Cruel Jaws Cruel Jaws Cruel Jaws, also known as The Beast, is a 1995 direct-to-video Italian thriller film shot in Florida including the Theater of the Sea. The film stars Richard Dew and David Luther and was directed by Bruno Mattei (under the name of William Snyder). It was released on VHS and DVD in relative obscurity, mostly outside of the United States. While marketed in many areas as Jaws 5: Cruel Jaws, it is actually not part of the "Jaws" franchise. The coastal town of Hampton Bay is threatened when a 25-foot great white shark starts chomping up their vacationers. Days
Jaws (film) attributed to it, as well as an increased number of reported shark sightings. It is still seen as responsible for perpetuating negative stereotypes about sharks and their behavior, and for producing the so-called ""Jaws" effect", which allegedly inspired "legions of fishermen [who] piled into boats and killed thousands of the ocean predators in shark-fishing tournaments." Benchley stated that he would not have written the original novel had he known what sharks are really like in the wild. Conservation groups have bemoaned the fact that the film has made it considerably harder to convince the public that sharks should be protected.