From "Shark" (Jaws), Steven Spielberg's classic, to the predators lurking in the Seine River in the action horror "Under Paris" (Under Paris), many movies have been made about sharks.
Hollywood and audiences love them and they never seem to get enough of the tension, blood and horror.
There are prehistoric giant sharks in the movie "Megalodon: Predator from the Deep" (The Meg), genetically modified in the science fiction action horror "Deep Blue Sea" (Deep Blue Sea), and sharks on 'white' in the film with the unusual title "Shark on Cocaine" (Cocaine Shark).
Even Donald Trump likes sharks - he was supposed to play the American president in the TV series "Tornado Shark" (Sharknado), before he actually became the head of the White House in the United States (USA).
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I got hooked on shark movies after watching the James Bond movie "Operation Thunder" (thunderbolt), in which the villain keeps sharks in his pool.
That realization sparked my lifelong interest in shark movies, as well as an irrational fear of swimming pools, even those filled with chlorinated water in hotels and spas.
Hayley Easton Street is a British director who directed a new movie about sharks, "Something in the Sea" (Something in the Water), a story about a group of women who are trapped in the open sea.
She explains that as a fan of shark movies, she "absolutely had to" make a movie about these sea monsters.
So why are shark movies so popular?
"It's the fear of what could happen in the unknown [at sea]," she tells the BBC.
"Being trapped in the middle of the ocean is scary enough in itself.
"You are trapped in someone else's world and anything can happen".
Professor Susan Young, a forensic psychologist, says that people have a huge fear of "the unknown, of being alone and helpless".
She says that watching scary shark movies in the comfort of a home or cinema "allows people to face their fears without experiencing real danger... and to release suppressed feelings in a safe and controlled environment".
"This means that people can confront the limits of human behavior and by watching extreme content they are testing their own limits ... and that emotional release is a form of catharsis," says Professor Young.
He explains that Sigmund Freud's theories are used, because "from the perspective of psychodynamics, these films tap into unconscious fears and desires and provide a safe way to explore repressed feelings and drives such as aggression and fear of death."
'We attached fins to the diver'
Making sharks look real on the big screen can be challenging.
During the filming of the movie "Shark" there were many difficulties because the mechanical great white sharks often broke down, they rusted due to sea salt, and one even sank.
The main actors spent a lot of time waiting to get better.
Director Steven Spielberg told BBC Radio in 2022 that these problems actually made for a "much better film" because he had to be "resourceful and figure out how to convey suspense and horror without scenes where the shark is visible".
"It was lucky that the shark kept breaking down," he said.
"I was lucky, and I think the audience was lucky too, because I think the film is scarier without many scenes with a shark."
Street says they had a limited budget for "Something in the Sea," so the crew came up with a great solution.
"We made tiger shark fins," she recalls.
"We had a great diver, Baptista, who could hold his breath underwater for a really long time.
"So we attached this fin to him and gave him an underwater scooter that he could drive at about the speed that sharks swim.
"It was great because it meant the actors were actually seeing the shark's fins and reacting to it, so it gave them a real sense of being surrounded by sharks."
But despite her love of shark movies, Street didn't want her film to portray them as marine serial killers.
"We kill 100 million sharks every year," she notes.
The director was also aware that the movie "Shark" was the cause of the huge increase in shark hunting, partly because they were portrayed as ruthless killers.
"As much as I love shark movies, I also love sharks.
"I was really careful about that, because it's easy for people to start seeing them as killing machines... or monsters, which they're not."
"I felt it was scarier to show the actual scenario, because if you're out there in the open sea where there are sharks, you know they're going to kill you if they mistake you for something else," Street adds.
Despite the huge success of the film "Shark", Spielberg said that he "sincerely regrets the drastic reduction of the shark population as a result of the book and the film".
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'Huge problem for shark conservation'
Spielberg isn't the only one concerned about the way Hollywood portrays sharks and the influence it continues to have.
American marine biologist Andrijana Fragola tries to educate people about sharks and often posts videos of herself diving with them.
He says that people have a "wrong idea about these predators" who have been greatly harmed by movies and the media.
Andrijana tells me that she watched Netflix's new movie about sharks "Under Paris" and that she was not thrilled.
"They said it was about conservation, studying sharks, but they still eat people.
"So it educates the audience a little bit more and presents the story a little bit deeper, it's not just about people swimming by the beach and getting attacked and eaten by a shark.
"But the bottom line and what viewers can take away as the message of the film is that sharks are still extremely dangerous to humans and will continue to hunt and eat them.
"If that were true, the number of people would decrease. Anyone who goes to the beach would be in danger."
The director and co-writer of the film "Under Paris", Xavier John, says that he is also a fighter for environmental protection.
For the American magazine about the film industry, the Hollywood Reporter said that while the movie "Shark" presents these animals as a danger, its production "emphasizes the dangers of human greed."
Andrijana says that people's attitude towards sharks is a big problem for their conservation.
"It's a big problem because people don't want to protect something they're afraid of.
"People think that sharks are dangerous to them and we should eradicate them, and that's obviously a big problem for their conservation and how to get people to empathize with them and want to really protect them.
"It's sad because 100 million sharks are killed every year, and at the same time, sharks kill less than 10 people a year worldwide.
“We're really focused on believing that sharks are monsters and that they're out to get us. In reality, it's actually the opposite."
It's unlikely that Hollywood will stop making shark movies, or that we'll stop watching them.
But the numbers show that sharks are not serial killers in the sea and are actually much more likely to fall prey to humans.
Watch the video: Close encounters with sharks that people are not even aware of
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