How Does Steven Spielberg Create Fear In The Movie JAWS?
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How does Steven Spielberg create fear and tension to scare the audience in Jaws?
Jaws is a 1975 horror- thriller directed by Steven Spielberg based on the novel by Peter Benchley (of the same name). Spielberg uses various techniques to create tension and fear in the audience. Some of these are music, camera angles, imagery, and characters, and I will be talking about these in the essay.
Music is used in Jaws to tell the audience that the shark is about to attack and make a kill. Spielberg uses the signature Jaws music to build up tension and unrest in the audience: it slowly builds up into a crescendo gradually getting louder and higher as the shark gets nearer to its prey. Spielberg also uses music to trick the audience and scare them with a red herring. In the scene depicting the 4th of July, the audience is aware that the sea is infested with a shark and therefore, there is already tension and suspense built up in this scene. Spielberg uses this to his advantage and uses the music to make the crowd, and the audience, think that there will be an attack. The audience is relieved to find that it was a red herring. However, there is still an attack but it is in the pond so technically the music did warn us of an attack, just not the way the audience expected. The music doesnt just warn the audience of the sharks presence but it also warns us that something scary is about to happen and plays on our fear of the unknown. For example, when Hooper and Brody take the boat out to find the shark in the night, the music gets higher and higher until a rotting, decaying body is revealed in the water.
Camera angles are used in Jaws to scare the audience in numerous ways. For example, in the second shark attack scene, Chief Brody of Amity Island is on the lookout for suspicious water activity. His wife is giving him a massage and telling him to relax when suddenly, a boy in the water is eaten by the shark. Spielberg zooms in rapidly on Brody if the news of the death is slamming into him, waking him up and hitting him when he is most vulnerable. Another of the most notable camera angles is when the shark is attacking its victim. Then we see the victims legs and it is as if we are the shark. This creates tension because we want to stop the shark but we have no control over it. It also creates tension because we want to see the shark, not be the shark, so the audience is tense because it has its own expectations and it wants to know if the will be fulfilled. Another example is when Brody, Hooper and Quint leave the island, and the camera slowly zooms in on their boat through sharks jaws until the jaws are huge and the boat is tiny. It looks as if the jaws will destroy the boat. This scares the audience as it seems that the shark