The Devil’s Mouth: This Shark Has No Bite

The latest shark attack thriller in a year already filled with them, both theatrical and streaming, The Devil’s Mouth centers around a group of college friends including Sara (Newton), Max (Condor), James (Hiraga), Greg (Gavin Casalegno), and Adrienne (Tommi Rose). Signing up for a guided swim through a remote cave system known as ‘The Devil’s Mouth,’ the group’s adventure soon takes a dark turn when they become trapped with a bloodthirsty shark who has set their sights on them before beginning to pick them off one-by-one. As oxygen runs low, past conflicts resurface, and panic continues to spread amongst the friends, their outing would become a deadly fight for survival with seemingly little hope in sight. Having all the right ingredients for what could have been a fun B-movie, the film is merely another dud in an already crowded shark attack genre, in spite of boasting a solid cast and a decent setting.

While far from what one would consider as the worst film of the year, on the other side, very little of it works or stands out in any positive way. Despite featuring a cast of talented, up-and-coming actors, this was certainly not reflected here, as they found themselves saddled with horrible dialogue and annoying characters who go out of their way to make every bad decision in the book. As a result, audiences will find themselves begging for the shark to take them out, a fact which only works up until a certain point. Possessing no redeeming qualities whatsoever or giving us any reason to care about them, most will essentially be left waiting for most of the characters to find their gruesome fates more than anything else. While on the technical side, from the writing, to the editing, score, and direction everything similarly just feels off, and in desperate need of fixing.

That being said, some of these flaws could have easily been forgiven had the film featured any good shark action, satisfying kills or even a hint of suspense. However, it has none of it. Meanwhile, the aforementioned shark doesn’t look all that great or intimidating given its size, and the poor CGI used to bring it and the action to life. Its kills are completely hampered by a PG-13 rating that only serves to sanitize their impact, leaving them mostly bloodless, offscreen or obscured, not to mention, all that overly memorable or creative. But, above all else, the film’s greatest weakness may be the fact that it is not suspenseful, nor remotely scary whatsoever, considering its circumstances and its tight, claustrophobic setting.

Offering up just about every trope imaginable, it is predictable beyond belief and also takes far too long to get going, following an extremely rough start. On top of that, the film runs much longer than it needs to. In the midst of all of its issues, the best part of The Devil’s Mouth are Kathryn Newton and Nico Hiraga, as Sara and James. While Newton is plagued with some bad dialogue, she manages to overcome it, and deliver a decent lead performance. On the other hand, Hiraga not only giving the best performance in the film, making James into the film’s most likeable and down-to-earth character, elevating the film whenever he is on screen. If not for him, it might have otherwise fared a worse fate.

The Devil’s Mouth unfortunately isn’t very good at all and should serve as further proof that writer-director Jeff Wadlow might not be very well suited for the horror/thriller genre, given his recent string of misses. All things considered, for those who happen to be big fan of trashy shark thrillers or just looking for a mindless watch featuring their favorite young actors, they may find some mild entertainment here now that it is available to stream on Prime Video. Otherwise, this particular effort is one that audiences don’t have to immediately jump on and can safely skip without incident. When all is set and done, it is just a shame considering what it could have been. Ultimately, the film simply fails at just about everything it set out to do.

still courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios

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Connor Carey

www.connorsmoviereviews.com/