Shark Week, the annual weeklong block of shark-based television hosted by the Discovery Channel since 1988, is upon us once again. What at first began as a novelty marketing tactic designed to lure viewers in to watch television during the summer months morphed into a full-on cultural phenomenon in 2006 with Tracy Morgan’s iconic “Live every week like it’s Shark Week” line on 30 Rock, spawning a frenzy of imitators and a plethora of outlandish movies alike that channel the exploitative terror of fanged underwater predators first conjured and perfected by Steven Spielberg’s Jaws and transforming it into guilty-pleasure horror fodder for the whole family.
There’s as many underwater horror films as there are schools of fish in the ocean, and finding just the right one to sink your teeth into can be a difficult choice. In recognition of the 35th annual Shark Week, we’ve plumbed the depths in search of our favorite shark and shark-adjacent horror movies to stream and rent.
From classics like Spielberg’s aforementioned thriller and modern classics like The Meg and Jaume Collet-Serra’s The Shallows to the eldritch horror of William Eubank’s Underwater starring Kristen Stewart and Humanoids From the Deep, here are the 12 best underwater horror movies to stream this Shark Week.
The original movie blockbuster remains one of Steven Spielberg’s best, and is just as much a thrilling creature feature as it is an unnerving study of the ways in which leaders will abandon the people they serve in the pursuit of capital. With how our world currently responds to mass crises, it’s as relevant as ever. —Pete Volk
Jawsis available to stream on Tubi.
After years of making action thrillers with Liam Neeson, Spanish American director Jaume
Amazon
Waters
Williams
Apple
fishing
aquatics
Horror Movies
13
Steven Spielberg
Kristen Stewart
Liam Neeson