#horror documentary

In A Nutshell:

Sharksploitation is an original documentary produced by Shudder and Sharksploitation, LLC, that follows the timeline of shark films from the early 20th century to the present and explores how the representation of sharks in cinema both reflects and influences their relationship with humanity. While Jaws is at the heart of the film, it features commentary on sharks in folklore, visual art, and film long predating the classic film, as well as contemporary depictions in the post-Jaws era, from experts ranging from filmmakers and marine biologists to actors and horror film historians, and Wendy Benchley, ocean conservationist and wife of Peter Benchley.

Sharksploitation begins by examining why so many people are drawn to shark movies and why sharksploitation films have such universal appeal that other exploitation genres don’t enjoy. Dr. Emily Zarka, professor and monster expert, defines sharksploitation as a genre that focuses on the idea of the “meta shark” – essentially, a monstrous, exaggerated idea of sharks with very little basis in actual reality. Roger Corman, producer of She Gods of Shark Reef (1958), Piranha (1978 – which, fun fact, was filmed here in Texas), and Sharktopus (2010), comments that people are drawn to shark movies because sharks are natural monsters, not fictional creations. As a land-lubber species, humans have a primal fear of being in the water and having something unseen grab hold of us. Sharks also contribute to thalassophobia – the fear of the ocean or large, deep bodies of water – to say nothing of the natural fear of being eaten alive. Mario Van Peebles, director of USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage (2016) and actor in Jaws: The Revenge (1987), sums it up: “[Sharksploitation] reminds us how frail and vulnerable we are, but ignites something in us on the adrenaline level that makes us feel alive.” This is likely a huge part of why Jaws was such a hit and continues to be exalted as a classic. While it was not the first film to feature undersea monsters (an early example is 1930’s The Sea Bat, which features a giant manta ray as the murderous marine star), it was the first to cast a shark in the villainous spotlight.

The film then explores how the image of sharks in media has evolved throughout human history. For centuries, sharks have been depicted as divine or ancestral spirits in the folklore of the Pacific Islands, the Caribbean, and Africa, sometimes offering help and protection to humans and often having the ability to shapeshift into a humanoid form. (A well-known example is the Hawaiian myth of Nanaue.) Even early films featuring sharks didn’t always portray them as evil; in Tabu: A Story of the South Seas (1931), the shark character is a god who protects the ocean (and also holds the distinction as the first rubber shark used in a film). These ancient folkloric tropes can still be seen today in films like Moana (2016) and Suicide Squad (2016). However, Dr. Zarka points out that when Western filmmakers began looking at sharks as cinematic exploration, they looked at real sharks rather than the rich body of folklore surrounding them.

Sharks began to be depicted in a more sinister light in the Enlightenment era of the eighteenth century. British artist J.M.W Truner painted them attacking African victims of the Zong massacre who were thrown or jumped from the ship (The Slave Ship, 1840), and the infamous oil painting Watson and the Shark (1778) by John Singleton Copley sensationalized the real-life story of an unfortunate cabin boy’s run-in with a shark in the waters near Havana, Cuba.

The 1916 Jersey Shore bull shark attacks lent credence to these unsettling depictions. Meanwhile, surfing was gaining popularity in Australia, inevitably leading to more human-shark interactions. World War II brought about the tragic USS Indianapolis incident. And during the filming of Shark! (1969), a stuntman who got too close to one of the real sharks in the water was killed on camera. In a tragic reversal, a shark was killed by the crew out of Blue Water, White Death (1971) out of fear and without provocation.

Peter Benchley wrote Jaws as “fiction based on fact” based on a story he heard about a fisherman who caught a 4,550 lb great white. At that time, the “rogue shark” theory – the idea that a shark who tastes human flesh will develop an appetite for it and stake its territory in waters where humans are known to participate in recreational activities – was popular among marine biologists. (The theory has since been discredited by most scientists, but it has contributed to controversial and largely ineffective shark control measures that have caused harm to shark populations around the world.) According to his wife, ocean conservationist Wendy Benchley, Peter did not subscribe to the theory, but director Stephen Spielberg DID run with it in the film adaptation.

Jaws was groundbreaking on multiple fronts. It was the first summer blockbuster, one of the first films to show trailers as TV commercials, and the first film to have promotional merchandise on a mass-market scale. Jaws was also unique in that it made the shark itself a character in the story. It not only kickstarted the modern sharksploitation genre, but it also influenced other “animal horror” films like Orca (1977) and Grizzly (1976). Unfortunately, marine biologists and conservationists knew it spelled disaster for real sharks. Fishermen and vigilantes took it upon themselves to kill sharks as a preventative measure, mistakenly believing they were making beaches and fishing grounds safer, and some species have never recovered from that era. Subsequent films like Shark’s Treasure (1975), Mako: The Jaws of Death (1976 – which, oddly enough, is about a man who discovers he is telepathic with sharks and attempts to save them), and Tintorera (1977) involved the brutal on-camera deaths of real sharks to get the desired shots.

Sharksploitation films died out a little in the 90s in favor of sci-fi flicks (including a personal favorite of mine, 1993’s Jurassic Park), but 1999’s Deep Blue Sea brought the genre back into the limelight by combining sharksploitation with actual science (at least, what was accepted science at the time). Open Water (2003), loosely based on the true story of Thomas and Eileen Lonergan, was a more realistic film that piggybacked on the found-footage style of the Blair Witch Project (1999). Dr. Zarka comments that more contemporary films like Sharktopus (2010), Sharknado (2013), Ghost Shark (2013), and The Meg (2018) show an interesting evolution of the genre: “It’s like sharks can get you anywhere – pools, sinks, buckets of water, even fire hydrants on the street.” Dr. Zarka believes these films also speak to our modern desire to reconnect with the supernatural; “The idea that scientists could somehow find an ancient creature like the megalodon hiding out there is terrifying but also thrilling.”

Unfortunately, profit sometimes often gets in the way of distinguishing sensationalized fiction from reality. Discovery Channel’s annual Shark Week, once a celebrated educational program, broke the public trust in 2013 with the mockumentary Megalodon: The Monster Shark Lives, which falsely suggested that the extinct prehistoric shark could still be roaming the world’s oceans today. In Sharksploitation, marine biologist Vicky Vasquez discusses how this misleading programming, alongside other pseudo-documentaries such as Animal Planet’s Mermaids: The Body Found (2012), has damaged marine conservation efforts by directing public attention away from real oceanic conservation efforts in favor of fantasy.

The film wraps up by acknowledging that the impact of Jaws on human-shark relations was not all negative. The original sharksploitation blockbuster inspired many young fans to pursue careers in oceanography and marine conservation. While it may have made some viewers scared to step into a bubble-filled bathtub, let alone the ocean, Jaws remains a beloved film to this day and is still considered an important piece of cinematic history. “In a way,” Dr. Zarka states near the film's end, “campy sharksploitation has made sharks less scary because of their ridiculousness. If we approach it as fun and an exaggeration and not as reality, I think we can appreciate it.”

The WOW:

– Hands down, my favorite thing about this documentary was the way it traced the history of sharks in folklore, art, and film in almost a narrative arc. I haven’t seen many shark documentaries that acknowledge the important role of sharks in non-Western cultures. As someone passionate about folklore and mythology, I appreciated that this was addressed early in the film. Showing that sharks’ relationship with humanity has not always been negative was a thought-provoking and wise way to open the documentary.

– The vintage film and documentary footage were fun to watch and a great way to visualize the evolution of sharks in cinema. I think the commentators did a good job of making thoughtful comparisons between different films and film eras.

– What I appreciated the most about this documentary was that it featured a vast array of experts weighing in on the nature of sharksploitation. It may not seem like horror film historians, marine scientists, and action film actors have much in common, but I found each speaker had something insightful to share that contributed to the cross-disciplinary conversation. I was also pleased that Peter Benchley’s wife, Wendy Benchley, was given a spot in the film to speak about her late husband’s work as a writer and his subsequent career as a marine conservationist. I had always heard that Mr. Benchley later regretted writing Jaws due to the novel and film’s negative impact on sharks, and Wendy Benchley confirmed this to be true; before her husband died in 2006, he told her, “There’s no way I could write Jaws now.” The Meh:

– I don’t have too much in the way of criticism about Sharksploitation. If I had to offer one piece of critique, I would have liked to have heard more from the horror film historians featured in the film and their thoughts on how depictions of sharks in cinema might reflect the real-life social and political anxieties of the audience (one of my favorite topics to discuss concerning the horror genre, and especially now that eco-horror – which Jaws subsequent sharksploitation films could arguably fall under – is currently having a huge moment).

Final Thoughts: