Every shark movie made since 1975 exists in the shadow of “Jaws.”
No exceptions.
This may explain the crush on cartoonish shark thrillers over the past 20 years. If you can’t follow Steven Spielberg’s vision, why try? Some still do, however, like the creative team behind “The Black Demon.”
Josh Lucas’ thriller deserves some credit. Not only is the setting fresh, but the storyline suggests killer sharks are less evil than corporate drones. It’s a familiar theme from many zombie movies but less common on the shark front.
Sadly, neither twist elevates “The Black Demon” beyond a waste of streaming time at best.
Lucas stars as Paul, a safety inspector for Nixon Oil (subtle!) who takes his family to Mexico to visit an offshore oil rig. Something seems wrong from the start. Mexican places, once prosperous and warm, are now abandoned.
Paul’s family is not happy with this state of affairs, but they dutifully support their hard-working patriarch.
Trouble begins when Paul discovers that the oil rig is practically abandoned. It looks like a huge shark has had its first, and the rig’s skeleton crew fears it’s on the menu next.
“The Black Demon” takes care to develop Paul’s family structure, including his loyal but curious wife (Fernanda Urrejola). Their first scenes turn out to be new and real, giving the story a welcome touch of realism.
Hey, maybe you don’t need “Sharknado” theatrics to make us love shark movies again!
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We soon get a long lecture, with all the subtlety of a Colbert monologue, about evil and indifferent oil companies. It’s not fresh for most genres, but shark movies have never reached this depth before.
The biggest problem is clear. The stories in question do not create real momentum. We sense where the narrative is heading, so we can easily identify survivors and fish food.
Paul’s arrogance is counterbalanced by his instinct to protect his family, the film’s most compelling element. What a shame the storyline doesn’t have much to say beyond that, and some of the later battles between surviving players prove “Sharknado”-esque in their silliness.
And this is far from the tone attempted here.
The Black Demon – a giant killer shark movie starring Josh Lucas from director of Get The Gringo (aka How I Spent My Summer Vacation)?
You just know it caught my attention! Director Adrian Grünberg joins me for the next episode of @moviesinfocus podcast. Coming. pic.twitter.com/z1ZbQxp74U— Movies in focus (@moviesinfocus) April 20, 2023
The shark itself is pure CGI and doesn’t have enough screen time or framing to make it a worthy villain despite its ties to Mexican folklore. That leaves an increasingly tactless Paul to keep our attention, and that gamble doesn’t pay off.
“The Black Demon” makes an unforgivable mistake at the end of the film. A character prepares to dive into shark-infested waters, but struggles to get his snorkel mask ready.
“Ain’t got no spit,” the character says, a reference to Richard Dreyfuss’ classic line from “Jaws.”
It’s a perfect Easter egg for modern audiences, and a reminder that “The Black Demon” can’t live up to 1999’s “Deep Blue Sea,” let alone the mother of all shark thrillers.
Hit or miss: “The Black Demon” mixes direct, anti-Big Oil messages with superficial shark feelings, and neither proves to be satisfactory.
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