If I were smarter, I would have themed this week as Shark Week in its lead-up to The Meg's release on Friday. But I'm new to this and so what you're getting, instead, is four days of Shark Stuff. I began by watching (and being tormented by) The Last Shark. Yesterday, I posted My Top Five Favorite Shark Movies that Aren't Jaws. Tomorrow, I'll post my review of The Meg. But, today, I take a look at Jaws 2.

I'd always thought Jaws 2 was a surprisingly good sequel. No, it will never compete with the original classic. How could it? When your predecessor single-handedly created the summer blockbuster, you don't have anywhere to go but down. And yet. And yet. Jaws 2 flipped the script. Whereas the first movie was an action-adventure flick with tinges of horror, Jaws 2 became a completely different subgenre.

It became a slasher.

I always thought I was alone in this assessment. Over time I heard a few others mention it, but it wasn't until Andrew Dries mentioned it both in podcast form and on twitter that I realized maybe I was onto something. Maybe I should investigate the movie more carefully and see if it truly was a slasher, based on the rules of the subgenre.

The Cast

In Jaws, the main characters were an old grizzled fisherman, a police chief and a marine biologist. None of them are very young and even the youngest, Hooper, is probably in his thirties. They're adults and relatively sexless. Contrast this with the cast of Jaws 2. While Ellen Brody is still relevant and Chief Brody is ostensibly the main character, the focus shifts primarily to a familiar trope: Teens in danger.

The cast also represents characters that will soon become slasher tropes:

You have the cutie patootie Mike Brody, who has that popular 70s haircut to make me swoon.

The Miss Amity Tina who's blonde and immediately sexualized.

A couple nerds who are looking to score above their movie-imposed social station.

A slightly overweight (for film standards) dude named Andy, who makes quips and, if this weren't a PG movie, would have smoked marijuana.

The Adults are Useless + The Kooky Old Man

Another slasher motif is that the teens are on their own…because the adults are typically useless. Jaws 2 mostly fits this theme. Here, we have The Mayor who (again!) doesn't shut down the beaches. The adults who come to rescue the stranded teens end up eaten. And don’t get me started on the police. With the passable exception of Chief Brody, the cops fail to do anything helpful except Mike Brody to safety at one point. Even Chief Brody’s role is minimized through most of the movie.

Which leads to the next point.

Chief Brody kind of becomes the kooky old man, warning the teenagers away in a lot of slasher movies (and ruthlessly satirized in Cabin in the Woods). Literally no one in Jaws 2 believes him. At his lowest point, he screams for everyone to get out of the water and runs down the beach like a madman, before emptying his pistol into what ends up being a school of bluefish. It’s a downward spiral moment for him as his town turns on him, looking at him with fear, confusion and, worse, pity.

Here's a man who's lost it, because of his previous battle with an enormous shark. He’s summarily fired and he slowly turns into that Kooky Old Man; the harbinger, yelling at anyone who will listen. And like Friday the 13th’s Crazy Ralph, he gets drunk and his warnings are completely ignored.

The Teenager's Crime

Then there’s the Teenager’s Crime. Everyone knows that if you break the rules in a slasher, you’re going to end up gutted (…or eaten). Because Jaws 2 is PG, the teenaged antics are relatively minor compared to something like Friday the 13th, but they all follow the similar tropey pattern.

Here, we have Mike Brody ignoring his police officer father and heading out to sea with his friends, instead of working at the job that, again, his father got him. Miss Amity herself goes out with her boo and, like the sexually aroused teens they are, linger away from the rest of the crew so they can drink and, presumably, have premarital sex. So, of course, they have to answer to a crazed shark.

Let's not forget Tina's ship is literally named Tina's Joy; euphemism, much?

Tina’s Joy, indeed. — *Tina’s Joy*, indeed.

The Mask

Think of your favorite slashers and you’re probably conjuring up a scarred face or a menacing mask. Whether it’s Halloween’s Michael Myers or the later Friday the 13th’s hockey-mask-wearing Jason or even Freddy Krueger’s horribly burned faces, they all have one thing in common. They’re villains with memorable faces and/or masks.

In a lot of movies, the killer will wear a mask, not just to hide their identity but to menace and terrify. So, it's only fitting that in Jaws 2, the shark is viciously scarred in a fiery explosion, leaving it with a gnarly burn and scar.

This does two things: it immediately identifies this shark as a more badass version of the original shark and gives it a terrifying visage. But it also indicates that this shark may be unstoppable.

Worse, it might be supernatural.

The Implacable and Potentially Supernatural Killer

Slashers tend to blur fantasy and reality, even when they sometimes are grounded in reality. Freddy, Jason and Michael Myers all seem invincible. Bullets don't stop them. They can be hacked apart, burned (see above), shot...you name it, and they'll keep coming. They are single-minded beings bent on killing and nothing can stop them. They also can appear without warning and the rules of time don't apply.

So it’s only fitting that Jaws 2 opens with two divers taking a picture of the remains of Quint’s ship, the Orca. In this cold open, the shark slams into frame, kills them and then disappears, leaving only their camera as evidence.

This isn’t the shark from Jaws who took its time killing and devouring Chrissie. This one is quick and methodical. It’s the Jason to Jaws’ Miss Voorhees.

This continues through the film, with the shark showing up where it's least expected or coming from a direction that its victims aren't expecting. Additionally, incredible and supernatural feats of strength are often exhibited, typically in spectacular fashion. This gif below illustrates both of these themes:

If the shark in Jaws can take on a boat, this scarred shark can instantly appear, take on a helicopter, demolish it and kill the human inside.

Take that, Jason.

Revenge is Often the Motive

Mrs. Voorhees wants revenge on the Camp Counselors for not saving her son. Freddy Krueger comes back to kill the kids of the parents who burned him to a crisp. Billy Loomis wants revenge for his family being torn apart. And the scarred shark in Jaws 2 wants revenge for the shark’s death in Jaws.

What? Don't believe me?

You might think this one a stretch because it won’t be until Jaws: The Revenge that the franchise goes quite literal and unsubtle, but hear me out. Early in the film, after an Orca carcass washes up on shore with huge bite marks everywhere, Chief Brody immediately knows what happened. A low-rent Hooper replacement marine biologist is luckily there for Brody to bounce a couple ideas off of. And their conversation is intriguing:

Brody: I know that dolphins communicate. I mean, they send signals. You don't think that if a shark was destroyed, that another shark could, could come and--

Dr. Elkins: Sharks don't take things personally, Mr. Brody.

But what if they do, in Cinema Land?

It certainly seems like a trend, even taking out the lunacy of Jaws: The Revenge. All four movies feature members of the Brody family being stalked by a killer shark. Clearly, whether they want to admit it or not, revenge is on the minds of these killing machines.

The End...?

Of course, there's plenty more minute details. Little things I've missed or forgot to include, but really I think the above proves that Jaws 2 should be a slasher. It’s not the first American slasher film. Nor is it the best of the 70s (*ahem* Black Christmas).

I’ll leave you with this final thought. Released in the summer of 1978, Jaws 2 clearly established the tropes that would lead us into the slasher craze of the 80s. June 16th. Four months before John Carpenter’s Halloween.

So, really, which movie was the true slasher pioneer?