Shark-themed films are enjoying a boom in 2026, with roughly half a dozen releases already this year coinciding with Discovery Channel's annual Shark Week. The genre's enduring appeal lies in sharks occupying a middle ground between everyday reality and horror-movie menace, since audiences know real sharks exist and can be dangerous, even though cinematic depictions greatly exaggerate their ferocity. However, the article argues that none of these newer entries can match Steven Spielberg's 1975 classic Jaws, which remains the genre's defining, near-unrivalled masterpiece.

This week alone sees two new releases, The Devil's Mouth on Prime Video and Above & Below as a video-on-demand rental, following earlier 2026 titles including The Bay, Chum, Deep Water and the Netflix hit Thrash. The piece traces the subgenre's history from Jaws' three widely panned sequels, ending with 1987's Jaws: The Revenge, through to Renny Harlin's 1999 film Deep Blue Sea, which is held up as one of the few successful attempts to build on Spielberg's formula with a bigger, more outlandish creature-feature approach.