The Most Entertaining Awful Shark Horror Movies

Over 1.0K Ranker voters have come together to rank this list of The Most Entertaining Awful Shark Horror Movies
Voting Rules
Vote up the most ridiculously funny & violent shark terror films. No well-made cinematic masterpieces (i.e. no Jaws).
Latest additions: The Black Demon, Meg 2: The Trench
Most divisive: Dinoshark

This list is not the best shark movies—it's the opposite of that. While the Discovery Channel has been airing Shark Week since 1988, studios have been producing objectively awful low-budget shark movies for much longer. Think Sharknado was the beginning of the craze? Try a little Oscar-winner called Jaws, which became the first-ever summer blockbuster when it hit theaters in 1975. On the heels (tail fins?) of its success, studios the world over churned out one crappy shark horror film after another. They didn't care whether or not they had the budget for high-quality effects (they didn't), a visionary director (nope), or even a story that made sense (pshh). What they had was TEETH! And BLOOD! And SEXY TEENAGERS GETTING IMPALED BY THE SHARK'S TENTACLES OR WHATEVER!

Have you spent a lot of time watching campy shark films on SyFy? What do you look for in a shark terror movie? While some may want highly suspenseful set-ups wherein boaters may be able to escape—if only they don't make any dumb decisions—others are looking for supremely impossible hybrid shark beasts that slaughter their victims in creative ways... even their victims who are indoors, several miles inland, maybe just inspecting the pipes of their own kitchen sinks. (Spoiler: That happens in Ghost Shark.) Still other audiences may want great carefully-selected casts who are performing simply for the love of the genre, not because they need the money (like seasoned thespian Carmen Electra in 2-Headed Shark Attack) or because no one else will hire them (Brooke Hogan, same film).

Do you prefer goofy plasticky models or insanely lazy and childish CGI sharks? Do you want a complicated storyline that involves one guy demanding that some other guy close the beaches, but the second guy won't because of all that $$$? Do you prefer your sharks to be science experiments gone wrong or just some enormous, natural supposedly-extinct monsters that have been hiding at the bottom of the ocean for millions of years? Do you even care, as long as there's screaming and blood? This list includes both wide releases and made-for-TV shark movies, including those marvelous suckfests in SyFy's Maneater Series. Vote up your favorite terrible shark horror films, and click "rank your version" below to make your own list.

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  • The Meg
    1
    258 votes
    • Actors: Jason Statham, Li Bingbing, Rainn Wilson, Cliff Curtis, Winston Chao
    • Directed by: Jon Turteltaub
    • Genres: Science Fiction, Thriller, Action, Adventure
    Previously thought to be extinct, a massive creature attacks a deep-sea submersible, leaving it disabled and trapping the crew at the bottom of the Pacific. With time running out, a visionary oceanographer recruits rescue diver Jonas Taylor to save the crew and the sea itself from an unimaginable threat -- a 75-foot-long prehistoric shark known as the Megalodon.

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  • Deep Blue Sea
    2
    241 votes
    • Actors: Thomas Jane, Saffron Burrows, Samuel L. Jackson, Jacqueline McKenzie, Michael Rapaport
    • Directed by: Renny Harlin
    • Genres: Science Fiction
    In the thrilling ride that is Deep Blue Sea, Dr. Susan McAlester (Saffron Burrows) and her team of scientists have been experimenting on sharks, aiming to find a cure for Alzheimer's. Their research takes place in an underwater facility, Aquatica. Carter Blake (Thomas Jane), a shark wrangler, and Preacher (LL Cool J), the cook, are among the crew members trapped within this watery labyrinth when things go awry. The genetically modified sharks prove more intelligent than anticipated, causing havoc as they break free. It's a gripping battle for survival that explores mankind's hubris in manipulating nature - all set against the backdrop of the deep blue sea.

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  • Jaws 3-D
    3
    437 votes
    • Actors: Dennis Quaid, Lea Thompson, Louis Gossett, Jr., Bess Armstrong
    • Directed by: Joe Alves
    • Genres: Horror, Suspense, Thriller, Mystery, Action Film
    Jaws 3-D is a 1983 American horror thriller film directed by Joe Alves and starring Dennis Quaid, Bess Armstrong, Lea Thompson and Louis Gossett, Jr. It is the second sequel to Steven Spielberg's Jaws, which was based on the novel by Peter Benchley and is the third installment in the Jaws franchise. It is also the only one in the series not made directly by Universal, and one of the few theatrical films produced by Alan Landsburg Productions. The film is notable for making use of 3D film during the revived interest in the technology in the 1980s, amongst other horror films such as Friday the 13th Part III and Amityville 3D. Cinema audiences could wear disposable cardboard polarized 3D glasses to create the illusion that elements penetrate the screen. Several shots and sequences were designed to utilise the effect, such as the shark's destruction. Since 3D was ineffective in home viewing until the advent of 3D televisions in the early 2000s, the alternative title Jaws III is used for television broadcasts, VHS and DVD. Jaws 3-D was followed by Jaws: The Revenge in 1987.
  • Sharknado
    4
    528 votes
    • Actors: Tara Reid, Cassie Scerbo, Julie McCullough, Ian Ziering, John Heard
    • Directed by: Anthony C. Ferrante
    • Genres: Horror, Science Fiction
    Sharknado is a 2013 science fiction TV movie directed by Anthony C. Ferrante.
  • Shark Night 3D
    5
    336 votes
    • Actors: Sara Paxton, Dustin Milligan, Chris Carmack, Joel David Moore, Katharine McPhee
    • Directed by: David R. Ellis
    • Genres: Horror, Thriller
    Newly arrived at her family's lake-island cabin, college student Sara (Sara Paxton) and her friends prepare for a weekend of fun in the sun. But soon after they dive into the lake, football player Malik (Sinqua Walls) stumbles out of the water with a grievous wound. Thinking Malik is the victim of a freak accident, the friends pile into a tiny speedboat and head for the hospital. To their horror, they discover that they are surrounded by hundreds of massive, hungry sharks.

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  • Jaws: The Revenge
    6
    319 votes
    • Actors: Michael Caine, Mario Van Peebles, Melvin Van Peebles, Lynn Whitfield, Judith Barsi
    • Directed by: Joseph Sargent
    • Genres: Horror, Thriller, Action Film, Action/Adventure, Natural horror film
    Jaws: The Revenge, is a 1987 American horror thriller film directed by Joseph Sargent. It is the third and final sequel to Steven Spielberg's Jaws and the fourth and final installment in the Jaws franchise. The film focuses on Ellen Brody and her convictions that a shark is preying on her family, particularly when a great white follows her to the Bahamas. Jaws: The Revenge was shot on location in New England and in the Bahamas, and completed on the Universal lot. Like the first two films, Martha's Vineyard was the location of the fictional Amity Island for the opening scenes. Although preceded by Jaws 3-D, Revenge ignores plot elements introduced in that film. Jaws: The Revenge earned the least amount of money in the series and was panned by critics, with a 0% rating on the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes. It also had the shortest production window of the Jaws movies: While the other three films in the series took around two years to produce, Jaws: The Revenge was made in less than nine months.

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