The summer months always call for a glut of shark thrillers, but even so, this year has been crazily overloaded with them. There have been a pair of solid ones, like the Netflix flick Thrash, and Deep Blue Sea director Renny Harlin’s return to the genre with Deep Water, not to mention Above & Below which arrives in a few days. At this point, it’s not even worth it to compare anything to Steven Spielberg’s Jaws, and I don’t think filmmakers even bother trying. At least in the case of Jeff Wadlow’s The Devil’s Mouth, open today on Prime Video, it boasts a few interesting ingredients to add to the formula. A group of Gen Z buds on a doomed Thai vacation, a dangerous cave, a pair of frenemies complicating the bid for survival, and one angry bull shark who is as trapped as they are.
Kathryn Newton and Lana Condor lead the beautifully Gen Z cast as Sara and Max, respectively, college pals whose toxic friendship finds them constantly sniping at each other, then making up, in an endless cycle. Max is wealthy, pompous, and controlling. Sara is more chill, and seems like the leader of this pack, whether Max likes it or not. They’re embarking on one last blowout, a vacation in Thailand, before venturing out into the real world. Along for the ride is Max’s passive boyfriend James (Nico Hiraga), and the oversexed couple Adrienne (Tommi Rose) and Greg (Gavin Casalegno) who immediately remind of lusty teens destined to die at Camp Crystal Lake.
It’s amazing that the weight of unresolved emotional baggage doesn’t sink their boat as they sail into a cave ominously known as The Devil’s Mouth. Their guide, Wat (The White Lotus actor Tayme Thapthimthong) assures them that everything is safe, the freshwater creatures are nothing to fear. However, a series of huge storms have shifted the ecological makeup, allowing for a ferocious bull shark into the cave with them. He’s pretty pissed about it. And quite hungry. The squad is like a millennial movable feast for it to snack on.
If you’ve seen even a handful of shark thrillers, you know how The Devil’s Mouth is going to play out. The bull shark stalks, chomps, then drags away its victims as they kick and scream to their deaths. You can pretty much predict the order of each death and when they’re gonna happen. There’s nothing wrong with that; we come to these movies wanting to see these kids turned into fish food and that’s what we get. Wadlow, who has delivered some damn good horrors, such as Cry Wolf, and truly awful ones like Fantasy Island and Imaginary, is well versed in crafting gruesome animal vs. human attacks as he did with 2007’s Prey.
It’s the lead duo of Newton and Condor who bring Aja Gabel and Myung Joh Wesner’s Black List screenplay to life. They say that adversity introduces a person to their true self, and The Devil’s Mouth is all about how the struggle for survival reveals the truth about Sara and Max’s friendship. With their lives on the line, they can either continue in the same roles that led them into this mess to begin with, or start anew and give themselves a real shot. Condor is very good at playing a spoiled rich kid hiding a fragile ego behind her domineering personality. And Newton, always such a firecracker in every film she’s in, is at her best when Sara is at her most plucky and clever.
As we’re smack in the middle of Shark Week, The Devil’s Mouth should be like chum in the water for enthusiasts looking for a bit of drama with their aquatic bloodbaths.
The Devil’s Mouth is streaming now on Prime Video.
