My husband and I watched an old movie - Lake Placid - about a crocodile in a lake in Maine. A 30 foot croc. It's incredibly silly, with Oliver Platt, Bridget Fonda, Bill Pullman, Brendan Gleeson and Betty White. There is a cow hanging from a helicopter and a great surprise attack and heads being bitten off. We had just seen 5 pretty big crocs at the zoo, and their jaws are a whole lot scarier than a sharks'. The plot was just remotely plausible. I'm not sure what appeals to me about the film, but the lake is well captured, so much so that I can smell it's fishiness when I watch.
I guess I think such films help process much scarier real life threats, or at least let the mind tiptoe up to earthquake or fire or a mountain lion in the back yard. The major characters in this film escape death, but you know that wouldn't happen. The first time I saw Deep Blue Sea and the shark grabbed Samuel L. Jackson I screamed. Major stars aren't supposed to get eaten. They tricked us. In that film the good guys don't get saved, except for two. Would I have the brains to go under water and hide? Nope. I'd be eaten as a snack right away, while I was panicing and flailling around. Know thy own cowardice.
But the truth is worse. People are lost or saved mostly randomly. Out of luck or the luck is with you. Good guys get taken, the bad survive. There is no justice. Life lets you dog paddle, then pulls you in eventually - or sooner.
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