Though the granddaddy of all shark movies is Jaws a film that saw the start of the summer blockbuster, and the bringing to the world’s attention of one Steven Spielberg (whatever happened to him?) But the shark movie has been a staple favourite of the monster movie genre and though Jaws has spawned increasingly poor sequels there have been several others over the past few years that have warranted a look starting with The Shallows, 47 Metres Down and the mega budgeted blockbuster The Meg of which a sequel is almost upon us. It is the megalodon shark that is the monster of the titled in The Black Demon in a sort of man versus myth in what the film somewhat over ambitiously calls a ’supernatural showdown for the ages’.
What we have here is an oil company exec Paul Sturges (Josh Lucas, Yellowstone) who takes his family to Bahia Negra, the crown jewel of Baja and the site of Paul’s best-performing rig. However the vibrant Mexican coastal town he once knew has mysteriously crumbled. In the dilapidated ghost town the last inhabitants tell Paul the offshore platform has awoken ‘El Demonio!!!’ a shark unlike any other creature; a shark of legend, known as The Black Demon. Soon, Paul and his family find themselves trapped on the rig, under constant attack by the giant monster who slowly eats away at the rig’s supports – with time literally ticking away, Paul must find a way to somehow get his family back to shore alive.
It’s a lively low budget potboiler that opens with on screen caption that tells of a creature of mythic proportions emerging like a shadow of death from the sea which might have audiences expecting this to be a teaser for TV series, ‘Gemma Collins goes skinny dipping’. It has many of the modern day tropes for such thrillers where they of course can’t get a mobile phone signal on the rig and the radio doesn’t work and there’s a shoehorned subtext that the shark is out for vengeance for man’s destruction of the marine environment and what ultimately the film boils down to is how are they going to kill the shark and escape from the decommissioned rig so derelict and decrepit and literally on its last legs that it could be Meghan Markle’s acting career. Firmly in B-movie territory the gore quota is low as are the kills and the CGI shark is not on screen as often as might be hoped and though it does follow the template that nearly all shark movies follow the ending is not quite as you might expect
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Here’s The Black demon trailer…..
Signature Entertainment presents The Black Demon on DVD and Blu-ray 17th July 2023
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