Moonraker might be the silliest movie of the Roger Moore James Bond era, but it has a scene that truly scared me as a child. The Roger Moore James Bond movies are very of their time. They’re filled with silly gags and puns, over-the-top villains and lots of gadgets and gimmicks; in short, they’re great fun, and Moore brings borderline illegal levels of charm to the character. While I think The Spy Who Loved Me is the only true classic 007 adventure that Moore fronted, I have a soft spot for all his movies.

The sheer silliness of Moore’s adventures turns off some fans of the character, such as Octopussy or Moonraker. The latter is dismissed as the one that sent Bond to space, and it’s loaded with goofy humor, expensive setpieces and all the elements the Moore movies are criticized for. For me, Moonraker is an immense guilty pleasure that gets unfairly dunked on; Drax (Michael Lonsdale) is a great villain, and before it heads to space, it’s a straightforward spy adventure with lots of exotic locales. It also features the final appearance of Jaws (Richard Kiel), the iconic metal-mouthed henchman.

Jaws Stalking Roger Moore’s James Bond In Moonraker Terrified Me As A Child

Making Jaws an antihero did little to reduce my terror

Moonraker also turned Jaws from a terrifying henchman into more of an antihero, who even helps Bond take down Drax in the sequel’s out of this world finale. Since Jaws was popular with children following his debut in the previous instalment, it was decided to soften the villain a little for Moonraker and make him more cartoonish. He’s undeniably a sillier character in the 1979 sequel, but the scene where Jaws – dressed in an oversized clown outfit – stalks 007 and his Brazilian contact Manuela (Emily Bolton) through the Rio Carnival terrified me.

In particular, the sH๏τ of Jaws slooooooowly walking toward Manuela as she waits in an empty alleyway is an image right out of a nightmare. Many of the early Bond adventures contain at least one horror scene, be it Blofeld feeding a minion to his piranhas in You Only Live Twice or Live and Let Die’s supernatural foe Baron Samedi (Geoffrey Holder). None of these moments got to me as much as Jaws stalking Bond and Manuela, especially when he finally takes the mask off and tries to bite the latter to death.

In concept, Jaws isn’t that far off a slasher villain himself. He’s imposingly tall, has a unique method of murdering people and seemingly can’t be killed. This Moonraker scene could be ripped from the opening of an 1980s horror movie and is an incredibly atmospheric and suspenseful moment in the midst of Moore’s most outrageous 007 sequel. I don’t know if it gave me an actual nightmare, but I do know that anytime I rewatched the VHS, I always dreaded coming back to that sequence.

Moonraker Is Roger Moore’s Silliest Bond Adventure, But It’s Still Loaded With Horror

Moonraker is a wild ride tonally

One element of the Moore era I like is that movies could vary wildly in tone. One minute, Bond could be delivering the cringiest double entendre ever committed to film, and the next he could be executing a wounded ᴀssᴀssin in cold blood (see 1981’s For Your Eyes Only). I know Moonraker is a deeply wacky film, but it still sneaks in other moments of horror. Case in point would be Drax’s murder of his pilot Corinne (Corinne Cléry), by setting his hunting dogs on her.

This happens in broad daylight as Corinne runs for her life through a forest, and there’s an odd dreamlike feel to the scene. There’s no gore, but it’s a grim ending for a likable supporting character. Other sprinkles of horror found in Moonraker include Bond watching as two scientists die after being exposed to a special nerve gas engineered by Drax. I usually chuckle at the scene where Bond is attacked underwater by a giant snake as the prop looks especially fake, but the way Drax’s “chosen” people just smile and watch as he struggles is pretty chilling in itself.