The Black Demon (2023)

Director: Adrian Grunberg

Starring: Omar Chaparro, Bolivar Sanchez, Carlos Solórzano

Stranded on a crumbling rig in Baja, a family faces off against a vengeful megalodon shark.

As if we haven’t seen enough shark movies already, the industry is being flooded with shark movies lately – unfortunately most of which are bad. One of the reasons why ‘Jaws’ is still the best shark movie out there, is because it was made in a time before CGI, when they had to build practical effects.

But let’s be clear on something from the beginning: this shark movie is not about the shark. It is a family drama, and there just happens to be a giant shark stalking them. Paul (Josh Lucas) works for Nixon Oil. Years ago, when the company built the rig, the small coastal town of Baja nearby was a hive of activity. When Paul is sent to inspect the rig, he takes his family with to show them the town, but on arrival they find the town almost deserted. The villagers blame the rig for “waking up the demon” (which happens to be a Megalodon), hence there are no more fisherman, and hardly any tourists visiting the town.

Paul and his family end up being stranded on the rig, with the giant shark trying to bring the rig down. This could have been done much better with a better script, better visuals, and a faster-paced film in general. The film dwells too much on the family drama, and Paul writing off everything as superstitious mumbo jumbo. (Speaking of writing off, there’s a twist about Paul as well).

‘Deep Blue Sea’ was set on a floating sea laboratory (instead of an oil rig), and there were giant sharks trying to bring the facility down. Only, ‘Deep Blue Sea’ never wasted a minute, and was filled with action, adventure and suspense. All these elements are absent from ‘The Black Demon’. There were hardly any suspense, very little action, and for most part just family drama.

The underwater scenes were also so dark and vague that I could hardly make out what was happening. The visual effects looked cheap, resulting in a film that doesn’t translate so well to screen. Come to think of it, I don’t even recall rooting for the characters the way I probably should have. The silly ending was somewhat predictable, and had me rolling my eyes.

With far better shark movies out there, I can’t really recommend ‘The Black Demon’. Give this one a skip.

Would I watch it again? No.