As one of the most iconic horror films ever made Jaws is apt to give viewers nightmares, but it gives director Steven Spielberg bad dreams for different reasons. Still early in his career, Spielberg took on the film adaptation of 1975's Jaws, which had been a recent bestselling novel. The film follows a great white shark that attacks beachgoers off of Amity Island, a small summer resort town in New England. To stop the shark, police chief Martin Brody recruits marine biologist Matt Hooper and professional shark hunter Quint to track down the creature.
Hunting and killing unsuspecting beach patrons, Jaws’ shark, nicknamed Bruce by the crew, even incited real-life audience members to fear going into the water for some time after its release. In one notable instance, Jaws caused “cinematic neurosis” in a 17-year-old girl who watched the film, whereafter she exhibited mental health disturbances and anxiety, such as screaming “Shark! Shark!” and experiencing convulsions. Its clear Jaws was a terrifying film that disrupted a pleasant sleep for many viewers, but it haunted Spielberg long after for less obvious reasons.
While most leave Jaws with nightmares about possible shark attacks, Spielberg maintains he has PTSD from the actual shooting and production of the summer blockbuster. As Spielberg’s third official movie, Jaws was a starkly different production from the TV movie Duel or The Sugarland Express, where it ended up seeing delay after delay thanks to issues with the shark animatronic and an ever-changing script. Spielberg was originally given a 55-day schedule for shooting the film, but it ended up taking a whopping 159 days, an extension the helmer believed would end his career. The issues that plagued Jaws’ filming combined with Spielberg’s young age and the feeling his career was over before it really began would leave him with nightmares in the years that followed. Everything that could have possibly gone wrong on Jaws’ horror movie shoot did, and it left Spielberg with lasting scars.
In an interview with EW, Spielberg revealed he had to return to Quint's boat, Orca, over the years to work on his PTSD with the shoot. He explained that he would sit in the boat in the Universal Studios lot for hours with his hands shaking, trying to process the trauma caused by Jaws’ oceanic filming. The fear of his career ending while he was given such a substantial project was a lot for the young director to bear, and while it eventually made his career and gave him creative freedom within the industry, the horrors of its production plagued his dreams. Spielberg detailed that he would have nightmares where he would be back in Martha’s Vineyard in charge of the shoot, which would give him anxiety after waking.
According to People, right after Jaws' cast and crew finished shooting in 1974, Spielberg had a panic attack in the middle of the Boston Logan Airport. Even during the production, Spielberg had recurring waking nightmares in which a shark attacked him from the bottom of the ocean, only for it to malfunction and float to the surface. While trying to alleviate his bad dreams, Spielberg slept with a stick of celery in his pillow because of its calming aroma. Jaws - which still scares beachgoers from going too far in the water - remains an ordeal that Steven Spielberg has to work through today. Even though it became the match that would light the fire for the rest of his career, Jaws is one production Spielberg can’t forget for its distressing nature.