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Jaws poster

Movies that feel likeJaws (1975)

When the seaside community of Amity finds itself under attack by a dangerous great white shark, the town's chief of police, a young marine biologist, and a grizzled shark hunter embark on a desperate quest to kill the beast before it strikes again.

If you loved Jaws, the closest films we have are What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), The Omen (1976) and Halloween (1978). All three share Jaws' dread and unsettling feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Thesis (1996).

🍅 97% Rotten Tomatoes★ 8.1 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Steven Spielbergdreadunsettlingtenseepic
11 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · HBO Max · Amazon Prime Video

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If Jaws hit the spot, these will too

Looking for the series itself? Also in this series: Jaws 2 (1978)

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? poster
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
1962 · dir. Robert Aldrich
🍅 91%★ 8horror · thriller

A helpless victim, a patient tormentor and dread that keeps ratcheting

The difference: The monster is human — gothic Hollywood decay, not open water

A former vaudeville child star viciously torments her paraplegic sister in their decaying Hollywood mansion.

The Omen poster
The Omen
1976 · dir. Richard Donner
🍅 76%★ 7.5horror · thrillerPeacock

Same-era studio horror where ordinary authority meets something implacable

The difference: Satanic prophecy, not nature — solemn dread in place of adventure

Immediately after their miscarriage, the US diplomat Robert Thorn adopts the newborn Damien without the knowledge of his wife. Yet what he doesn’t know is that their new son is the son of the devil.

Halloween poster
Halloween
1978 · dir. John Carpenter
🍅 97%★ 7.7horror · thriller

An unstoppable thing stalking a town that refuses to listen

The difference: Suburban stalking and jump scares — no daylight, no boat crew

Fifteen years after murdering his sister on Halloween Night 1963, Michael Myers escapes from a mental hospital and returns to the small town of Haddonfield, Illinois to kill again.

The Birds poster
The Birds
1963 · dir. Alfred Hitchcock
🍅 95%★ 7.6horror · thrillerPeacock

Nature turning on a coastal town with no explanation offered

The difference: Colder and stranger — unease without a hunt to root for

Thousands of birds flock into a seaside town and terrorize the residents in a series of deadly attacks.

Nightwatch poster
Nightwatch
1994 · dir. Ole Bornedal
🍅 63%★ 7.1horror · thriller

A mounting serial-death mystery closing around one ordinary man

The difference: Morgue-bound chiller — clammy and small where Jaws is open-air

Martin, a law student, takes up a job as a nightwatchman at a mortuary to fund his studies. But the mortuary harbours a dark secret, and he has to find the truth before he is implicated in a serial murder case.

Thesis poster
Thesis
1996 · dir. Alejandro Amenábar
🍅 86%★ 7.4horror · thriller

The same mix in both: dread, then unease

The difference: Easier on the scale than Jaws

While working on a thesis about audiovisual violence, film student Ángela finds a snuff video where a girl is tortured until death. Soon she discovers that she was a former student in her university, and that the authors of the video are not very far either.

Anaconda poster
Anaconda
1997 · dir. Luis Llosa
🍅 41%★ 4.9adventure · horror · thrillerNetflixStarz

A giant predator picks off an expedition on the water, one by one

The difference: Schlock played straight — the B-movie Jaws never let itself become

A 'National Geographic' film crew is taken hostage by an insane hunter, who takes them along on his quest to capture the world's largest — and deadliest — snake.

Silent Night, Deadly Night poster
Silent Night, Deadly Night
1984 · dir. Charles E. Sellier Jr.
🍅 55%★ 5.8thriller · horrorPrime Video

A killer turns a season of comfort into a hunting ground

The difference: Grubby slasher exploitation — shock value in place of craft

After a man dressed as Santa Claus brutally murders Billy Chapman's parents, little Billy then endures the cruelty of a sadistic nun at his orphanage. Years later, when adult Billy has to fill in for an absent in-store Santa, his childhood trauma brings him to the breaking point.

Ring poster
Ring
1998 · dir. Hideo Nakata
🍅 98%★ 7.2horror · thriller

An investigation into strange deaths that pulls its hero toward the source

The difference: Slow supernatural chill — a cursed tape, not a creature you can fight

A mysterious video has been linked to a number of deaths, and when an inquisitive journalist finds the tape and views it herself, she sets in motion a chain of events that puts her own life in danger.

The Exorcist poster
The Exorcist
1973 · dir. William Friedkin
🍅 78%★ 8.1horrorMax

The other 70s landmark that made a whole audience afraid of one thing

The difference: Interior and religious — no sunlight, no chase, no boat

When a mysterious entity possesses a young girl, her mother seeks the help of two Catholic priests to save her life.

The Descent poster
The Descent
2005 · dir. Neil Marshall
🍅 87%★ 7.2adventure · horror

An expedition where the space itself becomes the real terror

The difference: Brutal and claustrophobic — no sunlight, no gallows humor

After a personal tragedy, Sarah joins her friends on a caving expedition in the Appalachian Mountains. But when a rockfall traps them deep underground, their adventure turns into a nightmare. As they search for a way out, the group discovers they are not alone—lurking in the darkness are savage, cave-dwelling creatures. With rising tension and dwindling trust, the women must fight to survive against both the predators and each other.

The Wicker Man poster
The Wicker Man
1973 · dir. Robin Hardy
🍅 92%★ 7.5horrorPrime Video

An investigator alone among locals whose calm hides something terrible

The difference: Folk-horror slow burn — the unease comes from people, not a creature

Police sergeant Neil Howie is called to an island village in search of a missing girl whom the locals claim never existed. The investigation is further complicated as Howie’s religious views clash with those of the island’s residents.

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The best-reviewed films that share Jaws’ defining feeling.