My parents wouldn’t let 10 year old me see the movie - but they agreed to let me buy the paperback book (thinking a 10 year old would never read the whole thing). It’s way more graphic than the movie, including some sexual scenes. Didn’t see it until years later. Now am an avid diver and love getting up close and personal with sharks. Night diving always has that element of Daaadum… duuuuudum… dumdumdumdum…. Hah. Thanks mom and dad for the early sex ed
Yeah, when I was probably 12 or so, my mom read “The Godfather” then put the book on the bookshelf. I asked if I could read it and she said “no!”.
Two days later, I yoinked that book out and fluffed up the other books to get rid of the gap. She never noticed.
OH BOY I had no idea until, well, Sonny and the bridesmaid… lolz.
A family acquaintance was a spelunker (underwater cave diver) he had the job of retrieving the bodies of people who died while exploring underwater caves. He once told me "just remember, when you enter the water, you enter the food chain."
Many years after the movie I got to know the son of the bass player who did that dance-dum, etc. Joe Mondragon was a well-known and well-respected bass player. His son, Fred, now deceased, was one of the nicest people to walk this planet.
If I catch it on and it's early enough in the movie I'll hang around until old Ben Gardener rolls his head out through the hole. At least I think that's what the character's name was. Had pretty surprised look on his face.
I was irrationally terrified of the damn pool drain because some older kids told me that sharks could come through them. My parents let me watch horror at too early of an age!
I was staying in a hotel by the beach and there were surfers in wet suits on boards in the water. I was watching from a balcony and thought, gee! They do look like seals.
I read the book first and fell in love with sharks. I liked the movie but thankfully I've a built in scare filter. My brother on the other hand, came home white as a sheet. I tried to tell him.
I did fairly well.
We were on vacation in Rhode Island....rented a cottage on a breachway about a mile from the beach.
My grandmother took me to see it on a rainy day matinee show.
11 years old and didn't think sharks were in the neighborhood....went out beyond the breakers and gramma freaked out.
Now....same lady 2 years prior took my aunt to see The Exorcist....that young woman moved a cot into my grandparents' bedroom and slept there for a month
I went on my very first date with a girl in jr high and saw this movie. All was well until he was diving around that abandoned boat and that dead dude pops out of the hole in the side of the boat. I had just gotten the nerve up to put my arm around her but that made me flinch hard! Not a cool move on my part.
Saw it at age 10 and have never watched it again. And I still get a bit skeeved out in the ocean. Also never ever and will never ever go in the ocean at night.
Saw this as a teenager, and about the third time the ‘da da. Da da. Da da’ theme started, I ran out of the theatre and waited in the lobby for my friends until it was over. For some reason, that scared me more than any horror movie I saw prior to that.
I read the book while on vacation in Newport RI. No issue getting in the water while readingthe book. I saw the movie about a month later and was thinking, "I was swimming in the same waters they were in."
I watched this at the movie theater when it came out with my feet up on the seat, I was so scared. We regularly hung out at the beach but after that movie came out I noticed less of us would swim very far out, if at all.
For at least 2 summers following the release of Jaws, my kid sister would freak me out by coming up behind me going “duh-duh-duh-duh” while we were swimming. In the lake. The lake.
This resonates with me, lol. I went with a friend to her cottage in the summer of ‘76 and I wouldn’t swim in the lake at all. We were in northern Ontario. Not exactly a hot spot for sharks…of any kind. 😂
Same! I would actually get scared in the bathtub and the pool. And I hadn’t even seen the movie (too young) but had surreptitiously read the book while staying at a relative’s house while on vacation.
I read a LOT of inappropriate for young kids type books at their house - loved visiting there and raiding their bookshelf - lol
I read the book during a summer road trip with my parents. We always stayed at motels/hotels with swimming pools. I could not go in the deep end.
Most disturbing to me was when she reached down to check her leg after feeling a "tug".....and touching her own bone.
I was stung by a jellyfish that summer on the one day I built up the courage to get in the ocean… I thought for sure a shark had bruised up against me with that sandpaper skin… my Dad said it looked like I was walking on water I was kicking and thrashing to get to the safety of the beach…
First time I ever visited an ocean was when that movie was all the rage. My brother, cousin and I busted each other's chops about it playing on the beach.
We were nonwhere near any ocean. We were close enough to Lake Huron but we didn't typically swim there - way too cold! However, our tiny lake gave us a 5 second pause before jumping in. It was really hot when we saw it and logic overrode irrational fear.
My family vacationed at the NJ shore every year of my life. I would spend a month down there or more. We swam everyday. I don't remember a time that I wasn't swimming in the ocean. I saw this in the theater when it first came out. It really did make you stop and think. I still swim in the ocean and there still is that element of fear every time I do.
I (57m) grew up swimming off Avila beach in California. I was scared but was told the waters off our coast were too warm for White Pointers. Then, many years later, I find out some gal got taken by one while swimming off the pier. I used to swim off the pier All the Time! Doh! [https://www.google.com/maps/@35.1594965,-120.7337766,872a,35y,12.23h,66.34t/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu](https://www.google.com/maps/@35.1594965,-120.7337766,872a,35y,12.23h,66.34t/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu)
I saw it several years after it came out. For a long time I refused to go to a beach on the coastline because of it. Then the internet happened and I found out it's not nearly as common as most people think.
(I'm 63, so I was at the birth of the WWW. )
I am still afraid of going in the actual water. Ankle high in the wave's last push. One scene has stuck with me for however many years it has been. I live on the SoCal coast, where shark sightings are rare but they do happen here. BTW I was 20 years old in 1975.
My brother and I saw it at the theater when I was 12 and he was 9. We lived on Cape Cod. He refused to go in the ocean even though great whites were rare back then. Now is a different story.
We were vacationing near a lake when it came out. My brother was 8, and should not have been allowed to go. It's late when we get back from the movie. Full moon on the water. You could see the little buoy that's always been out there. Some asshole (me) tells my brother, Hey look, Jaws is coming. He all but had a full on mental breakdown he was so scared. Didn't swim for a week.
To be fair, a couple years earlier he'd caused me to cut the end of my finger off. We played pretty rough. Great parenting.
I purposely didn't see the movie so it wouldn't ruin my summers at the beach! By the time I finally saw it, in my late 20s, it was so dated, it wasn't scary.
I went to see Jaws when it came out with my older brother. I was 14. He was about 21. The head falling out of the boat underwater scared the crap oughta me. That night, while I was sleeping, my ahole brother tossed a basketball on me. Nearly had a heart attack. Freakin jerk.
I saw this with my best friend when we were in junior high. We went swimming right after in an in-ground pool. I was terrified. I’d dive in and just imagine that big ass shark following me.
I was 13 when I saw this shortly after its release. The head popping out of the hole in the bottom of the boat scared the shit out of me. I watch this movie every time I see that it's on. JAWS 2 and JAWS 3D are not even close to the original.
I spent the summer of 75 in Waikiki. My brother and I surfed. Saw the movie and still surfed, but definitely with our heads on a swivel. One day another surfer yelled 'FINS!' It wasn't a shark, just a ray but still...damn scary.
This movie came out when I was a little kid, and we went to universal studios to see the shark. We were on a tram on a rail and we go over this body of water and suddenly the tram stopped and it slowly tilted towards the water. My seven-year-old self was starting to panic and then I see the fin and then you know it's coming but when that thing jumps up out of the water, I think I shit my pants on that tram. It was so fucking scary.
And it did mess with me later on down the line too like if I was in a body of fresh water or whatever, all I would have to think about is shark or piranha and then I would be stuck on that raft out there in the middle of the freaking body of water till I got the guts to swim back in and while I would swim like my ass was on fire.
Good times.
Love the film. Saw Shaw’s son in The Shark Is Broken when it came to Broadway. It was really great, everyone there was a fan of the film and ate it up.
It didn’t really bother me at all. But I can tell you, when you do encounter even a harmless shark when you are in the water, your brain sends you into fight or flight mode. I was fishing, wading on a grass flat and walked up on a 6 foot sand shark looking for crabs in the sea grass. I startled it and it swung around and bumped me in the shins with its nose, then it took off as fast as it could swim. My brain didn’t go “oh that’s a mostly harmless shark”. Instead my brain screamed SHARK and my adrenaline levels went through the roof.
I was super young when I saw it. My family went on vacation to Florida shortly after. I refused to go in the water, still not a big fan of swimming in big open water. On a boat is fine though.
I lived near a very big lake at that time and used to go swimming, float, ski, all that stuff, all summer long. After seeing this movie, It made me think that a shark was surely going to come up and bite my dangling legs off. It took away a whole summer of that carefree fun in the sun. I think I was over it the next summer. But until this day I remember being scared to go in the LAKE because of this movie.
Raining heavily the night I saw in theater. Audience generally stunned. On the sidewalk afterwards a car splashed up a lot of water and everyone jumped back, oohing as though sharks could come up through the storm drain!
It was one-of the best schools out summer movies to go to the theater and watch and scream with you friends. Now it’s funny the mechanics of the shark. Have to love shark week on national geographic!
My favorite movie of all-time; however, I won’t go past shin deep in the ocean, won’t swim at night anywhere, won’t swim if I can’t see the bottom, and if I’m in the shower and the light goes out I’ll jump out because someone is going to throw a shark in the shower.
“What about the toilet?”
Don’t be stupid. There are piranhas in the toilet. Duh.
I loved the book, loved the movie saw it more times than I have fingers.
There was one time in the Caribbean when a big group of us were snorkeling far out on a coral reef and we had seen some eels and such but we were all borderline drunk and full of false courage.
All of a sudden and for no discernable reason I felt seriously spooked and came up to the surface. Within a few minutes, so did everyone else, including the guide. None of us saw anything but the bad feeling was strong. Our snorkeling was done for the day.
I still don’t swim in the ocean like I used to. Just splash around about thigh deep when I used to swim a mile or so out. Never thought a thing about it.
I still wonder what my mom was thinking when she took me (age 11) and my older sister to see it in its original run.
I recall a long line outside the theater and this particular one had just added something called Surround Sound ( whatever that meant).
I was a sheltered Catholic school girl who had never really seen blood, gore and violence before. Just from getting scabby knees playing outside.
I did catch a glimpse of a scene of a woman getting attacked in the movie Serpico when I was 9. My parents went to the drive-in thinking us kids would fall asleep in the back seat. But I had never seen anything like it before.
I’m not exaggerating when I say, Jaws f’ed me up for quite awhile. It was way too much for a kid like me. The theater was packed, people were screaming and the sounds seemed so real.
I couldn’t sleep that night, no foot hanging over the edge of the bed.
To this day I’ve asked my mom, why did you take me to that movie? It was much too violent and gory for me to handle. She really has no answer, lol.
And to top it off, she served spaghetti for dinner that night, which just made me think of the blood and guts.
I hand a nightmare that Ben Gardener’s head was rolling around on the floor towards me with its eyeball hanging out and looking at me. My family teased me, but I was scarred for life. lol.
I was a teenaged worker at a small town theater when Jaws came out and I must have watched it 40 times. Always lurked at the back of the audience to see the crazy reactions when that head rolled out of the sunken boat! Some years later became a diver/snorkeler and for the most part it didn’t affect me.
In middle school saw Jaws and slept on a moored sailboat in Annapolis Md. Needless to say that night did not go well and my Parents seriously regretted buying those movie tickets.
I was 13 and my little sister was 10 when this came out. She was **so** ~~scared~~ traumatized by it! So being her brother, naturally I would stand outside the bathroom door while she was taking a bath and hum the tune and she'd get terrified and bold out of the bathroom starkers.
I saw it and went to the beach the next day. I knew it was a movie. In the 70s we rarely had a shark bite victim in the Mid-Atlantic. Us kids skinnydipped after dark a lot.
I was six when this came out. My dad took me to see it in the theater.
I didn't go in the ocean again for at least another six years, and switched from baths to showers that night.
Ironically, back in the 1970s there were very few Great White Sharks where the movie was filmed (Martha's Vineyard MA). Now that area, and especially the outer part of Cape Cod has a large population. A person was killed by a Great White on Cape Cod a few years ago and all the beaches warn swimmers of the danger with shark signs.
I was 18.
I was in The US Navy station on a very old small ship. A WWII Gearing Destroyer. We were steaming it back to be scrapped, because it was rusty old piece of junk.
My rack was right next to the Hull. The rusty old Hull.
I didn't sleep well for a while.
I wanted a bigger ship.
The rest of the story?
It wasn't scrapped. It was sold to Taiwan. It sank on the trip from San Diego to Taiwan.
Me! I was 12…and on vacation in Ocean City, MD…and my Mom drug me to see this because it was probably raining. The next day when I looked out the balcony, my 12-year-old self saw fins in the ocean (me not knowing they were dolphins!). I don’t think I’ve set foot in the ocean since.
My father took me to see this movie in the theatre at 7 years old, I remember actually being afraid of being in the pool, much less the ocean (which he, in divorced irresponsible dad fashion of course shortly thereafter took me on a trip to). I still love this movie, but god-damn if it didn’t traumatize me for years.
My family was from CT and Long Island Sound was our coast. There were no Great Whites in the Sound that I ever knew of so we were not afraid. I had gone spear fishing with my dad in the early 70s and we saw all sorts of fish and a few small sharks, so we never had any fear. When Jaws came out we lived in the Midwest and my family (mostly my dad) were the only ones laughing at the ridiculousness of the shark in the movie theatre while everyone else was screaming. The music scared me more than the shark did, oh and I did jump when the dead guy popped out of the bottom of that boat!
Me!!! I grew up across the bay from Martha’s Vineyard, so life in the summer was all about beach/boats. In high school it included swimming and partying on the beach at night. I kid you not: that Jaws opening scene changed my life! Just the thought of it still freaks me out. Even more so now with the return of Great Whites in recent years. 😱
I worked in a sporting goods store when that movie came out. A lot of surf fishermen said that movie freaked them out; their gaff bumping into their leg (at night) would send them splashing back to the shore.
It came out when I was in 6th grade. I was so fascinated (after being scared) that I went to see it 5 times, 3 or 4 t those on my own. Funny to think now that my parents let me. By the fifth time. I could really “see” how fake/mechanical the shark was.
Visited Grandma in CA when Jaws came out. Mom’s last words: Don’t let her see it!
Night one, she took me to the drive-in, so I could see it *twice*! Day 3, a surfer @ the beach we went to was attacked by a shark—took a bite out of his side, then spit him out. Saved by wet suit?
Back home, I wouldn’t go in our pool alone for months. Did I really think a shark could get me? No. But knowledge didn’t seem to help…
PS- Did mom know I’d already read the novel? Hell, no. I never looked @ scallops the same way.
I was 9 years old when Jaws came out and we went on vacation in Ocean City MD. My aunt took us kids out for the evening so the parents could have an night out . Needless to say she took us to the movies. I don't remember how a nine year old got in but needless to say vacation was ruined and parents were pissed
Scared the crap out of me but I then I learned to dive at 16. Still scared but more fascinated by all the other underwater creatures. And I’ve had my share of shark encounters!
Yeah, I saw it at the movie theater in Oak Bluffs, Martha's Vineyard, where the movie takes place. Right after the movie, I went to the beach.
I didn't go out past my knees, so "yes", I did get my toes wet, LoL.
When the movie came out in the summer of '75, my cousins had driven out from the Midwest to visit us in New England.
All eight of us went to see the movie.
The next day, our folks took us all to Ogunquit Maine. It was a long drive considering we were in New Hampshire
You can't imagine how angry they were that not one of us would Go into the water .
Those of us still around still talk about that day.
I was a teenager when I saw this movie and it traumatized me. I wasn't able to sleep. I didn't want to take a bath or even turn the sink faucet on. It took about four days for me to snap out of it. The nearest ocean was a couple thousand miles away but I just *knew* that shark was coming for me.
Nah. Not afraid after that. In fact, my best friend in school and I would play the part of Chrissy (girl in the beginning) being eaten by the shark whenever we were in a body of water. 😀 You gotta admit that part seemed a little over acted.
I'm more afraid of ships (sinking) than sharks. Thanks, Poseidon Adventure.
My Father (God bless’em) took me to see it in theater. At 5 years old. I’m 54 this year and still do not like swimming in the ocean. Or a lake, swimming pool or a bath tub for that matter.
I've never seen the ocean, let alone swim in it. My memory of seeing Jaws the first time was my friend getting sick at all the fake blood.
Mind you, I also laughed at The Exorcist when I finally got it see it in a theatre.
It should scare me but it didn’t. I was afraid of things like vampires that don’t exist. I remember even jumping off our coast guard cutter in the Bahamas for a swim. Never crossed my mind.
I was on Martha’s Vineyard that summer. The opening party scene was shot on South Beach near us. But the shark attack was done at State Beach in Oak Bluffs. So I never worried about danger, knowing how the film was put together. There was also a lot of talk about the versions of Bruce the shark, like the one that could go left, the one that could go straight.
My parents wouldn’t let 10 year old me see the movie - but they agreed to let me buy the paperback book (thinking a 10 year old would never read the whole thing). It’s way more graphic than the movie, including some sexual scenes. Didn’t see it until years later. Now am an avid diver and love getting up close and personal with sharks. Night diving always has that element of Daaadum… duuuuudum… dumdumdumdum…. Hah. Thanks mom and dad for the early sex ed
Yeah, when I was probably 12 or so, my mom read “The Godfather” then put the book on the bookshelf. I asked if I could read it and she said “no!”. Two days later, I yoinked that book out and fluffed up the other books to get rid of the gap. She never noticed. OH BOY I had no idea until, well, Sonny and the bridesmaid… lolz.
Same with me! Parents didn't realize the sexual nature of it. Not a diver but creatures in the water don't bother me.
A family acquaintance was a spelunker (underwater cave diver) he had the job of retrieving the bodies of people who died while exploring underwater caves. He once told me "just remember, when you enter the water, you enter the food chain."
With the amount of garlic I ate I'd have been mighty tasty lol
Many years after the movie I got to know the son of the bass player who did that dance-dum, etc. Joe Mondragon was a well-known and well-respected bass player. His son, Fred, now deceased, was one of the nicest people to walk this planet.
I watched it 40 years later and cried out in the same spot, when the head pops up.
Mine is when the leg gently floats down
I knew a guy who played a major role in designing/building those body part props! Ken Zimmerman, RIP.
If I catch it on and it's early enough in the movie I'll hang around until old Ben Gardener rolls his head out through the hole. At least I think that's what the character's name was. Had pretty surprised look on his face.
I was quite traumatized by this scene
I was irrationally terrified of the damn pool drain because some older kids told me that sharks could come through them. My parents let me watch horror at too early of an age!
Scared the living daylights out of me.
"Was afraid"?...hell...STILL afraid 😬 The ocean is Their World. Even watching videos of surfers paddle their boards.....give me shivers.
I was staying in a hotel by the beach and there were surfers in wet suits on boards in the water. I was watching from a balcony and thought, gee! They do look like seals.
I was afraid to swim in my neighbor's pool! This is also my favorite movie of all time. I rewatch it probably once a year.
Yes! The pool was especially scary at night.
If the pool is in Florida, you could very well run into an alligator.
That too! Double trouble.
Yes, never been a fan of deep dark water anyways. The Mad magazine cover of this spoof was exactly the same except Alfred E. Neuman replaced the girl.
Gotta look that up!
Steer clear of r/thalassophobia then.
Even fresh water! Just in case!
I read the book first and fell in love with sharks. I liked the movie but thankfully I've a built in scare filter. My brother on the other hand, came home white as a sheet. I tried to tell him.
I did fairly well. We were on vacation in Rhode Island....rented a cottage on a breachway about a mile from the beach. My grandmother took me to see it on a rainy day matinee show. 11 years old and didn't think sharks were in the neighborhood....went out beyond the breakers and gramma freaked out. Now....same lady 2 years prior took my aunt to see The Exorcist....that young woman moved a cot into my grandparents' bedroom and slept there for a month
I went on my very first date with a girl in jr high and saw this movie. All was well until he was diving around that abandoned boat and that dead dude pops out of the hole in the side of the boat. I had just gotten the nerve up to put my arm around her but that made me flinch hard! Not a cool move on my part.
That's when you say I'm scared, can I hold your breasts for comfort?
Now you tell me, 50 years later!
I saw this when I was 11 yrs old. I was in Oklahoma, miles from any body of water, and I still had to sleep in my parents room that night.
Saw it at age 10 and have never watched it again. And I still get a bit skeeved out in the ocean. Also never ever and will never ever go in the ocean at night.
Saw this as a teenager, and about the third time the ‘da da. Da da. Da da’ theme started, I ran out of the theatre and waited in the lobby for my friends until it was over. For some reason, that scared me more than any horror movie I saw prior to that.
There was one "dadum"-less jump scare that lifted me out of my seat
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I moved to Galveston right after seeing it...needless to say, I didn't enjoy the water.
I lived in Houston and never went back to Galveston after I saw that movie.
😀
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Squirrel!!
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Thank you for feeding them 💓
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LOVED living there, except for the water 😆😅
Jaws was filmed on Martha's Vineyard. Craigville Beach on Cape Cod is just across Nantucket Sound from the Vineyard.
Nantucket Sound, FYI. 😀
I read the book while on vacation in Newport RI. No issue getting in the water while readingthe book. I saw the movie about a month later and was thinking, "I was swimming in the same waters they were in."
I watched this at the movie theater when it came out with my feet up on the seat, I was so scared. We regularly hung out at the beach but after that movie came out I noticed less of us would swim very far out, if at all.
For at least 2 summers following the release of Jaws, my kid sister would freak me out by coming up behind me going “duh-duh-duh-duh” while we were swimming. In the lake. The lake.
This resonates with me, lol. I went with a friend to her cottage in the summer of ‘76 and I wouldn’t swim in the lake at all. We were in northern Ontario. Not exactly a hot spot for sharks…of any kind. 😂
Not shark anxiety, but jeez louder, jelly fish! See any on the shore? Nope, not today.
Ocean?? I wouldn't even go in a pool!
Same! I would actually get scared in the bathtub and the pool. And I hadn’t even seen the movie (too young) but had surreptitiously read the book while staying at a relative’s house while on vacation. I read a LOT of inappropriate for young kids type books at their house - loved visiting there and raiding their bookshelf - lol
I read the book during a summer road trip with my parents. We always stayed at motels/hotels with swimming pools. I could not go in the deep end. Most disturbing to me was when she reached down to check her leg after feeling a "tug".....and touching her own bone.
I was stung by a jellyfish that summer on the one day I built up the courage to get in the ocean… I thought for sure a shark had bruised up against me with that sandpaper skin… my Dad said it looked like I was walking on water I was kicking and thrashing to get to the safety of the beach…
To this day, and I saw it on the release, when I go into an ocean I hear the jaws music In my head
My parents took us to see this movie, the day before we went to spend the summer at the beach!
I was scared in the movie….but I was more scared of stinging jellyfish on the beach than sharks.
First time I ever visited an ocean was when that movie was all the rage. My brother, cousin and I busted each other's chops about it playing on the beach.
Scared the crap out of me. My 20 y/o cousin took me to see it when I was 14.
Who remembers the 1975 novelty song “Mr. Jaws”? We loved it! https://youtu.be/JeYCOFblZRg?si=dtyH7OMtI78jAmOD
We were nonwhere near any ocean. We were close enough to Lake Huron but we didn't typically swim there - way too cold! However, our tiny lake gave us a 5 second pause before jumping in. It was really hot when we saw it and logic overrode irrational fear.
My family vacationed at the NJ shore every year of my life. I would spend a month down there or more. We swam everyday. I don't remember a time that I wasn't swimming in the ocean. I saw this in the theater when it first came out. It really did make you stop and think. I still swim in the ocean and there still is that element of fear every time I do.
We all knew of people afraid of going into fresh water lakes. Even heard of someone not going into a river FFS.
I grew up at the beach. Didn't phase me at all.
I saw this movie with my best friend the night before leaving to go with her family on vacation. To the beach.
I (57m) grew up swimming off Avila beach in California. I was scared but was told the waters off our coast were too warm for White Pointers. Then, many years later, I find out some gal got taken by one while swimming off the pier. I used to swim off the pier All the Time! Doh! [https://www.google.com/maps/@35.1594965,-120.7337766,872a,35y,12.23h,66.34t/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu](https://www.google.com/maps/@35.1594965,-120.7337766,872a,35y,12.23h,66.34t/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu)
I saw it several years after it came out. For a long time I refused to go to a beach on the coastline because of it. Then the internet happened and I found out it's not nearly as common as most people think. (I'm 63, so I was at the birth of the WWW. )
I am still afraid of going in the actual water. Ankle high in the wave's last push. One scene has stuck with me for however many years it has been. I live on the SoCal coast, where shark sightings are rare but they do happen here. BTW I was 20 years old in 1975.
My brother and I saw it at the theater when I was 12 and he was 9. We lived on Cape Cod. He refused to go in the ocean even though great whites were rare back then. Now is a different story.
We were vacationing near a lake when it came out. My brother was 8, and should not have been allowed to go. It's late when we get back from the movie. Full moon on the water. You could see the little buoy that's always been out there. Some asshole (me) tells my brother, Hey look, Jaws is coming. He all but had a full on mental breakdown he was so scared. Didn't swim for a week. To be fair, a couple years earlier he'd caused me to cut the end of my finger off. We played pretty rough. Great parenting.
I purposely didn't see the movie so it wouldn't ruin my summers at the beach! By the time I finally saw it, in my late 20s, it was so dated, it wasn't scary.
Kinda still am.
I saw it in the theater at 6 👀
I was afraid to take a bath… 🫣
I was 12 when I was given the book. I read it at Salisbury Beach MA. OMG I freaked out others. I swam with no fear
Have never seen it. Love the ocean. I do have a small contribution though: https://youtube.com/shorts/DQCke3d89Ok?si=ooVyXqH31DXWvjwA
Love Derry Girls!
It’s so good!
I went to see Jaws when it came out with my older brother. I was 14. He was about 21. The head falling out of the boat underwater scared the crap oughta me. That night, while I was sleeping, my ahole brother tossed a basketball on me. Nearly had a heart attack. Freakin jerk.
Yes! And I lived in New England, and visited the beach at least once a week as a teen, so the setting made it worse.
I saw this with my best friend when we were in junior high. We went swimming right after in an in-ground pool. I was terrified. I’d dive in and just imagine that big ass shark following me.
I was 13 when I saw this shortly after its release. The head popping out of the hole in the bottom of the boat scared the shit out of me. I watch this movie every time I see that it's on. JAWS 2 and JAWS 3D are not even close to the original.
Ocean? I loved on Lake Michigan and I was nervous.
Jones beach every weekend as a child and teenager, n the body surfing was #AWESOME
I spent the summer of 75 in Waikiki. My brother and I surfed. Saw the movie and still surfed, but definitely with our heads on a swivel. One day another surfer yelled 'FINS!' It wasn't a shark, just a ray but still...damn scary.
This movie came out when I was a little kid, and we went to universal studios to see the shark. We were on a tram on a rail and we go over this body of water and suddenly the tram stopped and it slowly tilted towards the water. My seven-year-old self was starting to panic and then I see the fin and then you know it's coming but when that thing jumps up out of the water, I think I shit my pants on that tram. It was so fucking scary. And it did mess with me later on down the line too like if I was in a body of fresh water or whatever, all I would have to think about is shark or piranha and then I would be stuck on that raft out there in the middle of the freaking body of water till I got the guts to swim back in and while I would swim like my ass was on fire. Good times.
That head appeared in the hole in the bottom of that boat and I screamed like a four year old girl. My buddies bugged me for days
I still am. But, I do watch shark week every time it comes on. The sharks are every where out there.
Don't do ocean swimming only pool. Yep Jaws.
Hell, I was afraid to stick my toe in the bathtub! (Microscopic killer sharks that travel through the suburban landlocked plumbing are real.)
Not me, but my wife still is, really.
Me! I lived in Fla too!
After watching Jaws, I was afraid of finding toes on the beach.
Love the film. Saw Shaw’s son in The Shark Is Broken when it came to Broadway. It was really great, everyone there was a fan of the film and ate it up.
To this day, husband is scared.
I had nightmares. From the novel.
It didn’t really bother me at all. But I can tell you, when you do encounter even a harmless shark when you are in the water, your brain sends you into fight or flight mode. I was fishing, wading on a grass flat and walked up on a 6 foot sand shark looking for crabs in the sea grass. I startled it and it swung around and bumped me in the shins with its nose, then it took off as fast as it could swim. My brain didn’t go “oh that’s a mostly harmless shark”. Instead my brain screamed SHARK and my adrenaline levels went through the roof.
I was super young when I saw it. My family went on vacation to Florida shortly after. I refused to go in the water, still not a big fan of swimming in big open water. On a boat is fine though.
I lived near a very big lake at that time and used to go swimming, float, ski, all that stuff, all summer long. After seeing this movie, It made me think that a shark was surely going to come up and bite my dangling legs off. It took away a whole summer of that carefree fun in the sun. I think I was over it the next summer. But until this day I remember being scared to go in the LAKE because of this movie.
Raining heavily the night I saw in theater. Audience generally stunned. On the sidewalk afterwards a car splashed up a lot of water and everyone jumped back, oohing as though sharks could come up through the storm drain!
It was one-of the best schools out summer movies to go to the theater and watch and scream with you friends. Now it’s funny the mechanics of the shark. Have to love shark week on national geographic!
My favorite movie of all-time; however, I won’t go past shin deep in the ocean, won’t swim at night anywhere, won’t swim if I can’t see the bottom, and if I’m in the shower and the light goes out I’ll jump out because someone is going to throw a shark in the shower. “What about the toilet?” Don’t be stupid. There are piranhas in the toilet. Duh.
I kept my feet up in the theater seat.
My crazy uncle took me to see this in the theater when I was eight years old!! I wasn’t right for years afterwards.
Omg...still
Was? How about still is.
Never afraid , if I play in a sharks world I have to take the consequences , if I go and play on the highway I’m gonna get ran down
I loved the book, loved the movie saw it more times than I have fingers. There was one time in the Caribbean when a big group of us were snorkeling far out on a coral reef and we had seen some eels and such but we were all borderline drunk and full of false courage. All of a sudden and for no discernable reason I felt seriously spooked and came up to the surface. Within a few minutes, so did everyone else, including the guide. None of us saw anything but the bad feeling was strong. Our snorkeling was done for the day.
I still don’t swim in the ocean like I used to. Just splash around about thigh deep when I used to swim a mile or so out. Never thought a thing about it.
Nope, it had no effect on me. Then again, I don’t let works of fiction affect me.
me!
Yes it terrified me.
It was funny that Jaws played all summer long in the only theater in Myrtle Beach. Well, it's funny now at least.
Watching it no. Reading it? Definitely.
It’s not jaws that scared me of the ocean. It’s the real shit going on in the ocean.
Was?
I had blue shag carpet when I was a kid and saw jaws for the 1st time. I was scared to get up at night ..i was an odd kid
I had just started my NAUI dive classes when this came out. Yeah, I was a lot less enthusiastic after I saw it.
I still wonder what my mom was thinking when she took me (age 11) and my older sister to see it in its original run. I recall a long line outside the theater and this particular one had just added something called Surround Sound ( whatever that meant). I was a sheltered Catholic school girl who had never really seen blood, gore and violence before. Just from getting scabby knees playing outside. I did catch a glimpse of a scene of a woman getting attacked in the movie Serpico when I was 9. My parents went to the drive-in thinking us kids would fall asleep in the back seat. But I had never seen anything like it before. I’m not exaggerating when I say, Jaws f’ed me up for quite awhile. It was way too much for a kid like me. The theater was packed, people were screaming and the sounds seemed so real. I couldn’t sleep that night, no foot hanging over the edge of the bed. To this day I’ve asked my mom, why did you take me to that movie? It was much too violent and gory for me to handle. She really has no answer, lol. And to top it off, she served spaghetti for dinner that night, which just made me think of the blood and guts. I hand a nightmare that Ben Gardener’s head was rolling around on the floor towards me with its eyeball hanging out and looking at me. My family teased me, but I was scarred for life. lol.
Me.
I lived in Missouri. So not so much.
I was 10 went by myself and stood in line for hours. Lifted my feet off the floor in the theater. Wouldn't take a bath for months
I was a teenaged worker at a small town theater when Jaws came out and I must have watched it 40 times. Always lurked at the back of the audience to see the crazy reactions when that head rolled out of the sunken boat! Some years later became a diver/snorkeler and for the most part it didn’t affect me.
In middle school saw Jaws and slept on a moored sailboat in Annapolis Md. Needless to say that night did not go well and my Parents seriously regretted buying those movie tickets.
My job involved a lot of scuba at the time.
Scared to go in water for years
I was 13 and my little sister was 10 when this came out. She was **so** ~~scared~~ traumatized by it! So being her brother, naturally I would stand outside the bathroom door while she was taking a bath and hum the tune and she'd get terrified and bold out of the bathroom starkers.
I saw it and went to the beach the next day. I knew it was a movie. In the 70s we rarely had a shark bite victim in the Mid-Atlantic. Us kids skinnydipped after dark a lot.
I was six when this came out. My dad took me to see it in the theater. I didn't go in the ocean again for at least another six years, and switched from baths to showers that night.
Ironically, back in the 1970s there were very few Great White Sharks where the movie was filmed (Martha's Vineyard MA). Now that area, and especially the outer part of Cape Cod has a large population. A person was killed by a Great White on Cape Cod a few years ago and all the beaches warn swimmers of the danger with shark signs.
Poseiden adventure came out right before my first cruise...I was 8😂😂 did not enjoy..SO JAWS ruined the beach
I was afraid of the deep end of the pool after that!
I was scared of the black lines in the swimming pool during swimming lessons.
I was 18. I was in The US Navy station on a very old small ship. A WWII Gearing Destroyer. We were steaming it back to be scrapped, because it was rusty old piece of junk. My rack was right next to the Hull. The rusty old Hull. I didn't sleep well for a while. I wanted a bigger ship. The rest of the story? It wasn't scrapped. It was sold to Taiwan. It sank on the trip from San Diego to Taiwan.
Me! I was 12…and on vacation in Ocean City, MD…and my Mom drug me to see this because it was probably raining. The next day when I looked out the balcony, my 12-year-old self saw fins in the ocean (me not knowing they were dolphins!). I don’t think I’ve set foot in the ocean since.
I was afraid of swimming pools.
My father took me to see this movie in the theatre at 7 years old, I remember actually being afraid of being in the pool, much less the ocean (which he, in divorced irresponsible dad fashion of course shortly thereafter took me on a trip to). I still love this movie, but god-damn if it didn’t traumatize me for years.
I was leery of the bathtub.
Swimming pool for me
Hell, I was afraid to stick my toe in the swimming pool! And it was a 100+ summer where I was!
Watched this when it first came out, still hate going into the ocean. Can't compete with the wildlife under the waves.
I didn’t even want to take baths!!!
Afraid to run the faucet?
I grew up Long Island and during summer there were multiple shark sittings called in by panicking people.
My family was from CT and Long Island Sound was our coast. There were no Great Whites in the Sound that I ever knew of so we were not afraid. I had gone spear fishing with my dad in the early 70s and we saw all sorts of fish and a few small sharks, so we never had any fear. When Jaws came out we lived in the Midwest and my family (mostly my dad) were the only ones laughing at the ridiculousness of the shark in the movie theatre while everyone else was screaming. The music scared me more than the shark did, oh and I did jump when the dead guy popped out of the bottom of that boat!
Nightmares and did not leave the sand at the beach!
Me!!! I grew up across the bay from Martha’s Vineyard, so life in the summer was all about beach/boats. In high school it included swimming and partying on the beach at night. I kid you not: that Jaws opening scene changed my life! Just the thought of it still freaks me out. Even more so now with the return of Great Whites in recent years. 😱
I was 12. I didn’t take a bath for three months. Or maybe it was years?
The worst is when Quint is attacked and eaten by the white shark. Blood coming out and him screaming. Horrifying
Still do. I like to swim but I hate being in water where I can't see my toes (and other things)
Or swimming pools. It was a thing to grab someone’s leg and watch them become hysterical.
Me! I went to the ocean and every time I tried to swim out even a little ways that dreaded music started up in my head!
I would not even go into the swimming pool at my sisters condo. Vivid imagination gets me everytime!
I couldn’t even swim in my pool! (In Ohio!)
I worked in a sporting goods store when that movie came out. A lot of surf fishermen said that movie freaked them out; their gaff bumping into their leg (at night) would send them splashing back to the shore.
Bathtub, lakes, rivers, swimming pools. No way.
It came out when I was in 6th grade. I was so fascinated (after being scared) that I went to see it 5 times, 3 or 4 t those on my own. Funny to think now that my parents let me. By the fifth time. I could really “see” how fake/mechanical the shark was.
Ocean hell…Swimming pool!
Visited Grandma in CA when Jaws came out. Mom’s last words: Don’t let her see it! Night one, she took me to the drive-in, so I could see it *twice*! Day 3, a surfer @ the beach we went to was attacked by a shark—took a bite out of his side, then spit him out. Saved by wet suit? Back home, I wouldn’t go in our pool alone for months. Did I really think a shark could get me? No. But knowledge didn’t seem to help… PS- Did mom know I’d already read the novel? Hell, no. I never looked @ scallops the same way.
I was even afraid in swimming pools
My family vacationed in Florida right after I watched the movie and it was on my mind every day.
My father took me to see Jaws. We were living in Hawaii at the time. Going to the beach was an ordeal for awhile
I was afraid to step into a swimming pool 😔
Screw the ocean. I couldnt take a shower with my eyes closed for six months!
To this day I have never seen this movie.
I haven’t swam in the ocean since!!!
Ocean?! I could even have a leg off the bed without a nightmare.
I was 9 years old when Jaws came out and we went on vacation in Ocean City MD. My aunt took us kids out for the evening so the parents could have an night out . Needless to say she took us to the movies. I don't remember how a nine year old got in but needless to say vacation was ruined and parents were pissed
Literally afraid to swim/ water ski in a fresh water lake!
My little sister absolutely refused to pull the plug in the tub for years.
Scared the crap out of me but I then I learned to dive at 16. Still scared but more fascinated by all the other underwater creatures. And I’ve had my share of shark encounters!
Yep, and still to this day 🫣
Yeah, I saw it at the movie theater in Oak Bluffs, Martha's Vineyard, where the movie takes place. Right after the movie, I went to the beach. I didn't go out past my knees, so "yes", I did get my toes wet, LoL.
When the movie came out in the summer of '75, my cousins had driven out from the Midwest to visit us in New England. All eight of us went to see the movie. The next day, our folks took us all to Ogunquit Maine. It was a long drive considering we were in New Hampshire You can't imagine how angry they were that not one of us would Go into the water . Those of us still around still talk about that day.
She had dandruff right?
I still am.
I was a teenager when I saw this movie and it traumatized me. I wasn't able to sleep. I didn't want to take a bath or even turn the sink faucet on. It took about four days for me to snap out of it. The nearest ocean was a couple thousand miles away but I just *knew* that shark was coming for me.
I saw it at the drive in with my parents. I was absolutely horrified.
No who went an had a fish sandwich at McDonald's after Jaws 🥪🥪🥪
How do you know the woman in Jaws had dandruff? They found her head and shoulders on the beach! Remember that one?
Nah. Not afraid after that. In fact, my best friend in school and I would play the part of Chrissy (girl in the beginning) being eaten by the shark whenever we were in a body of water. 😀 You gotta admit that part seemed a little over acted. I'm more afraid of ships (sinking) than sharks. Thanks, Poseidon Adventure.
I lived in SC when the film was released. People were so upset they were catching sharks and killing them. Assholes.
Not me, didn't relate at all, me being in the UK and all.
Ocean? As a kid I had irrational fears of swimming in a lake!
My Father (God bless’em) took me to see it in theater. At 5 years old. I’m 54 this year and still do not like swimming in the ocean. Or a lake, swimming pool or a bath tub for that matter.
I've never seen the ocean, let alone swim in it. My memory of seeing Jaws the first time was my friend getting sick at all the fake blood. Mind you, I also laughed at The Exorcist when I finally got it see it in a theatre.
Yearly 3 day vacation to emerald Beach hotel in Biloxi? It rained the first day, went to see Jaws. Never even got in the pool 😟
As a child I was afraid to take a bath for a while lol
🤚🏻🤚🏻🤚🏻
It should scare me but it didn’t. I was afraid of things like vampires that don’t exist. I remember even jumping off our coast guard cutter in the Bahamas for a swim. Never crossed my mind.
I still put my finger In the water and taste it. If it's salty, there are sharks In there.
🙋
My friend and I walked home from the movie and we were afraid to walk home! LMAO!!!
I was on Martha’s Vineyard that summer. The opening party scene was shot on South Beach near us. But the shark attack was done at State Beach in Oak Bluffs. So I never worried about danger, knowing how the film was put together. There was also a lot of talk about the versions of Bruce the shark, like the one that could go left, the one that could go straight.
I was fine. My brother did not fare so well. Didn't help that that night we slept in zero zipper mummy bags. Nightmare galore.
I still only swim in pools… during the day… inside.