Andrew McNess

The Shark is Always There Andrew McNess

Jaws (1975) and its fourth instalment Jaws: The Revenge (1987) may share the fictional New England locale of Amity Island and the accidental shark-hunting family of the Brodys, but each film's universe of possibility - and distance from real-life feasibility - is very different. Jaws evokes a leviathan force of nature. Jaws: The Revenge entertains the notion of a vindictive monster, a notion that ultimately damned the film both critically and commercially. The Shark is Always There analyses the franchise anomaly that is Jaws: The Revenge: the perils of its rushed production, how it quotes and differentiates itself from its predecessors, how it builds upon their undercurrents of fate and vengeance, and, indeed, how its own revenge concept can be read. It's an engrossing look at a maligned, offbeat sequel.