I’m not sure when it started, or where, or even why. I simply know that as a child, the sound of the “Jaws” theme song would send me scurrying onto tables and chairs in convoluted attempts to seek higher ground. At the time, I knew it was impossible to summon carpet sharks with the mere soundtrack of a movie, but something about the steady crescendo of frantic stringed instruments caused me to yank my feet from the floor in such a powerful flight response that I still sometimes catch myself doing it to this day.
I won’t refute the power of “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” “The Ring,” “The Descent,” and many others to have caused me to cower on my couch, but there’s one fatal flaw in their fear factor: There’s no such thing as monsters.
I can’t say the same when I’m at the beach. There’s no such thing as sharks? Please, I’ve been to the Seattle Aquarium.
That’s the power of movie monsters that operate in the realm of the unlikely, rather than the impossible: You can never completely write them off as fiction. Sure, the majority of the film is still inaccurate. No, sharks do not go on murderous rampages, nor do they hold vendettas against specific families, as implied by “Jaws 3.” For that matter, I am also not claiming that I’m in any realistic danger from sharks when I go to the beach. I am probably far more likely to drown from a foot cramp than I am to even encounter a shark, seeing as most species are tragically dwindling in the face of extinction. However, no one can deny that shark attacks, while rare, do injure roughly 19 Americans per year, with a fatal attack occurring once every two years on average.
Nineteen out of 322 million isn’t a risky chance to take, especially when considering that the majority of attacks in America occur in Florida, but that’s hard to remember when you’re peacefully adrift in your inner tube and a fish brushes against your foot.
“Jaws” didn’t just scare the crap out of movie-goers 40 years ago, it changed the way society felt about sharks. After the movie premiered, sharks became the newest trophy for big-game fisherman, and the public interest in sharks increased dramatically. People were so enthralled and terrified after the credits rolled, funding toward marine biologists who studied sharks substantially increased, as there was little scientific knowledge available about these sharp-toothed swimmers when the movie first premiered.
I’m not saying make-believe monsters aren’t scary, but there wasn’t a whole lot of funding sent toward discovering spooky little girls trapped in wells after “The Ring” came out.
Whether it’s sharks, serial killers, or major disasters, it’s the stories that hold just an ounce of truth that are the most frightening.
So this Halloween, if you really want to give yourself a scare, watch a film with a large enough dose of reality that you’ll have to rely on statistics to keep you safe.
Reach writer Emma Bueren at arts@dailyuw.com. Twitter: @EmBueren
