Happy Sunday to everyone out there in The Boneyard. I’ve got a question for you, What makes a bad movie good to some people? I’m thinking of a particular movie that is considered a terrible sequel to one of the most successful movies of all time…The all new third dimension in terror JAWS 3 .

In true Sunday tradition after a hard week I ate lunch and sat down to watch a movie. On some kind of auto pilot before I knew it, the Blu Ray of Jaws 3 was playing and I was asking myself, Why are you watching this awful sequel once again? I think the answer is, as with many films I consider to be so bad that they’re good, is that over many years the Jaws Franchise has become a comforting collection for me as I know almost every line of dialogue in all the Jaws movies and they are just easy to watch because I know them so well.

I can do my emails and work while they play in the background, but what I also find nuts is that for some reason it is impossible for me to watch one film in the franchise and not follow it up with the other sequels! Am I crazy? And does this happen to any other fans out there? please let me know in comments lol Of course when talking about Jaws 3 we have to mention that glorious 3D. You haven’t really experienced the full magic of the film until you’ve watched it in its original 3D format, complete with floating fish heads and a paper thin, slow motion shark swimming toward the camera in what can only be described as a visual that would not be out of place in a movie made 20 years earlier. Its basically a traveling matte painting. Putting it next to other creature features or nature attacks movies that used similar effects such as Hitchcock’s The Birds in 1963 that still look great, the Jaws 3 effects are a special kind of awful.

Over the years I’ve laughed, I’ve cringed, and then I’ve laughed again, because it’s impossible to believe that anyone thought this would be scary. And the movie takes itself way to seriously, apart from a few performances which we’ll come to later, instead of realising what it is, the third Jaws Movies and having fun with its goofiness. It’s like a disaster that you drive past and you just cant look away, but I still find myself watching again and again. I’m actually watching The Revenge now as I write this as it somehow found its way into the player when those cardboard cut-out dolphins jumped into the air and Jaws 3 ended lol You can’t blame anyone in-particular as the production of Jaws 3 was famously plagued by problems. It was directed by Joe Alves who had previously worked as a set designer for Jaws and Jaws 2, so he seemed like a good choice but for a first time director I think the production problems and studio interference were just too much and after this Alves never went on to direct another movie again. Behind the scenes, the film became a logistical nightmare, with troubled effects, endless re-shoots, and a 3D craze that turned out to be more of a curse than a blessing. And when it was released the film was a critical and box office flop that made jaws drop, but not in the way the studio intended. And yet… for all its flaws, Jaws 3 has somehow managed to swim its way into the hearts of cult film lovers, myself most certainly included.

There’s something undeniably charming about how bad it is. It’s the kind of movie you put on during a horror marathon and laugh at with a few beers, or like today just sit back and let the Jaws franchise wash over you on a lazy Sunday afternoon, when you can revel in its sheer absurdity. There’s some pretty decent acting from Dennis Quaid and Lea Thompson who I loved as a kid after seeing her work in Howard The Duck and Space Camp. We also get a crazy performance from Louis Gossett Jnr as the manager of the water park, fresh from his Oscar win in An Officer and a Gentleman’. Along with the Muscle beach park mechanic and the two over the top English hunters there is so much fun to be had these characters and I think some them especially Gossett, Simon MacCorkindale and P.H Moriarty seem to be having fun with the material and that really shows and is one of the reasons why I return to the film so much. These over the top performances elevate the film and I really do enjoy them and feel the pain when Philip FitzRoyce is killed and Tate screams ‘Governor!’ into the water filtration pipe. I just love that scene so much (maybe its because I’m English too lol). These performances, the nonsensical plot which includes a shark swimming backwards! and the hilariously outdated effects all come together to create a special blend of movie magic that only the most misguided sequels can pull off. All of these bad elements come together and somehow make a film that I enjoy a great deal. Of course, Jaws fans and critics alike absolutely hated it.

This isn’t the movie that terrified people and made them afraid to go in the water in 1975. This is the movie that for many, is like the drunk friend who’s had one to many at the bar, you kind of love them, but you also kind of wish they’d stayed at home. But that’s also exactly why some of us love it. It’s campy, it’s ridiculous, and it’s unintentionally hilarious. It’s a production disaster that turned out so bad some of us just fell in love with it. When you watch, just don’t expect a Stephen Spielberg or Hitchcock level of suspense, simply sit back and enjoy it with it’s over-the-top delivery and cheesy thrills that have become a beloved part of bad movie history. A lot of Jaws fans I’ve met over the years will forever turn their noses up at it and that is totally understandable, but for a few of us, Jaws 3 is a guilty pleasure that I find it the same as comfort food and I can’t help but enjoy every bite.