21 movies that made us afraid to go into the water

In 1999’s , a giant crocodile is terrorizing a fictional lake in Maine as a dysfunctional group of scientists and police (including Bill Pullman and Bridget Fonda) try to figure out a way to kill the monster reptile. A highlight of the movie is watching a foul-mouthed Betty White (who was an animal activist in real life) offer a blindfolded cow to the killer croc. Since crocodiles can hunt humans in the water and on land, they literally have a leg up on sharks. Lake Placid spawned five direct-to-Syfy channel sequels, but none of them balance horror and laughs quite like the original.

1989 seemed to be the golden year for oceanic-terror movies, with the release of The Abyss, DeepStar Six, and . The latter is directed by George P. Cosmatos and stars Peter Weller, Richard Crenna, Amanda Pays, and Daniel Stern. It features yet another team of deep-sea explorers perched at the edge of a wrecked Soviet freighter who is terrorized by a mutant monster that is the result of a botched genetic experiment. The miners come to realize that the company rep played by icy-blue-eyed Meg Foster doesn’t want anyone to reach the surface alive and expose the truth about the horrors below.

A megalodon is an extinct giant shark that ruled the oceans millions of years ago and left fossilized teeth the size of your hand as the only evidence of its existence. , starring Jason Statham as deep-sea diver Jonas Taylor, is about a group of scientists exploring the Mariana Trench—the deepest place on Earth—who accidentally enable a living 75-foot megalodon to escape to the surface and eat lots of boats and people. Some believe it’s possible that megalodons still exist in the deepest, most unexplored parts of the ocean, and The Meg runs with the idea. A sequel, , swims into theaters on August 4.

Of all the movies on our list, the low-budget horror film really chills the blood when you learn that it is based on the true story of a vacationing couple who went scuba diving only to be accidentally left behind by their tour boat. Stranded at sea and bobbing at the surface, the couple (played by Blanchard Ryan and Daniel Travis) fight to survive as sharks circle them. The sleeper hit spawned two sequels unrelated to this tragic story.

Speaking of movies that made us afraid of the water that are based on actual events, is based on the true story of the Andrea Gail, which was lost at sea during the Perfect Storm of 1991. In the 2000 movie directed by Wolfgang Petersen, George Clooney plays the Andrea Gail captain who tries to navigate a once-in-a-lifetime storm event with tragic consequences. The movie starring Mark Wahlberg, John C. Reilly, Diane Lane, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, and Karen Allen will make you seasick as you watch the Andrea Gail hopelessly struggle against wicked waves, harsh hurricane winds, and haaaaaw-shuh Boston accents.

In horror movies, if you can get the audience to use their imagination to fill in the blanks that your budget won’t allow, you’ve got a winner. This is the case for 1978’s , a cheap-but-effective Jaws rip-off about killer piranha that are accidentally released into the rivers surrounding a lush resort. Some flashes of fast-moving fish with sharp teeth are all that’s needed to convince you to stay out of the murky water and check out the resort’s bar instead. The movie spawned a sequel, , which was James Cameron’s film directing debut, as well as the remake and its sequel, .

Jaws spawned several dubious sequels and a whole genre of shoddy killer-fish flicks (here’s looking at you, Sharknado), but there have been a few other shark movies with legit bite. Jaume Collet-Serra’s 2016 film is one of them. In the well-reviewed survival thriller, Blake Lively stars as a medical student and surfer on vacation named Nancy who becomes stranded 200 yards from shore as a hungry great white circles her. With an injured seagull as her only company, Nancy has to use the limited tools available to her to get back to the safety of the sand. This nail-biter is the worst-case scenario for any surfer to be in and will easily convince you to never sign up for lessons. The popular misconception that you are safe from sharks in the shallows is blown out of the water here. Thanks a lot, Mr. Collet-Serra!

You might not have heard of the 1977 horror movie , but fans of either zombies or scary aquatic movies should seek it out. In this grainy, low-budget thriller, a small tour boat becomes marooned on a remote island whose only inhabitant (Peter Cushing) is a former Nazi commander overseeing a small army of zombie supersoldiers which, like a bull shark, move effortlessly between ocean and marsh environments. Invasion Of The Body Snatchers co-star Brooke Adams is a familiar face among the tourists, and John Carradine plays the grizzled captain of the tourist boat. The images of gray-skinned, goggled zombies—with no apparent need for breathing air—silently sneaking up on the cast in tranquil water are eerie and unsettling, to say the least. The most that could be said is that Shock Waves is the unsung Citizen Kane of aquatic Nazi-zombie movies.

If you’re upset that the best movies about aquatic terror seem to have been made decades ago, check out 2019’s directed by J.D. Dillard. In the survival thriller, Kiersey Clemons plays a young woman named Jennifer who washes ashore on a tropical island after her boat sinks. Not only must Jennifer fight for survival during the day, she must elude a terrifying monster that emerges from the waves each night. If this spine-tingling creature feature doesn’t make you rethink that camping-on-the-beach idea, nothing will.

The 2009 psychological horror film , directed by Christopher Smith, combines a real fear of water with an irrational cinematic fear of being stuck in a time loop. Melissa George plays Jess, a single mother who goes on a yacht trip with friends only to have the boat capsize. The survivors make their way to a mysterious, seemingly abandoned ocean liner on which Jess appears to be trapped in a time loop, seeing other versions of herself and others repeat the same actions. Is it all in her head from experiencing the trauma of being stranded at sea, or will she have to eliminate every other version of herself to become the one true Jess? If you’re looking for an aquatic thriller that will mess with your head, hop aboard!

Alphabetically last but certainly not least on our list is the 2020 sci-fi action-horror film starring Kristen Stewart, Vincent Cassel, and T.J. Miller. If you’ve read the rest of this article, the plot should sound very familiar: a group of oceanic researchers working at a drilling facility at the bottom of the Mariana Trench encounters hostile creatures after an earthquake devastates their deep-sea station. Stewart doesn’t go “full Ripley” à la Sigourney Weaver in Aliens, but at least in this claustrophobic thriller, she has the look and the fire in her belly to become an action heroine after too many years on the surface acting in too many Twilight movies.