Top 10: The Undisputed Horrors of the Decade

#10. Blood and Black Lace (1964, dir. Mario Bava) ★★★★

With Blood and Black Lace, Mario Bava didn’t just craft a stylish horror film—he laid the foundation for the giallo genre and, by extension, the slasher films that would dominate decades later. The plot revolves around a masked killer targeting models at a high-end fashion house, but the real star is Bava’s camera. He bathes every murder in lush colour, surreal lighting, and baroque composition.

Beyond the violence, the film is a commentary on beauty, vanity, and objectification. It’s cold, glamorous, and entirely modern in tone. Bava strips away gothic frills and dives into something sleeker, bloodier, and more psychologically perverse. Its influence echoes in Argento, De Palma, and even Carpenter. As a blueprint for modern horror aesthetics, it’s utterly essential.

---

#9. Rosemary’s Baby (1968, dir. Roman Polanski) ★★★★½

Roman Polanski’s first Hollywood outing became a defining film of 1960s horror. Rosemary’s Baby is not just a satanic thriller—it’s a chilling portrayal of gaslighting, bodily autonomy, and the terror of maternity. Mia Farrow delivers a painfully vulnerable performance as Rosemary, who suspects her neighbours—and even her husband—of plotting to steal her unborn child.

The genius of Polanski’s direction lies in restraint. There are no jump scares, no overt monsters—just a creeping, invisible dread that builds as Rosemary’s reality collapses. Its depiction of conspiracy, control, and isolation remains just as terrifying in the modern age. Few horror films have captured such a profound sense of helplessness with such elegance.

---

#8. Persona (1966, dir. Ingmar Bergman) ★★★★½

While not a traditional horror film, Persona is one of the most disturbing explorations of identity, psychology, and emotional vampirism ever committed to screen. Bergman strips narrative to the bone, presenting a surreal, hypnotic story of a nurse and her mute patient whose identities begin to merge. Liv Ullmann and Bibi Andersson give performances of staggering depth and intensity.

The film bleeds horror through its stark visuals, experimental editing, and lingering dread. Persona is like a cinematic séance—haunting, elusive, and emotionally violent. It’s no surprise that directors like Lynch, Cronenberg, and Aronofsky count it as a key influence. It’s the horror of the self, the horror of losing who you are, and it still rattles cages today.

---

#7. The Innocents (1961, dir. Jack Clayton) ★★★★★

Adapted from Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw, this elegantly executed ghost story remains one of the finest supernatural horror films ever made. Deborah Kerr plays a governess convinced that two children are being haunted—or are possibly possessed. Clayton’s direction is measured, deliberate, and psychologically loaded, and Freddie Francis’s cinematography is nothing short of sublime.

What makes The Innocents so powerful is its ambiguity. Are the ghosts real, or is it all in her mind? Kerr’s unraveling sanity, paired with the children’s eerie innocence, casts a spell of psychological dread. Every frame is composed like a nightmare you’re not sure you’ve woken from. This is gothic horror at its most refined.

---

#6. Night of the Living Dead (1968, dir. George A. Romero) ★★★★★

George A. Romero’s indie breakthrough redefined the horror landscape. Shot on a shoestring budget, Night of the Living Dead introduced the modern zombie and a new kind of horror—raw, political, and relentlessly bleak. A group of strangers barricade themselves in a farmhouse while the dead rise outside, but it’s the human conflict inside that proves even more devastating.

Beyond the gore and terror, Romero injected biting social commentary, particularly with the casting of Duane Jones as the pragmatic, heroic lead—a revolutionary choice in 1968. The ending remains one of the most shocking and cynical conclusions in film history. Romero didn’t just invent the zombie genre—he made horror dangerous again.

---

#5. Carnival of Souls (1962, dir. Herk Harvey) ★★★★★

Made on a meager budget by industrial filmmaker Herk Harvey, Carnival of Souls is a haunting, otherworldly descent into liminality and isolation. Candace Hilligoss plays Mary, a church organist who survives a car crash but begins to experience eerie visions and finds herself drawn to a decaying carnival pavilion. There’s something deeply off about everything, and that’s precisely the point.

The film exudes a dreamlike dread, feeling closer to a waking nightmare than traditional narrative cinema. Its grainy aesthetic, ghostly figures, and quiet existential despair place it closer to Eraserhead than any of its contemporaries. Forgotten for years, it’s now recognised as a minimalist masterpiece—an early taste of psychological horror that resonates far beyond its time.

---

#4. Repulsion (1965, dir. Roman Polanski) ★★★★★

Roman Polanski’s first foray into English-language horror is a claustrophobic, harrowing portrait of mental breakdown. Catherine Deneuve plays Carol, a young woman whose aversion to men—and possibly her own sexuality—manifests in increasingly violent and surreal visions. Alone in her sister’s apartment, her mind begins to fracture, and the walls close in.

Polanski visualises psychosis with expressionistic flair: cracks in the wall pulse, hands emerge from shadows, and time slips into delirium. Repulsion is a deeply personal horror, terrifying because of how intimate it feels. It’s a study of trauma, repression, and psychological collapse, with Deneuve delivering a near-silent performance of devastating power.

---

#3. The Haunting (1963, dir. Robert Wise) ★★★★★

“The house was born bad.” So begins The Haunting, Robert Wise’s adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House. A masterclass in suggestive horror, the film avoids special effects in favour of sound design, lighting, and psychological pressure. Julie Harris is unforgettable as Eleanor, a woman unmoored by grief, fear, and the lure of something malevolent within Hill House.

Wise builds tension through whispers, groans, and creeping camera movements, allowing the audience’s imagination to conjure the worst. It’s one of the finest haunted house films ever made—graceful, terrifying, and laced with subtext about repression, desire, and madness. The Haunting proves you don’t need to show horror—you just need to suggest it perfectly.

---

#2. Psycho (1960, dir. Alfred Hitchcock) ★★★★★

What more can be said about Psycho? With one shower scene, Hitchcock changed the face of horror forever. But the true genius of the film lies in its structure: the heroine dies halfway through, the killer hides in plain sight, and nothing is what it seems. Bernard Herrmann’s score screeches like a knife through the psyche, and Anthony Perkins redefined the horror villain with his portrayal of Norman Bates.

Psycho wasn’t just shocking—it was taboo-breaking, opening the door for horror to become a place for psychological complexity and transgression. It turned horror inward, focusing not on monsters, but on the terrors of the human mind. Its cultural impact is immeasurable, and it remains as nerve-shredding today as it was in 1960.

---

#1. Peeping Tom (1960, dir. Michael Powell) ★★★★★

Reviled upon release, Peeping Tom all but ended Michael Powell’s career—but time has revealed it as one of the boldest, most prescient horror films ever made. Carl Boehm plays Mark, a shy cinematographer who murders women with a camera rigged to capture their dying expressions. Powell confronts the audience with the guilt of voyeurism, turning the lens back on us.

Unlike Psycho, Peeping Tom makes us complicit. It asks uncomfortable questions about pleasure, violence, and cinema itself. Ahead of its time in style, theme, and psychology, the film paved the way for meta-horror and slasher films alike. Today, it stands tall not just as a horror classic—but as a cinematic reckoning. Disturbing, elegant, and unflinching, it is the defining scream of the 1960s.

Final Reflection: Shadows That Still Stretch

The 1960s were a decade of dualities. Horror clung to its gothic past while clawing toward a future of psychological disquiet and societal reflection. From the creaky castles of Hammer Horror to the nihilistic farmhouse in Night of the Living Dead, from Bava’s colour-saturated dreams to the stark terror of Repulsion, the genre evolved—sometimes subtly, sometimes violently—into a mirror for modern anxieties.

What’s most striking about revisiting these 60 films is how many of them still resonate. The fears they tap into—madness, loss, alienation, the monstrous unknown—remain timeless. In an era defined by political turbulence, social upheaval, and cultural rebellion, horror responded with a spectrum of expression: macabre wit, international surrealism, philosophical dread, and blood-soaked revolution.

These aren’t just entries on a list. They’re signposts of a genre learning to stretch its limbs, daring to question not just what frightens us, but why. The artistry of Persona, the invention of Carnival of Souls, the moral terror of Peeping Tom—they’ve all left fingerprints on the films that followed.

So whether you’re a long-time horror fan or a curious newcomer, the ’60s are well worth mining. They’re haunted by ghosts, yes—but also by bold ideas, aesthetic daring, and transgressive spirit. The shadows cast by these films still stretch long and deep.

Here’s to sixty screams—and many more still echoing.

• Saul Muerte

Part 5: #20–11 – The Heavy Hitters of Horror’s New Age

#20. Jigoku (1960, dir. Nobuo Nakagawa) ★★★★

A psychedelic descent into Buddhist hell, Jigoku is unlike anything else made during the early 1960s. Nakagawa’s daring vision of the afterlife—complete with lakes of blood, boiling pits, and nightmarish retribution—remains one of cinema’s most unsettling portrayals of spiritual torment. The first half plays like a tragic morality tale, but the second erupts into avant-garde terror, with tortured souls spinning in eternal damnation.

Though initially dismissed upon release, Jigoku has gained cult status over the years, its visceral visuals and theological weight inspiring later Japanese horror auteurs. It’s more than just a horror film—it’s a surreal morality play that punishes its characters with unapologetic cruelty. Brutally beautiful and philosophically rich, it continues to unsettle audiences with its stark warning: all sins are accounted for in the end.

#19. Village of the Damned (1960, dir. Wolf Rilla) ★★★★

Quiet, chilling, and methodical, Village of the Damned is a landmark in British sci-fi horror. When the entire population of a small village blacks out for several hours, the mystery deepens as all the women wake to find themselves pregnant. The resulting children—blonde-haired, glowing-eyed telepaths—exude menace even in silence. Based on John Wyndham’s novel The Midwich Cuckoos, the film smartly balances science fiction with primal unease.

Wolf Rilla’s restraint in direction enhances the film’s creeping dread. The horror isn’t in violent spectacle, but in the cold detachment of the children and the quiet unraveling of societal norms. The concept of invasion from within—through the family unit, no less—remains a potent fear. It’s a landmark in “rational horror,” where the enemy is emotionless, inscrutable, and terrifyingly close to home.

#18. Black Sunday (1960, dir. Mario Bava) ★★★★

Mario Bava’s directorial debut is a baroque masterwork that ushered in a new era of Italian horror. With gothic castles, cursed bloodlines, and eerie iconography, Black Sunday made a horror icon out of Barbara Steele, who plays both the vengeful witch Asa and her innocent descendant. The film’s opening—featuring a spiked iron mask being hammered onto a face—is still shocking in its brutality.

More than its gothic trappings, it’s Bava’s visual flair that defines Black Sunday. His use of light and shadow, inventive camera work, and atmosphere over gore would shape the Italian horror genre for decades. A beautiful, bleak fairytale with a vicious edge, it’s as elegant as it is gruesome. Steele’s haunting presence, paired with Bava’s artistry, makes this a cornerstone of European horror.

#17. Eyes Without a Face (1960, dir. Georges Franju) ★★★★

A haunting blend of poetic melancholy and surgical horror, Franju’s Eyes Without a Face tells the story of a brilliant but deranged doctor who attempts to restore his daughter’s disfigured face by abducting women and removing theirs. What could have been pure exploitation is elevated by Franju’s sensitivity and surrealism. Edith Scob’s porcelain mask remains one of cinema’s most tragic and iconic images.

The film balances horror and humanity with elegance, exploring themes of identity, obsession, and the destructive nature of love. Its infamous face-removal scene remains disturbing even today—not for gore, but for its clinical, almost reverent tone. Eyes Without a Face is a poetic nightmare, and one of the most emotionally resonant horror films of its time.

#16. The Whip and the Body (1963, dir. Mario Bava) ★★★★

Bava returns to the countdown with this sadomasochistic gothic melodrama starring Christopher Lee as a cruel nobleman whose spirit returns to torment the castle after his death. Equal parts ghost story and psychological drama, the film plays with repression, eroticism, and punishment in ways that shocked 1960s audiences. Lee’s character is never fully seen as ghost or memory, adding to the film’s ambiguous spell.

What makes The Whip and the Body stand out is Bava’s use of colour and atmosphere—bold purples, greens, and reds dominate the shadowy castle corridors, creating an almost operatic visual language. The story may be thin, but the tone is thick with dread and desire. It’s a sensual, eerie experience where the line between love and torment becomes disturbingly blurred.

#15. The Birds (1963, dir. Alfred Hitchcock) ★★★★

Hitchcock’s avian apocalypse might lack a musical score, but it more than makes up for it in primal tension and conceptual horror. When birds begin attacking people without warning or reason, a seaside town spirals into chaos. Tippi Hedren gives a strong performance in her debut, but it’s the escalating terror and eerie sound design that leave the deepest scars.

More ambiguous than Psycho, The Birds presents nature itself as an inexplicable force of retribution. Hitchcock carefully builds dread with long silences and sudden attacks, keeping audiences on edge. The lack of resolution or motive enhances the sense of unease. It’s one of the first eco-horrors and a masterclass in psychological tension—and remains as unpredictable as the creatures it features.

#14. Witchfinder General (1968, dir. Michael Reeves) ★★★★

Grim, nihilistic, and shockingly violent for its time, Witchfinder General follows Vincent Price as the real-life Matthew Hopkins, a corrupt 17th-century witch hunter who exploits superstition for power. Price trades his usual theatricality for a chillingly restrained performance, and director Michael Reeves captures the cruelty of mob justice with unflinching realism.

This film marked a shift in horror toward historical savagery and moral ambiguity. There’s no supernatural force—just human evil, greed, and fear. The violence feels grounded and brutal, heightened by a sense of inevitability. Tragically, it was Reeves’ final film, but what a legacy to leave behind. Witchfinder General is a blistering indictment of hysteria, and one of Price’s most unsettling roles.

#13. Kwaidan (1964, dir. Masaki Kobayashi) ★★★★

A gorgeous anthology of ghost stories drawn from Japanese folklore, Kwaidan is as much an art piece as a horror film. Each of the four tales is steeped in elegant visuals, elaborate sets, and stylised storytelling. The supernatural elements are restrained but emotionally potent—spectres that echo sorrow more than screams.

Kobayashi’s deliberate pacing and painterly composition make Kwaidan a hypnotic experience. From snow spirits to haunted manuscripts, the film meditates on death, longing, and betrayal with eerie calm. A visual triumph, it brought Japanese horror into international acclaim and remains a benchmark for atmospheric storytelling.

#12. Hour of the Wolf (1968, dir. Ingmar Bergman) ★★★★

Ingmar Bergman’s only official horror film, Hour of the Wolf is a psychological descent into madness. Max von Sydow plays a troubled artist tormented by guilt, hallucinations, and the predatory elites who may or may not be figments of his crumbling mind. Shot in stark black and white, it’s a fever dream of paranoia, repression, and artistic anguish.

Bergman uses horror tropes—creeping shadows, grotesque partygoers, and violent visions—not for thrills, but as metaphors for spiritual crisis. Hour of the Wolf is suffocatingly introspective, peeling back layers of the human psyche with razor-sharp precision. It’s disturbing not because of what’s shown, but because of what lurks in the margins—an existential nightmare dressed as art cinema.

#11. Kuroneko (1968, dir. Kaneto Shindō) ★★★★

Ghostly and poetic, Kuroneko tells of two women killed by samurai, who return as cat spirits to seduce and destroy men. Set in a moonlit world of rice fields and ruined mansions, it’s an elegiac tale of vengeance and longing, steeped in noh theatre and Japanese mythology.

Shindō crafts a haunting atmosphere, where every whisper of wind or shadow on a screen feels deliberate. The film explores the cost of violence and the fragility of love in the face of betrayal. Both tender and terrifying, Kuroneko is a beautiful ghost story that transcends the genre—haunting in every sense.

The Top 10 Sixty Screams of the ’60s

• Saul Muerte

Stylised Madness and Monstrous Worlds

As we claw our way through the middle of the countdown, the films take on bolder styles and more abstract fears. Japanese erotica, Italian gialli, sci-fi nightmares, and gothic grandeur all make their presence known here, proving that the 1960s were just as experimental as they were eerie.

#40. Blind Beast (1969, dir. Yasuzo Masumura) ★★★½

A dark and disturbing study of obsession, art, and sensory overload. A blind sculptor kidnaps a model to create the ultimate work of tactile art in a room covered in human body parts. Erotic, surreal, and deeply unsettling—Masumura’s vision is uncompromising.

#39. Brides of Dracula (1960, dir. Terence Fisher) ★★★½

Despite the absence of Dracula himself, this Hammer gem remains a standout. Peter Cushing returns as Van Helsing, battling a suave, aristocratic vampire in a film loaded with atmosphere, stylised lighting, and gothic bravado. A masterclass in mood.

#38. The Curse of the Werewolf (1961, dir. Terence Fisher) ★★★½

Hammer’s only werewolf outing features a tragic Oliver Reed in a role bursting with animalistic energy. Beautiful production design and a uniquely Spanish setting give it flavour, even if the pacing isn’t as tight as Hammer’s best.

#37. Planet of the Vampires (1965, dir. Mario Bava) ★★★½

Sci-fi and horror converge in this visually stunning Italian thriller. Before Alien, Bava gave us cosmic terror, fog-drenched atmospheres, and mind-controlled astronauts. A template for space-bound horror, dripping in mood and style.

#36. The Flesh and the Fiends (1960, dir. John Gilling) ★★★½

Based on the real-life Burke and Hare murders, this British film stars Peter Cushing as Dr. Knox. With a gritty realism and moral ambiguity, it’s an early stab at true crime horror. More grounded than gory, but disturbing all the same.

#35. At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul (1963, dir. José Mojica Marins) ★★★½

The debut of Coffin Joe, Brazil’s top-hatted, nihilistic horror icon. A mix of pulp philosophy, sadism, and folk terror, it shocked audiences and forged a new path for South American horror. A gritty, nasty little slice of cult legend.

#34. Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors (1965, dir. Freddie Francis) ★★★½

The granddaddy of British horror anthologies. Peter Cushing’s tarot reader dooms five strangers aboard a train in classic portmanteau fashion. It set the blueprint for Amicus’s horror output to come. Charming, spooky, and full of cobwebbed delights.

#33. Onibaba (1964, dir. Kaneto Shindō) ★★★½

A hypnotic mix of war, eroticism, and ghostly fear set in feudal Japan. Two women lure and kill soldiers in a ravaged swamp—until one dons a demon mask with tragic consequences. Stark, sensual, and utterly haunting.

#32. The Diabolical Dr. Z (1966, dir. Jess Franco) ★★★½

A strange, stylish revenge tale blending sci-fi, hypnosis, and pulp tropes. A female scientist uses a mind-controlled dancer to avenge her father’s death. With its cabaret horror tone, it’s one of Franco’s more coherent and visually rich outings.

#31. Black Sabbath (1963, dir. Mario Bava) ★★★½

Bava delivers three gothic tales of terror, with Boris Karloff hosting and starring. From cursed rings to vengeful spirits and vampiric folklore, this Italian anthology mixes moody lighting, eerie pacing, and operatic horror. Essential viewing.

---

Part 4: #30–21 – Madness, Demons, and Psychological Dread coming soon!

Part 1: #60–51 – The Cult, the Camp, and the Curious

We begin our descent into the blood-soaked heart of 1960s horror with the first ten entries in our countdown. These films may sit at the lower end of the list, but they offer vital glimpses into a decade where the genre was in transition, colliding with pulp, camp, and gothic revivalism. From transatlantic Poe adaptations to Euro oddities and genre hybrids, there’s plenty of strange flavour to taste.

---

#60. The Comedy of Terrors (1963, dir. Jacques Tourneur) ★★★

An all-star cast including Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, and Boris Karloff hams it up in this macabre farce about a failing undertaker who resorts to murder to boost business. While the comedy is a mixed bag, there’s a ghoulish charm and high production value that keeps it watchable. A fitting farewell for Tourneur’s horror career, though more chuckle than chill.

#59. Captain Clegg (1962, dir. Peter Graham Scott) ★★★

Hammer Horror goes high-seas with this smugglers-and-skeletons yarn starring Peter Cushing. It’s not pure horror in the traditional sense, but its ghostly marsh phantoms and gothic aesthetics earn it a place here. A rousing period piece with a horror-adjacent vibe.

#58. The Mask (1961, dir. Julian Roffman) ★★★

Canada’s first 3D horror film makes its mark with surreal sequences that still hold a hypnotic power. A psychiatrist receives a mysterious mask that unleashes violent hallucinations. Outside the trippy dreamscapes, it drags, but the psychedelic ambition can’t be denied.

#57. The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll (1960, dir. Terence Fisher) ★★★

Hammer flips the Hyde trope with a dashing, seductive monster and a tortured, bearded Jekyll. It’s a visually lush and bold take, though some melodramatic moments feel dated. Paul Massie’s dual performance divides audiences, but Christopher Lee provides solid menace in support.

#56. The Premature Burial (1962, dir. Roger Corman) ★★★

Ray Milland fills in for Price in this Poe adaptation about a man obsessed with being buried alive. Corman brings gothic flair, but this entry lacks the spark of the other AIP-Poe films. Still, Milland sells the existential dread with grim conviction.

#55. The Ghost (1963, dir. Riccardo Freda) ★★★

Barbara Steele commands the screen in this moody Italian chiller. A spiritual sequel to “The Horrible Dr. Hichcock,” it brings a fog-laced atmosphere, betrayal, and revenant revenge. Not as sharp as Bava or Margheriti, but full of grim style.

#54. The Tell-Tale Heart (1960, dir. Ernest Morris) ★★★

This British adaptation strips Poe’s tale down to its paranoid bones. Laurence Payne plays the guilt-ridden lodger unraveling under pressure. Shot with restraint and earnest intent, it lacks punch but offers a solid psychological slow burn.

#53. The Awful Dr. Orloff (1962, dir. Jess Franco) ★★★

Jess Franco makes his mark with this eerie, low-budget homage to “Eyes Without a Face.” Mad science, silent killers, and nightclub sleaze merge into a dreamlike noir-horror hybrid. The first of many Orloffs, this one remains unsettlingly poetic.

#52. The Cabinet of Caligari (1962, dir. Roger Kay) ★★★

A loose reinterpretation of the silent classic, this psychological thriller leans into twisty mind games and Freudian horror. Though not as expressionistic as its namesake, it taps into themes of control and identity with an eerie undercurrent.

#51. House of Usher (1960, dir. Roger Corman) ★★★

The first and arguably most iconic of Corman’s Poe cycle, with Vincent Price haunting the screen as Roderick Usher. Lavish sets, vivid colours, and doom-laden dialogue make for a melodramatic treat. A blueprint for American Gothic horror of the decade.

---

Stay tuned for Part 2 (#50–41) as we dive deeper into the dread-soaked shadows of the 1960s—from haunted villages to feline phantoms and the rise of psychological fear in international cinema.

Some films make you question how they ever got made. Attack of the Beast Creatures is one of those films — a gloriously inept, low-budget oddity that barely scrapes together a plot but delivers just enough unintentional hilarity to justify its cult following. Lost for years in VHS obscurity, it’s the kind of movie you stumble across late at night and convince yourself was a fever dream.

After a shipwreck leaves a group of survivors stranded on a remote island, they soon discover the land is crawling with tiny, screeching, flesh-eating puppet creatures. That’s pretty much the entire plot. These rubbery monsters — who look like dollar-store tiki dolls with bad attitudes — hurl themselves at their victims in slow-motion attacks that manage to be both hysterical and strangely charming. It’s amateur hour on all fronts: shaky camera work, soap opera-level acting, and a score that sounds like someone noodling on a Casio keyboard during a power outage.

And yet, for all its incompetence, Attack of the Beast Creatures has an earnestness that’s hard to hate. There’s no irony or winking at the camera — the filmmakers genuinely thought they were making a terrifying survival horror movie. That misplaced sincerity is part of what makes it so watchable, especially for fans of bad movie nights and VHS-era junk treasures.

The Prognosis:

It’s a slog in places, with padded scenes and cardboard characters, but the sheer absurdity of being hunted by screeching, knee-high monsters keeps things oddly entertaining. It’s terrible — make no mistake — but it’s also a prime example of ’80s regional horror going for broke with no money and too much imagination. You may not survive the terror, but you’ll definitely survive with a smirk.

• Saul Muerte

Cinema is a visual medium, sure—but Jaws proved that terror thrives in what you don’t see. The great irony of Spielberg’s breakout film is that it gave birth to the modern blockbuster by being almost entirely allergic to spectacle. For a movie that turned sharks into movie monsters and summer into a war zone, Jaws is visually… spare. Patient. Still.

And that’s precisely what makes it terrifying.

Forget what came later—digital sharks flailing across green screens, soaked in overlit gore and blaring musical stings. Spielberg’s Jaws stalks its prey like a documentary. The frame is wide. The pacing slow. We spend an absurd amount of time staring at empty ocean. Just water. Ripples. Rafts. Buoys. Maybe a distant swimmer. The camera drifts. And somehow, it’s unbearable.

Because what Spielberg did—and what modern horror so often forgets—is build suspense, not surprise. He knew the shark was broken, but he also knew the audience’s imagination wasn’t. So he made the sea itself the villain. The wide, blue unknown. A glassy abyss where anything could be lurking just beneath the surface—and usually is.

There’s that shot—that shot—where Brody sits on the beach, scanning the waves while tourists bob lazily through the frame. Spielberg shoots it in long lens, compressing the distance, flattening space. The people blur together. You can’t tell who’s safe. You know something’s coming, but you can’t see it. And then—boom—the scream. The thrashing. The blood. And the audience bolts upright in their seats, gasping like they were pulled under too.

This is the cinema of anticipation. It’s Hitchcock in a Hawaiian shirt, De Palma with a boat license. Spielberg understands that horror lives in the waiting. He lets dread accumulate like algae on the hull. You think about the sound. You think about the space. He gives you inches of shark, seconds of score, and it’s enough to poison your popcorn. It’s why you squirm during the pier scene—not because the monster is attacking, but because the camera just sits there, watching that broken plank slowly drift back to shore. One empty plank. One tension-sodden beat. The implications are more frightening than any splashy attack.

This technique didn’t just shape Jaws—it redefined modern horror language. You can trace its ripple effect through Alien, The Thing, The Descent, Hereditary, The Witch. All films that understand that showing less isn’t about budget—it’s about control. It’s about holding your audience in a vice grip of expectation and then delaying the release.

And yet, like all the best tricks, it’s one modern blockbusters keep forgetting. We now live in the era of sensory overload—monster movies that throw everything at you, all the time, like they’re afraid you’ll check your phone if they hold a shot longer than two seconds. But Jaws held the shot. It made you lean forward. It understood that fear isn’t a jump—it’s a crawl. A slow tide rising.

Fifty years later, it still works. Not because the shark looks real (it doesn’t). Not because the blood is convincing (it’s not). But because Spielberg knew how to manipulate empty space into anxiety. He turned the ocean into a haunted house. And once you’ve been inside, you don’t forget it.

• Saul Muerte

The shark exploded. Literally. A scuba tank to the gut and a chunk of ocean sky lit up like the Fourth of July. Boom. Done. Fade to black. But of course, it wasn’t done.

Because Jaws didn’t just launch a blockbuster—it launched a beast. Not the kind with fins and teeth, but the kind that lives in boardrooms. The kind that smells profit in blood and doesn’t care who bleeds next.

Spielberg walked away. Smart move. He knew he’d pushed his luck once and nearly drowned doing it. But the studio? They smelled money—hot, salty, mid-’70s Americana money. Jaws made $100 million faster than any film before it. And when a monster does that, you don’t bury it. You build a theme park around it. You crank out sequels. You slap its name on lunchboxes, novelisations, jigsaw puzzles, Atari cartridges, and eventually, straight-to-cable sludge.

And so the shark came back. Again and again. Jaws 2 (not terrible, just toothless), Jaws 3-D (aka the fish tank screensaver from hell), and finally Jaws: The Revenge—a film so apocalyptically stupid it made Plan 9 from Outer Space look like Citizen Kane. This was where things got unhinged. The shark follows the Brody family from Amity to the Bahamas. It growls. It explodes in slow motion. It holds grudges. Somewhere, Moby Dick is rolling his eyes.

But here’s the rub: Jaws didn’t just franchise itself—it birthed the very concept of franchise-as-strategy. Before this, sequels were an afterthought, a maybe, a footnote. After Jaws, they became the plan. The future. The business model.

Studios started greenlighting entire trilogies before cameras rolled on the first frame. Intellectual property (IP) became the new oil, mined from the bones of old ideas. If it had a logo, it had legs. Star Wars, Rocky, Halloween, Alien—all in the wake of that fin cutting through the water. And that legacy only grew more grotesque in the 2000s. Prequels, reboots, cinematic universes. Every monster has a cousin. Every killer has an origin story. Every shark gets a spinoff.

You can see the DNA of Jaws in Jurassic Park, Pirates of the Caribbean, even Marvel. Big beast. Bigger box office. Bigger merchandising rollout. Spielberg didn’t just direct Jaws—he accidentally wrote the modern studio playbook, and then tried to outrun it.

And yet… through all the corporate feeding frenzy, the original remains untouched. Untarnished. Somehow, despite the cash-ins and copycats, Jaws still feels singular. A freak accident. A masterpiece birthed from chaos, not commerce. And maybe that’s why the shark never really died—because we keep coming back, not for the sequels or the plastic toys, but for the feeling. The quiet before the scream. The thrum of danger just beneath the surface. The electricity of a movie that didn’t know what it was until it was finished—and then couldn’t be replicated.

Franchise culture may have chummed the waters, but Jaws still swims alone.

• Saul Muerte