How To Create Suspense In Steven Spielberg's Jaws

Steven Spielberg’s Jaws (1975) is an effective adaption of Peter Benchley’s 1974 by making a few changes to the story, it enhances the fear factor. The novel establishes this by not only using nature but also the characters. A shark eats people and turns out to be much smarter than any normal sea creature. The fear between characters, it shows how people jump at any opportunity they get. This shows the true nature of some humans and how their anxiety can drive them to do the most terrible things. A key moment of fear between characters is when Brody suspects that his wife has cheated on him. Brody, Hooper, and Quint are out at sea looking for the shark. “Brody was on his feet moving at Hooper before he consciously knew he had left his chair. ‘You shut your mouth!’ he said. Reflexively, he dropped his right hand to his hip. He stopped short when he felt no holster at his side, scared by the sudden realization that if he had a pistol he might

Right after that, a scene of two men out on a dock trying to catch the shark. The leitmotif starts to play as the shark takes their bait pulling so hard that the dock breaks, and one of the men, Charlie (Robert Chambers), falls into the water. Just as he starts to swim back, the shark begins to follow him: “Charlie, take my word for it, don’t look back! Swim, Charlie!” (1975). This scene plays into the fear factor so well by first showing the viewer pictures of gruesome shark attacks then quickly switching over to a possible shark attack. Those pictures are still in the viewers’ mind while the whole scene plays out in the cover of darkness; no one can see exactly what the shark is doing as it follows Charlie while the suspenseful leitmotif plays in the background and the other man screams for Charlie to get out. The viewer’s fear factor is most likely heightened waiting to find out if the shark actually eats