How the theme from the movie Jaws struck fear into people that watched it

Posted: August 7th, 2013

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How the theme from the movie Jaws struck fear into people that watched it

            Jaws is a movie that is based on a book of a similar title. Its genre is horror and thriller and  it was produced in 1975. The movie follows the happenings of a small town located near the Atlantic. The town relies on tourism as its major source of income. There are several shark attacks that are reported but the mayor refuses to shut the beaches, as it would mean that the tourists would leave the town. This would result in a huge loss for the town as it depended on tourism. The occurrences of this town attract the attention of a prominent shark hunter and a marine biologist who come into the town in a bid to try to find the shark. In the movie, there is a distinct theme played everytime the shark is about to strike and this theme strikes fear in the people watching the movie.

This theme is a high-paced composition that is purely instrumental. In every scene where the killer shark is about to attack the small town, the theme is played. This theme was associated with am imminent attack of the man-eating shark. The theme from the movie struck fear into the people that watched it. This is because after several occurrences involving the shark, the theme was now associated with the demise of another character in the movie. This was an ingenious method to ensure that the audience was terrified even before they witnessed the actual events involving the shark.

There is an association of the shark attacks with the theme played during the movie. The audience establishes this as the movie progresses. This is because; the first time the theme plays, they do not have another experience to relate it to with relation to the movie they are watching. However, after subsequent attacks, whenever the theme begins to play, they automatically anticipate an attack from the shark. This is because they have established a relationship between the attacks that occur to the people in the town and the playing of the particular theme. Because the attacks from the sharks were very gruesome, whenever the theme played, the audience is taken back to the previous attacks and this strikes fear in them.

The theme was high-pitched, that is, it was comprised of fast -paced instruments. Music of this nature has been proven to increase the heart rates of the audiences if is played to. In the case of movies, they infuse such music to increase the effects if their screenplay. In the case of the selected movie, it as already been categorized as a horror movie, therefore, the people watching it already know what to expect to some extent. The level of adrenaline in then is already high as is their heart rates. During the movie, as the theme is played, it increases their heat rates further and this causes them to be fearful.

Over the years, it has been established that the most effective way to induce fear into the audience is by using the power of the unknown. This is because the brain can fathom several aspects that people may refuse to accept. In this case, horror movies like jaws were developed to unlock the already present fear in man as opposed to inducing fear to us. The most commonly used method to obtain this level of fear is the use of themes that will affect the audiences unknowingly. These themes build a relationship between several occurrences that are in the movie being aired. This results in the unlocking of fear from the audiences and this explains why themes are used to strike fear in the people watching the movies.