Finfrosk – I see what you’re saying, and I totally get where you’re coming from – in fact, I’m a vegetarian and an animal advocate – but at the end of the day, a movie is just a movie.

It’s a shame that movies like Jaws have spread the wrong message about sharks, like you say, but what would also be a shame is movies like that not existing, for fear of people taking the wrong messages from them.

Entertainment is merely entertainment, as Black points out, and I can only hope that most viewers are indeed able to separate fiction from reality.

Yes and no. On one hand I think our world already has a lot of non-fiction creatures that could give most nightmares. It’s only natural that we’d want to explore those fears in fiction, but it does cause some nasty side effects.

For instance, I love the movie Jaws, it’s in my top 10 for sure, but it resulted in millions of sharks being killed out of fear. It’s strange because the very same fear was illustrated in the film and poked fun at how ridiculous they were being and people just went out and did it anyway.

But, do I wish the film was never made, do I blame Steven Spielberg? No, I blame the stupidity of man. An educated person realizes that sharks don’t take things personally or seek revenge. In fact, most human shark attacks are based on a shark’s confusion or curiosity, not some kind of “kill man” motive.

It’s like anything, you’ve got to be able to separate fiction from reality. People who can’t are already dangerous.

But, I actually quite like the killer animal genre, Cujo, Ben, Willard, Arachnophobia, The Birds, etc.