Hello everyone. Today I will be writing about the movie Jaws. It was released in theaters on June 20, 1975. When the movie was released, existence changed for most people for the rest of their lives. It was a cultural phenomenon and is still talked about to this day. Who would have thought that this film would scare the living daylights to some people? It caused them to refuse to go swimming in the ocean at the beach or in a swimming pool. This movie certainly impacted me for the rest of my life.

It started one day when my brothers wanted to see the film. They were younger at the time and asked my mother if she can take them. I went along too, and I was eleven years old at the time. There was a kid in our neighborhood who was there at the time and asked us if he can come along. My mother said yes. We got into our car and drove to the theater which was at The Ford City Cinema at Ford City Shopping Center in Chicago.

We arrived at the theater and waited for the film to begin. The first scene is regarded as an enduring classic. We see a young woman skinny-dipping in the ocean and then all of a sudden, something grabbed here. The woman was horrified as she was escaping from it, but the creature apprehended her and she went underwater. That creature was a great white shark. That scene terrified me the most. I shut my eyes and waited eagerly for the next scenes that didn’t include the beach or the ocean. I didn’t watch the scenes where the three men were on the boat and trying to slay the shark.

When the movie was over, we walked out of the theater and the audience enjoyed the movie. Everyone who was with me, loved the movie, except me. I was extremely frightened. The instrumental music in the movie was terrifying as well. I knew many people went to see the film multiple times, but not me. I have not seen the movie in its entirety to this day. I have avoided watching horror movies, especially slasher ones. My favorites are the classic ones from Universal Pictures, like, Dracula, Frankenstein, The Wolf-Man, and The Invisible Man. I used to watch those on Creature Features on WGN-TV Channel 9 in Chicago when I was a kid in the 1970s. That story will be written at a later date.

When Jaws 2 was released in the summer of 1978, I adamantly refused to go see it. I was asked by my family and friends repeatedly, and I said no. I just couldn’t. The first movie scarred me very much. When Saturday Night Live on was on the air in the 1970s, it had a classic sketch called Land Shark. When I watched it, it was terribly funny. I knew that wasn’t a real shark, and yet, I still felt uncomfortable. The world Candygram that was prominently mentioned in the sketches was always amusing.

Today, I’m not a fan of the beach or the ocean. I can’t even swim a stroke or traveling on a cruise. All because of that movie, Jaws. Notwithstanding when I look at a swimming pool, I get a little nervous. It is similar when the 1960 movie Psycho was released; some people were afraid to take showers, because of that classic scene with Janet Leigh getting murdered by Anthony Perkins. I have no intention of watching Jaws again. It is an excellent movie and it undoubtedly had classic scenes and lines. To an eleven-year-old, watching the motion picture was terrifying, but as an adult, it nevertheless sends chills down my spine. Now, I am overly cautious about selecting which movie I want to see, I will stick to black and white films. They are very comforting. One last word of advice, don’t go into the water. Thank you. Pete Kastanes-Admin for Vanished Chicagoland Facebook Page.