Mark Anderson was still holding Evelyn Parker’s hand when he noticed something unexpected.
Instead of being completely soft, her palm and fingers carried faint roughness, with thin calluses around several joints.
Curious, he unconsciously brushed his thumb across one of them until a cold voice suddenly sounded beside him.
“Have you touched enough?”
Mark immediately looked up and found Evelyn staring at him with murderous eyes.
“Uh…” He quickly released her hand and gave an awkward smile.
“Sorry. Reflex.”
Evelyn glared at him before turning back toward the paused movie.
Her expression gradually became complicated because she had never expected Jaws to frighten her this badly within its opening minutes.
She had watched plenty of horror movies over the years, but most stopped being frightening once she understood their tricks.
This movie felt different.
The shark hadn’t even appeared, yet a few underwater shots, carefully controlled sound, and the feeling that something unseen was approaching had already awakened a much more primitive fear.
Evelyn glanced toward Mark again, genuinely wondering how he had managed to make an empty stretch of dark water feel so dangerous.
Mark misunderstood her expression and asked, “If it’s too much, we can stop. You can finish it tomorrow during daylight.”
“No.” Evelyn immediately shook her head and pressed play again.
“We’re finishing it.”
Fortunately, the movie didn’t immediately follow Chrissie’s death with another attack.
The story moved into Amity Island’s main conflict as Police Chief Martin Brody, played by Mark himself, became convinced that a shark had killed her and tried to close the beaches.
Mayor Larry Vaughn, worried about the island’s tourism economy, resisted Brody’s warnings and pushed to keep the beaches open.
Mark watched the screen while habitually examining his own work for editing problems, continuity mistakes, and weak transitions.
He had preserved the core structure of Jaws that he remembered—the escalating attacks, Brody’s growing frustration, marine biologist Matt Hooper’s arrival, Quint’s introduction, and the eventual hunt aboard the Orca—while tightening a few transitions and production details where necessary.
The heart of the movie remained untouched because that structure was exactly what made the story work.
Evelyn’s reactions confirmed his decision.
As the threat escalated and Brody struggled to convince people that the beaches were unsafe, she became increasingly absorbed in the movie, occasionally leaning forward without realizing it.
The combination of carefully controlled editing, the oppressive score, enhanced sound, and the hidden Instinctive Perception effect kept her nervous even during scenes where no shark appeared.
Several times, Evelyn unconsciously reached toward Mark whenever the tension suddenly increased, only to realize what she was doing and pull her hand back.
After the second time, she simply clasped both hands tightly between her knees and refused to move them again.
Her eyes, however, never left the screen.
By the latter half of the movie, Brody, Hooper, and Quint were already aboard the Orca hunting the great white.
Mark’s Brody stood near the stern throwing bloody chum into the ocean while the water behind him remained deceptively calm.
The audience knew the shark was close, but the movie continued refusing to reveal exactly where.
Then the shark surfaced.
Its enormous head suddenly rose beside the boat, jaws opening as it came through the blood-stained water.
Rows of triangular teeth flashed inside its mouth before the creature disappeared again almost as quickly as it had appeared.
“Ah!”
Evelyn instantly pulled her legs onto the couch and curled herself into the corner.
Mark almost laughed.
Nobody at Silverline Pictures would have believed that Evelyn Parker—the woman who could intimidate an entire conference room simply by raising an eyebrow—could be reduced to this by a shark movie.
When she noticed the amusement in his expression, her cheeks reddened slightly and she immediately lowered her legs, straightening herself as though nothing had happened.
Mark wisely said nothing.
From that point onward, the shark became more visible as Brody, Hooper, and Quint fought it at sea.
Strangely, Evelyn became less frightened once the creature was clearly shown because the unknown threat had finally gained a physical form. The source of this chapter is g.com.
She still flinched when it attacked the damaged Orca and visibly tensed when Quint slid helplessly into its jaws, but she no longer screamed.
That reaction pleased Mark more than anything else.
Fear was strongest while the audience was imagining what might happen.
A director couldn’t simply place frightening images on screen and hope they worked.
Every pause, reveal, reaction shot, musical cue, and edit had to guide the audience toward a particular emotion, almost like an engineer calculating stress points in a structure.
When Evelyn screamed exactly where Mark expected her to scream and relaxed exactly where the movie allowed her to relax, he knew the design was working.
The climax finally arrived.
After Quint’s death and Hooper’s disappearance beneath the water, Brody was left alone aboard the sinking Orca.
When the shark attacked again, he managed to force a compressed-air tank into its mouth, climbed onto the rapidly sinking mast with Quint’s rifle, and repeatedly fired until one bullet struck the tank.
The explosion tore through the shark.
Blood and debris vanished beneath the waves as the enormous predator finally sank.
The movie ended soon afterward with Hooper resurfacing alive and joining Brody as the two exhausted survivors made their way back toward shore.
When the screen finally brightened, Evelyn remained motionless for several seconds, as though she had only just remembered that she was sitting inside her own basement.
Her clenched hands slowly relaxed.
Her palms were damp.
A thin layer of cold sweat covered her back, yet instead of feeling exhausted, Evelyn felt strangely refreshed, almost like emerging from a roller coaster after spending two hours convinced something terrible was about to happen.
This movie was incredible.
Mark stood and disconnected the portable drive he had pretended to use earlier.
“Well?” He turned toward Evelyn with a smile.
“Is the movie worth putting a little more money into?”
Evelyn remained quiet for several seconds before looking up seriously.
“Most of Silverline’s available production capital is already committed to Derek Collins’s project.
I don’t have much unrestricted cash left right now.” She paused before adding, “I can authorize another $700,000 immediately for marketing.”
“Only seven hundred thousand?”
Mark frowned.
A serious theatrical marketing campaign could consume that amount incredibly quickly, especially once trailers, digital advertising, publicity materials, screenings, and theater promotion were included.
Evelyn immediately raised an eyebrow.
“If you don’t want it, I can keep it.”
“I want it.”
Mark answered without hesitation.
Something was always better than nothing.
Evelyn thought for another moment before continuing.
“I’ll try to free up another $1.4 million before October tenth. That would give you roughly $2.1 million for the campaign in total.”
Mark’s eyes immediately brightened.
Two-point-one million dollars still wasn’t the kind of marketing budget a major studio blockbuster received, but for a movie produced for only seven hundred thousand dollars, it was enough to mount a serious campaign.
“Thank you, Ms. Parker.”
“Don’t thank me yet.” Evelyn looked directly at him.
“I’m giving you that money because I believe the movie actually has potential. But you were the one who claimed Jaws could dominate the Halloween horror market.”
“If Jaws doesn’t become the biggest horror release of the Halloween season, I’ll change my name.”
Evelyn shook her head.
“Your promises aren’t worth much.”
Mark’s smile disappeared.
“What does that mean?”
“We’re putting it in writing.”
“You want another agreement?”
“Of course.” Evelyn’s expression returned to the cool, commanding look she wore at Silverline.
“Do you think I casually hand you millions of dollars because you ask nicely?”
Mark frowned.
“You just watched the movie. You still don’t trust it?”
“I trust the movie.”
Evelyn looked him straight in the eyes.
“I don’t trust you.”
Mark opened his mouth, then remembered the nearly twenty-four-million-dollar disaster attached to his previous production.
All the indignation immediately disappeared from his face.
“Fine. I’ll sign.”
“We’ll work out the terms at Silverline tomorrow.”
Mark nodded, assuming their business was finished, but Evelyn remained seated.
After a moment, she said, “Good. Now that we’ve handled your problem, we can talk about mine.”
Mark paused.
“You have something else?”
“Obviously.” Evelyn gave him an impatient look.
“Why do you think I asked you to come to my house in the middle of the night?”
Mark’s imagination immediately started moving in several extremely inappropriate directions.
Evelyn saw his expression and knew exactly what he was thinking.
“Stop.”
Mark immediately composed himself.
“I asked you here because I need a favor.”
His expression became serious again.
“Just tell me what you need.”
Evelyn nodded.
“I want you to stay here for a few days.”
Mark froze.
“Seriously?”
For a brief moment, he wondered whether the universe had suddenly decided to reward him.
Then Evelyn calmly added, “Because I’m leaving.”
Mark’s smile disappeared.
(End of Chapter 13)