5 Horror Movies to Watch If You Can’t Wait For Shark Week on the Discovery Channel
The 37th annual Shark Week on the Discovery Channel begins Sunday, July 20, 2025.
One thing almost everyone can agree on is the fact that Discovery Channel’s annual “Shark Week” event is a perennial banger. Every year during Shark Week the channel airs non-stop shark related programming to educate and entertain viewers. Generally, the week falls in the summer where it heightens the anxiety of viewers who may later hit the beach for a swim. The 37th annual Shark Week on the Discovery Channel begins Sunday, July 20, 2025.
If you’re a fan of Shark Week looking for more shark-related to chills to watch, here are some of the best shark attack horror movies:
Deep Blue Sea (1999)
There is one particular scene that is so effectively shocking and scary that it lands Deep Blue Sea on this list. If you’ve seen the movie, you know which scene this is. Deep Blue Sea is about the crew of an isolated research facility where sharks are being studied in the hopes of curing Alzheimer’s. Unfortunately, the testing creates genetically enhanced sharks so intelligent they are able to escape captivity and begin hunting down their captors.
Open Water (2003)
Like Jaws, the scariest part of Open Water is what we don’t see. This survival horror movie is based on a true story and follows a vacationing couple who are left behind in the open ocean after the boat they were scuba diving from mistakenly thinks all of their divers have returned and leaves for shore. The couple has nowhere to run and nothing to do but paddle and wait for the horrors hidden below the surface to attack.
Shark Night (2011)
A scary shark movie that feels like a slasher film. Shark Night follows a group of college friends vacationing at a lake house for the weekend. Despite being located on fresh water, the friends begin to be picked off by sharks one by one. Eventually, they discover the attacks aren’t an accident.
The Shallows (2016)
The Shallows sees medical student and surfer Nancy (Blake Lively) mourning her mother’s passing by visiting a remote beach in Baja California that her mother loved. Nancy is attacked by a great white shark while surfing. She manages to make it to a small rock that is a mere 200 yards from shore, but with the tide coming in and no one around to come to save her, Nancy needs to decide if she’s going to die on that rock or take action.
47 Meters Down (2017)
Mandy Moore and Claire Holt star as two vacationing sisters who go on a caged shark dive. A mishap on the trip results in the women being trapped at the bottom of the ocean. While they are still protected by the cage, they have only an hour of oxygen left. Surrounded by great white sharks and needing to surface slowly in order to prevent deadly decompression sickness, things look pretty grim.
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