(Credit: Alamy)

Jaws single-handedly changed what was possible on a cinema screen. Just the third film directed by Steven Spielberg, it was released in 1975 to critical acclaim and enormous box office success, it was arguably one of the first modern horror movies, creating suspense and eliciting terror from the audience by new means from any seen in the film industry before it.

Its use of POV underwater camera angles for the build-up shots to bloody killings inflicted by its titular great white shark gave us the perspective of this monstrous beast moments before it committed a gruesome act. And the film’s innovative application of animatronics helped bring the contemporary blockbuster into being. It started a sub-genre of animal-based horror movies and is cited as the primary reason that sharks have garnered a terrible reputation as the most fearsome beasts in the ocean, despite statistics suggesting otherwise.

One significant feature of the movie is its horrifying death scenes, beginning with the attack on oblivious night swimmer Chrissie Watkins in its opening minutes. Spielberg and his production crew tied stunt actor Susan Backlinie to an underwater pulley to make it appear as if she was being thrown around in the shark’s gigantic jaws underwater like a rag doll, as she struggled for her life.

The movie’s sharp-toothed villain devours two further innocents of Amity Island – a young boy playing in the shallows of a family beach and an unsuspecting boater – before the grisliest scene of all. Shark hunter Quint finds himself sliding towards his target’s open mouth when it bites into the fishing boat he’s using with local police chief Martin Brody, capsizing it. 

All we can do is watch on in terror as the shark bites down on Quint’s legs and torso, breaking his entire lower half to bits until blood pours from his mouth and his arms go limp. Whatever’s left of him gets dragged underwater, leaving nothing but a red cloud and boat debris behind.

So, what’s the total death count?

Watkins, young Alex and the boater, and Quint are actually the only four people killed by the shark during the course of Jaws. Oceanographer Matt Hooper has a close call, but manages to dive to safety, before Brody saves himself by throwing an oxygen tank into the shark’s mouth. He then manages to shoot the tank, exploding the shark and ridding Amity Island of its deadliest resident.

If we’re adding animals to the total death count, we also need to include the dog Pipit, who goes into the sea to chase his bone and is unceremoniously finished off by the shark in what seems like a single bite.

There’s one more dead human, too, in the form of local fisherman Ben Gardner, whose body Hooper discovers half-decomposed under the sea. However, Gardner isn’t killed during the course of the film.

So if we’re looking for a total kill count, it’s four humans and one animal at the jaws of the titular shark, plus the shark itself. That’s a total of six kills. And seven dead altogether.

These numbers might seem pretty tame by the standards of today’s shark-based cinematic massacres. But it’s the suspense that really kills you.