Devil’s Mouth Review – Amazon’s shark thriller gives us almost enough to chew on | Interesting

WI have officially arrived a lot of shark movies this yearwith about six released so far and more on the way and the drop of one more, in the middle of Shark Week, raises several questions: is it necessary in any way? Can anyone compare to what Steven Spielberg achieved with Jaws or, in fact, Renny Harlin with Deep Blue Sea? How bad are the effects of sharks? And more importantly, for those of us who see a lot of them, is it the same or is there an attempt to do something new with the swim, stalk, slash formula?

Trying something a little different in itself is very difficult because even though I appreciated last year it was amazing. Dangerous Animals by cleverly putting a killer in the mix, a stormy addition to Netflix’s one-star lineup this year. Thrash meaning that this movie was very scary about sharks and a horror thriller of tragedy. In recent months, we’ve seen Harlin return to the subgenre and Deep Water knitting in a plane crash and this week Antonio Banderas-actor Up & Down adding a bunch of drugs that make the week’s other shark movie, the Amazon gen Z-led The Devil’s Mouth, seem outlandish by comparison. The exception here is something a little less, but more interesting: bad friendship. It’s a movie that asks a very rare question: what if you find out your best friend is as bad as a bull shark and starts picking on you?

I don’t think the Black List documentary, from TV writers Aja Gabel and Myung Joh Wesner, threads like a needle (as a portrait of a broken friendship this is not. Animals or Insecure season four) but it’s a lot of trouble added to the cut-and-paste format.

Set in Thailand, in the middle of a tropical storm, it follows a group of American college friends on vacation before entering the real world of work. The leading friends – happy and controlling Max (For All Boys Lana Condor) and soft, sensitive Sara (Kathryn Newton of Freaky and Ready or Not 2) – debate the next steps together (New York or LA?) before a careless mistake adds tension, and jellyfish wounds, to their already strained power. Max’s boyfriend James (Moxie’s fun and Sweethearts actor Nico Hiraga) and a deeply in love, clearly abandoned couple (Gavin Casalegno and Tommi Rose) try to make peace but the group gets into a cave-in and an unresolved drama.

After being assured by their guide (a newcomer to last season’s White Lotus, Tayme Thapthimthong) that the caves are shark-free, the group soon realizes that the recent upheaval has introduced an even more aggressive shark into the system with them. Looks like going to the Devil’s Mouth cave was a bad idea…

For the real sharkheads in the house, the setup is reminiscent of 2019’s slick. 47 Meters Down sequel which featured young divers battling sharks trapped in underwater Mayan caves. But for anyone unfamiliar with how modern entertainment plays out, it’s also known in many other ways, the most tragic of which are the inevitable ways to give our protagonists a premeditated injury (Max and Sara are part of the “dead parent group”). Director Jeff Wadlow, whose ho-hum horror-heavy reboot has gone from good (Truth or Dare) very disgusted (Speculations) is enough to frame the chaos going on and if it doesn’t pull us to the edge of our seat there’s enough shivering and sadness to keep us from falling behind it (our bull shark likes to kick all the rocks and bones).

But what makes the film come alive is how the severity of the situation exposes the cracks in the relationship between them. Controlling the plans of the people above the water is forcing to control the decisions of life or death in the caves and while the writing could be more clear and consistent (Max both controls everything but admits that he does not agree with the movement), it adds gristle to the end. Condor plays the rich and proud kid but it’s Newton who’s on the rise, the high-flying genius of a B-movie like this one, who steals, finds the strength to stand up to his partner and control the situation. The intensity of their relationship isn’t enough to give the Devil teeth exactly, but it adds more than just body parts in the water which, in the most intense moments of a shark movie, counts for something.