1. Tom Millett
Jaws Opening Analysis
The scene opens with a couple, the man is unnamed but the girl known as Chrissie is seen racing to
the beach with her boyfriend because she wants to go for a swim in the ocean. This is a rather light
hearted scene to begin a Horror film. This fits with the model that Horror films have to draw the
viewers in with a positive atmosphere which makes the Horror elements all the more worse when
they start to occur to the characters within the narrative. It is worth noting that there are no
opening credits, no studio logos or text used within this opening sequence, it goes straight into the
film which gives a nice sense of immersion and it also does not feel like the film is being deliberately
elongated like the opening sequence in Night of the Living Dead where it was just a car driving with
credits in the foreground.
The section involving the two characters racing each other towards the beach lasts just under a
minute in total. The pair get separated as the male is having trouble taking his clothes off as he is too
tired while Chrissie is seen swimming in the ocean. Various shots of the scope of how large the
ocean Chrissie is swimming emphasises how isolated and disconnected from other people she is.
This however does not seem to bother her at all which is a change from most females in Horror films
who seem scared when they are alone.
It is completely obvious in the next couple of shots that the time in the opening scene is sunset
which explains the darkness of the footage. Beaches are usually empty during sunset and at night so
there is a good chance that there are no Coastguards within the area to try and save citizens if any
danger arises within the ocean. This actually puts Chrissie at a considerable risk as there is nobody to
2. Tom Millett
save her from drowning within the ocean if it ever comes to that.
After this point the score for the film starts to kick in. It is a tense, almost science-fiction type of
score but it contemplates the shots that are in place when it kicks in. The camera shows an almost
reverse bird’s eye view of Chrissie swimming from under the water. Their way the shot tracks that
this is possibly a point of view shot as the camera seems to follow Chrissie. This is later confirmed by
the camera zooming in on Chrissie which in itself is a common technique of the Horror movie genre.
Showing a POV shot of the antagonist actually increases panic within the audience as they fear that
something terrible is about to happen to Chrissie within the ocean.
3. Tom Millett
What will follow next are some frantic shots of Chrissie lashing and kicking, trying to get away from
what has just attacked her. It is left ambiguous as to what the thing that attacked her looks like,
which makes it all the more terrifying. The water splashing everywhere as Chrissie can physically see
pulled underwater gives a scope of how dangerous the antagonist is within this Horror film is to
humans.
