Each cinema fan has fundamental memories of the moments they were really afraid of films growing up. For me, watch Classic horror film flop “Nightbreed” at the age of 10 was probably not the best idea. Attending an entire family killed by a miserable Hellspawn before seeing a man sew his own face and taking pieces of his own flesh while being moderate by hospital staff is now forever engraved in my cortex. But before scoring my young spirit for good with the nasty fancy of Clive Barker’s horror – and even before I know what a horror film was – Steven Spielberg provided my, and a whole whole generation, the first fear of the film.

In fact, he managed to provide an entire slate of fear with “Jaws” from 1975. So effective in upsetting the public was this inaugural blockbuster that Early projection of “Jaws” had a member of the public vomited. As I was a child in the early 90s, there was still a fear induced by the palpable “jaws” among adults, the one I knew quickly when I was allowed to watch the film for myself.

Aside from the ambient level of fear that I remember this first vision, the most shocking moment viscerally – the one that formed a central memory – was when this fucking head floated out of the submerged boat. It may not be one of the The biggest moments of “Jaws” ,, “ But the scene in which Matt Hooper by Richard Dreyfuss plunges to investigate the ship half killed by the fisherman Ben Gardner (played by the real Fisherman Craig Kingsbury), only for the head of Gardner with long duration, is surely the first experience of the jump by many people. It was the moment when the “jaws” turned into a complete horror territory, and I think it is just to say that this scene remains an important moment in the history of horror, even if looking at it as an adult does not have the same impact – especially when you know that the key moment was turned in a swimming pool.

Knowing how and when a scene has been turned can sometimes be a deflation experience. Now that I know that the whole “Home Alone” house was a set built in a school gymnasium, for example, a small piece of magic is lost every time I reset it. Similarly, knowing that the “Jaws” turned head was filmed in a swimming pool in a way the depriva of horror. On the other hand, however, it makes the most impressive when you know how Steven Spielberg and Company really realized it.

In the film, the discovery of Ben Gardner’s body could be the biggest fear of the whole film. It turns out that this bit was only added after screening for initial tests have left Spielberg eager to obtain one more public cry. It was not enough for a guy to vomited by looking at the disappearance of poor young Alex Kintner (Jeffrey Voorhees), the director wanted another great fear, and therefore the now infamous whim was added. But Spielberg was not about to enjoy the whole “Jaws” crew in Martha’s vineyard where the film had been shot. Instead, it remained local and used the swimming pool of its publisher in the Los Angeles district of Van Nuys.

As told in a manufacture of featuretteUniversal Pictures had already signed during the final cup when Spielberg enlisted the specialist in the VFX Kevin Pike, the stuntman Frank Sparks and the publisher Verna Fields to help create the insertion photo he needed. As the director reminds us:

“This scene had already been filmed, but it was not made to shock the public and I therefore went to Verna Fields’ […] And borrowed his pool, because I didn’t. I did not have enough money to have a swimming pool at that time because the “jaws” had not yet been released and I was a poor director “.

In EmpireThe oral story of “Jaws”, the writer and the actor of Meadows, Carl Gottlieb, recalled how there was “no more money for the shooting” when Spielberg decided to add the additional Gardner scene. According to Gottlieb, the director said that he would pay the shooting and “the skeleton team” of a production team headed for the house of Fields where they threw “half a (half-gall of milk” in the swimming pool to make it “more photogenic”. In the manufacturing featurette, Pike tells how he used a small replica of a boat shell that he had built in someone’s aisle, which they overwhelmed in the pool with a foam lifestyle of the actor of Ben Gardner Craig Kingsbury. After launching the tarpaulin on the swimming pool itself, sparks stood for Dreyfuss, holding the pocket lamp by the hull while Pike pushed the Gardner flowing through the hole in the hull. The result was one of the most frightening moments on the screen in the history of cinema. As Spielberg reminded, “I remember, I timed it to obtain it for a maximum shock effect.”

Steven Spielberg has certainly managed to obtain the desired shock effect. If the first test projections had already traumatized the public, the previews featuring the Ben Gardner Head moment were something else. Reminating on the most satisfactory modification she made in “Jaws” after her Oscar victory for the best modification of the film, Verna Fields said:

“The most satisfactory assembly, I must say, was the face that came out of the boat because when I went to this overview and that this audience just took six feet from their seats and let this incredible cry escape. It was really satisfactory.”

As overwhelming as the Fake Gardner Head, Fields really deserves a large part of the credit for having inserted one of the most memorable moments of “Jaws” inserted. In fact, it was an integral part of making the film so effective throughout. As Spielberg said in the manufacturing featurette, “Verna did an excellent job with her bio-rhythms, creating a bio-rosely for” jaws “. It was just the good kind of tension, like a violin rope playing a very, very high note.”

Spielberg ended up being reimbursed for turning the additional scene. Carl Gottlieb said that once universal leaders had seen it: “They asked how much it cost and that the studio said:” Very well “and paid what turns out to be a major point in the film.” The writer also remembered the way he and Spielberg would visit a theater on Hollywood Boulevard and would be held in the back of the projections of “Jaws” just when the Gardner Head scene was playing. “We would be at the back and watch 1000 heads jump simultaneously,” he said. “Then we would laugh and push and push ourselves and go out for the evening.” However The shooting of “Jaws” was famous tortuous for Spielberg, at least him and his writer had time for their lives after having created one of the most Savage Animal Attack Horror Films always and traumatize several generations.