blender for the wild premise: after a freak tsunami hits, a group of strangers (plus a cute little dog) are trapped inside a flooded grocery store with a shark. Standing on the shelves can only help them for so long. Their battle against the shark menacingly roaming the aisles is gorier than most other shark films. The use of animatronics in several scenes makes the carnage believable. Even though the concept sounds idiotic, it actually works and leaves you hooked.

In 47 Meters Down, a diving trip goes awry for two vacationing sisters. Their cage plummets to the ocean floor, leaving them surrounded by sharks and a dwindling oxygen supply. The viewer is choked with fear by the darkness of the watery environment and the claustrophobic framing. There’s also something terrifying about the characters being completely immersed in the shark’s kingdom—seeing life through their eyes and coming face to face with them. The film uses this setup to deliver some biting jump scares. The sequel, 47 Meters Down: Uncaged (2019), raises the stakes by submerging a group of girls in an underwater maze of caves and tunnels filled with sharks. Both films are serviceable popcorn thrillers that venture into uncharted depths of shark terror.

Deep Blue Sea is the epitome of gloriously over-the-top yet self-serious filmmaking from the late ’90s and early 2000s, and it has since become a cult classic. It heightens the stereotype that sharks are vindictive and deliberately hunt down their chosen victims by making them genetically engineered to be smarter. The experiment to see if their brain tissue can cure Alzheimer’s backfires in the most brutal way. It’s great, blood-soaked fun to watch the all-star cast—Samuel L. Jackson, Stellan Skarsgård, Michael Rapaport, and LL Cool J (who also performs the end-credits rap), etc.—either get caught in the feeding frenzy or narrowly escape. Some scenes use slow motion to heighten the drama and make the adventure feel more epic and cinematic. When Deep Blue Sea bares its teeth, it’s less horrifying and more of a high-adrenaline action flick.

Being stranded in the middle of the deep, shark-infested waters, with no land in sight, has been the terrifying concept of several movies already, so The Shallows tries to do something different. It’s a cruel twist of fate for Nancy (Blake Lively), who ends up stranded on a tiny, isolated rock only 200 yards from the shore. All that’s between her and safety in the shallow waters is a giant shark. She’s so close yet so far. Jaume Collet-Serra, who also directed Orphan and House of Wax, has a very lyrical vision that makes even the simplest of his horror movie concepts feel grand and mythic, which really works for this stripped-down survival concept. Blake Lively gives her character some gumption and emotional gravitas that makes us invested in her survival. There are some very creative set pieces involving jellyfish and a buoy, plus some welcome levity from a seagull named Steven Seagull. The Shallows is a solid B-movie that doesn’t pretend to be anything more than it is, but still manages to rise above most brainless shark thrillers.

If you’re looking to expand your shark movie repertoire, you’ll have to wade through plenty of ridiculous ones. But every so often, one surfaces that’s genuinely thrilling and adds something new to the genre. Dangerous Animals has a particularly intriguing premise where a serial killer (played by an unhinged Jai Courtney) uses sharks as his weapon. The breathtaking underwater shots show the sharks in all of their menacing, enormous glory, and they simply behave as they naturally would. Dangerous Animals does not demonize them, instead making it clear that the true predator is toxic masculinity. Tucker’s philosophical attachment to the sharks and the shocking mayhem he causes make for a brutal, fast-paced viewing experience that hits you hard like a tidal wave.

Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is known for being a shark hotspot, but that doesn’t stop five friends from partying there on a yacht, which ends up capsizing. Director Andrew Traucki was already known for another white-knuckle creature feature, Black Water, about a group of people stalked by a relentless saltwater crocodile in a swamp. Instead of clinging to the tops of mangrove trees, the protagonists in The Reef are forced to make a terrible choice: stay on board the sinking ship or swim twelve miles to the nearest island while a great white shark waits in between. The suspense of this decision, as well as who will be taken by the shark and when, is as razor-sharp as the predator’s teeth. Traucki’s use of actual shark footage gives the water scenes a chilling authenticity. The sequel, The Reef: Stalked (2022), follows an entirely different story in which a kayaking trip goes terribly wrong and is just as intense.

Filmed on digital video, Open Water makes an American couple’s harrowing experience stranded in the middle of the ocean after a scuba diving trip look like the worst home movie ever made. Based on a true story and using live sharks instead of CGI or mechanical ones, Open Water stands out as one of the most raw shark movies ever made. The sharks patiently circle the couple in the depths below, unlike Hollywood versions where they launch like missiles toward their prey. The film has an intimate, DIY aesthetic that puts you right there next to the couple: waves lap against the camera, natural daylight fades into a dark thunderstorm, and there is no way to see what lurks below. Open Water proves that shark movies do not have to be elaborate and effects-heavy in order to put viewers on the edge of their seat.