Lance ThooIt’s been 44 years since Steven Spielberg unleashed ‘Jaws’, a movie about a giant man-eating great white shark that attacked beachgoers on Amity Island, a fictional summer resort town.
To this day, this iconic 1975 movie is still regarded as one of Spielberg’s best masterpieces.
Time and time again, sharks have proven to be Hollywood’s favourite villains.
(Photo: Shutterstock)
In a Neue article published last year, we took a quick look at shark movies with titles such as “Sand Sharks”, “Ghost Shark” and of course all those “Sharknado” (Shark + Tornado) flicks.
Yep, you read that right! These are all 100% real films and incredibly absurd (as the movie titles suggest)… and yet they are still appealing to the masses!
What’s interesting to note is that we here at Neue had trouble naming even one shark-related movie where the shark was the “good guy”.
Instead, sharks have been demonised and branded “monsters”!
In August last year, we had ‘The Meg’, where you got to see Hollywood tough man Jason Statham punching sharks in the face.
(Photo: Warner Bros)
To cut a long story short, this movie is basically about a 75-foot-long prehistoric shark known as “The Megalodon”.The story is based on Steve Alten’s novel “MEG: A Novel of Deep Terror”, published in 1997 with the title derived from the ancient Megalodon species that has survived while being trapped in the Mariana Trench due to a barrier of cold water.
Fear the humans, not sharks
But the harsh reality is this: sharks aren’t the monsters … it’s humans!
Did you know that humans kill more than 100 million sharks each year?
Consumption of shark fin soup, primarily in Asia, is the biggest reason behind the massive figure, contributing directly to the killing of almost half of the sharks, according to reports.
Fishermen would slice off the fins of sharks and throw them back into the ocean, where they slowly bleed to death or die from suffocation, although this practice is now illegal in many countries and territories.
On the other hand, sharks kill only a handful of us – four people in 2018.
So what are the odds of a shark attack?
Well, according to The International Shark Attack File, the odds of getting attacked and killed by a shark are 1 in 3,748,067.
In a lifetime, you are more likely to die from a lightning strike (1 in 79,746) or even a fall (1 in 218).
(Image: GIPHY)
That said, isn’t it high time that we start seeing sharks getting “good guy” roles in Hollywood?
(Photo: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
And no, ‘Finding Nemo’ doesn’t count!Why? Because Bruce and his shark clan were presented as “killing machines” who had to attend group therapy in the movie.
Don’t forget: they had to remind themselves of ‘The Shark Pledge’.
What’s that, you ask?
Well, the pledge goes: “I am a nice shark, not a mindless eating machine. If I am to change this image, I must first change myself. Fish are friends, not food.”
Win some tickets with One Cineplex
The latest fear-inducing shark movie to hit cinemas is ‘47 Meters Down: Uncaged’. (Check out the trailer below!)
Our friends over at One Cineplex are giving Neue readers a chance to win a pair of tickets to see this movie this Sunday (September 1).
All you have to do is follow @whatsneue on IG & tag a friend in the social media post for this story. It’s that easy!
The winner will be randomly selected and announced on Neue’s social media this Saturday (August 31).
The movie revolves around four teenage divers who discover that the sunken ruins of a Mayan city are also a hunting ground for deadly great white sharks.
With their air supply steadily dwindling, the frightened girls must navigate the underwater labyrinth of claustrophobic caves and eerie tunnels in search of a way out of their watery hell.
And yes, I’m pretty sure the sharks are (again) portrayed as the ‘bad guys’ …
(Hmm, why am I not surprised?!)
Oh! And if you need another on why you should catch this movie … it’s also starring actresses Sistine Stallone and Corinne Foxx – who so happen to be daughters of Sylvester Stallone and Jamie Foxx respectively.
Though the two fathers have decades of acting experience behind them, the upcoming horror film marks their daughters’ first big roles.
(From Left to Right): Jamie Foxx, Corinne Foxx, Sistine Stallone and Sylvester Stallone at the “47 Meters Down: Uncaged” LA Premiere in Westwood, California (Photo: Shutterstock)
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