Classic Horrors Club

When you have as perfect a movie as Jaws (1975), it’d be misguided, to say the least, to think a sequel could match it, much less exceed it. Well, I guess The Empire Strikes Back (1980) exceeded Star Wars (1977), but that was another chapter in a larger story. Once you explode a killer shark, you don’t expect there to be another chapter. The idea of another killer shark appearing in the same waters as the first one seems far-fetched. That’s exactly what happens in Jaws 2 (1978), though, and by largely ignoring any type of logical explanation, it works… mostly.

It’s not that there isn’t a story to continue. What happened to Sheriff Martin Brody (Roy Scheider), his family, and the residents of Amity after the events of the first movie? Then, how would they react in the far-fetched event that there was another killer shark? That’s more interesting to me than another killer shark itself. And Jaws 2 does a pretty good job of examining that aspect. Brody doubts himself and, although he doesn’t waste much time in sounding an alarm, he’s cautious at first. Scheider shines again, this time emoting the sort of PTSD  his character is suffering.

His wife, Ellen (Lorraine Gary) is still supportive, but there’s more a look of concern in her eyes and perhaps a bit of pity. Her career has skyrocketed since the horrific events four years earlier. She’s teamed with Mayor Vaughn (Murray Hamilton) and the town council to promote a new resort hotel and woo potential clients. Therefore, any panic her husband creates could affect her family’s livelihood as well as the town’s. (This time it’s personal!) 

Mayor Vaughn is still slimy, but there’s a new character to assume the bad guy role, a developer named Peterson (Joseph Mascolo.) Ironically, he’s underdeveloped, and this leads to my biggest issue with Jaws 2. It focuses on the next generation of townspeople, high school kids and troublemakers, that are also undeveloped as characters. If the sequel had the magic of the original in fully forming the new characters and letting them be true to themselves, lightning might have struck twice.

Carl Gottlieb, who wrote the original, was a co-writer, along with Howard Sackler. Since Jaws 2 hits many of the same beats as Jaws, I’m guessing those came from Gottlieb. For example, there’s a moment when Brody’s son, Sean (Marc Gilpin), helps his father collect bullet casings from the beach that mirrors him mimicking his father at the dinner table in Jaws. I’m making a conscious decision that the same child did this; however, I’m confused since Michael from the original is now 17-years old (Mark Gruner.)

The director this time around is Jeannot Szwarc and he’s no Steven Spielberg. Everything in Jaws 2 seems more… laid back. It opens with some beautiful underwater footage as divers examine the sunken Orca from Jaws, but the action is less suspenseful. Even John Williams, who returns with a new score, features a slower version of the hunt theme instead of the iconic “buh-dum.” In fact, that’s used rarely, which seems odd. (This is a perfect example of how much a difference music can make in a movie.)

As I started the movie, which I hadn’t seen in many, many years, I was inclined to nitpick and count the ways it was different from its predecessor and how it could have been better. However, at some point I was sucked in and even noted “this gets better as it goes along.” This seems to contradict what I said about nuance and character development. But let’s face it, there does need to be some killer shark action and Jaws 2 finally delivers it by placing the kids in an increasingly dangerous situation with Brody, no longer the police chief, going after them anyway.

Jaws 2 doesn’t have the thrill of the hunt of the original. It remains in the realm of horror most of the time instead of transitioning to pure action. That’s OK. As much as it follows the formula of Jaws, do we really want the exact same movie? Since there’s no way to equal it, you have to tweak the formula, even slightly, to make it seem fresh. I can’t help but think of one deviating plot point that might have elevated Jaws 2. What if, like Brody, we weren’t sure there was another shark? What if we experienced the same doubt as he did?

I won’t go as far as to ask what if there wasn’t even a shark at all. That would make Jaws 2 a sequel more akin to Exorcist II: the Heretic (1977), which no one wanted to see after The Exorcist (1973.)  As it turned out, Jaws 2 was the highest grossing sequel of all time… until the release of Rocky II a year later. That’s another example of barely tweaking the details of the original in an attempt to duplicate its success. Sometimes people really do want more of the same. Jaws 2 isn’t as tight as Jaws, but it generally delivers more of the same. In this case, I generally enjoyed it.