10 Questionable Creature Features Spawned By ‘Jaws’

When Jaws hit theaters in 1975, it didn’t just invent the summer blockbuster—it kicked off a feeding frenzy of killer creature copycats. Hollywood smelled blood in the water, hoping to capitalize on the monstrous draw of Steven Spielberg’s tale of aquatic terror. So while fans conquered newly-realized fears of the open ocean (and, let’s be honest, chlorinated pools) studio execs wondered, “What other natural wonders can we turn nightmarish?” The answer: literally everything. 

Homicidal bears. Revenge-seeking killer whales. Man-eating sandworms. And mythical furballs with a taste for blood. Hollywood tried everything to recreate the success of Jaws, churning out too many “man vs. man-eating animal” movies to count. Of course, we counted a few, rounding up some of the more tolerable knock-offs. Most aren’t particularly good, but they are entertaining, and they’re proof that cinema has been chasing the adrenaline rush of Spielberg’s gory masterpiece for a long, long time. 

1. Piranha (1978)
2. Grizzly (1976)
3. Orca (1977)
4. Claws (1977)
5. Alligator (1980)
6. Tentacles (1977)
7. Blood Beach (1981)
8. The Last Shark (1981)
9. Barracuda (1978)
10. Dogs (1977)

Piranha (1978)

If you’re familiar with the myth propagated by Theodore Roosevelt, you may picture piranhas as insatiable predators capable of stripping a full cow to the bone in seconds. That’s the version of the vertebrate that appears in 1978’s Piranha. A swarm of blood-thirsty fish making the pristine rivers surrounding a local summer resort their new hunting grounds is a fairly good premise for a monster horror movie. It’s also reason enough to never go on vacation again.

The Piranha franchise never matched the success of Jaws, but it did make at least one important contribution to Hollywood: The sequel, Piranha II: The Spawning, marked James Cameron’s directorial debut—at least according to the official credits. The Titanic director claims he was fired just two weeks into production and doesn’t consider it his first feature.

Grizzly (1976)

The vast, unknowableness of the sea makes it the perfect backdrop for horror stories, but this mid-1970s creature feature understood that menacing monsters can hide on dry land, too. Grizzly takes the best elements of Jaws and reworks them to turn yet another public summer hangout—a state park—into nightmare fuel. Instead of an underwater serial killer, audiences get spooked by an 18-foot-tall bear intent on tearing apart anyone who crosses its path. 

Orca (1977)

Spielberg tried to convince us that sharks were more than dorsal fins with teeth—they were the top of the watery food chain. Just a couple of years after Jaws, this bloody thriller emerged to set the record straight. Orcas are more intelligent than their pointy-nosed competitors, and they’re incredibly efficient hunters. That’s bad news for the villagers in Orca who hope to survive the vengeful wrath of a killer whale when his mate and calf are killed.

Claws (1977)

Here’s another thrilling cat-and-mouse game between some soft-bellied humans and an oversized furry mammal with nothing but time and a thirst for blood. Claws features one pissed-off grizzly bear targeting would-be poachers in the Alaskan mountains. 

Alligator (1980)

Sure, great whites might be the most recognizable aquatic predators, but those prehistoric lizards lurking in bayous, rivers, and city sewers have a mean bite, too. This early-1980s feature about a baby croc flushed down a toilet by scientists that grows up to terrorize the watery back alleys (and public swimming pools) of Chicago is actually one of the better Jaws knock-offs on this list. 

Tentacles (1977)

Another ocean-dwelling killing machine, the oversized mutant octopus in Tentacles causes chaos along the coast of California, at one point even killing a baby. The special effects don’t do the beast justice, but the film does make the case for why monsters with multiple limbs really are the worst. 

Blood Beach (1981)

This seaside story argues that the shore is just as deadly as the open ocean. Swap in the quiet East Coast town in Jaws for Venice Beach and its man-eating shark for giant sandworms and you’ve got this delightfully pulpy B-movie. 

The Last Shark (1981)

A 35-foot great white shark stalks a beachside community during a windsurfing competition while its mayor grossly mishandles the murderous threat. Sound familiar? Yeah, Universal thought so, too. That’s why finding a copy of this Italian Jaws rip-off might prove difficult. 

Barracuda (1978)

Did some Hollywood exec hear the heavy metal banger by Heart and think, “Yeah, a barracuda would make for a terrifying movie antagonist”? Who can say? But whatever the origin story for this film, the result is the same: a marathon of gore and jump scares brought to you by a hungry school of fish intent on punishing a town for polluting their waters. 

Dogs (1977)

Any cat owners watching this 1977 horror flick will likely feel vindicated in their choice of pet—at least until the final scene. The man vs. beast genre got a terrifyingly familiar foe in this David McCallum-led feature, one that follows a lone wolf professor as he tries to save his university town from a pack of rabid dogs. After secret government experiments start turning household mutts into feral killing machines, their humans must band together to survive the chaos. The plot is wonky, but the special effects aren’t half bad, and neither are most of the performances—human and animal alike. 

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