Joel on Film

There are a few moments when The Devil’s Mouth suggests what it could have been, had screenwriters Aja Gabel and Myung Joh Wesner not been so preoccupied by giving us the same, old thing. It’s another in a long, long (long, etc.) line of shark movies, once a spin-off from and/or combination of the horror and suspense genres that has long since formed into its own offshoot of the survival picture. The minor difference this time is that the group of young adults being targeted by this shark are trapped in a half-submerged cave system that’s a tourist spot on account of also being a bit of a maze.

There are reasons, for instance, why this cave system is equipped for a tour guide (here, one played by Tayme Thapthimthong), because based on the selected path, it’s hard to imagine anyone finding their own way out of this place under the best of circumstances. Throw a shark into the picture, and all bets are off. Here, the sea mammal is kind of an underwhelming effort of digital effects, dimly lit so as to mask the budgetary limitations of bringing it to life (and the lighting doesn’t work anyway, given we see it in all its rubbery glory).

Anyway, the humans trapped inside that cave already have a bit of human drama attached to their situation, although none of it is particularly convincing or satisfying. Sara (Kathryn Newton), who is the protagonist of the group for a very particular reason that solidifies when all this is over, might be moving away soon, a fact that has caused a rift between her and her best friend Max (Lana Condor). The friend has brought along her cousin James (Nico Haraga), and the dating couple of Adrienne (Tommi Rose) and Greg (Gavin Casalegno) are tagging along, as well, if only because we need more humans for the fodder.

No words in a review can quite express just how little these characters have been defined beyond the absolute basics. In fact, we don’t even really get the basics about Adrienne or Greg, since they are, indeed, only here to show us that the shark means business. The exceptions are obviously Sara and Max, who have opposite personalities that make the rift between them a lot more understandable.

They’ve both recently lost their fathers, an experience meant to bind anyone together for life if they were already friends to begin with, but Max has a tendency to hone in on something out of her control in some moments and then lose all control over her ability to tap into her higher reasoning abilities elsewhere. That comes to a head long before the shark turns up, too. It’s when the gang—including the operator of their boat—inadvertently leaves Sara behind, leaving her to be stung at least half a dozen times by a group of jellyfish.

That scenario is entirely Max’ fault, just to put that out there from the beginning—or, at least, entirely her fault up to when the responsibility falls on the boat operator, of course, who should have instituted some kind of safety protocol that involved looking over the side of the boat for stragglers. He’s not the only one who shirks his responsibilities, though, as we find out when the tour guide, insisting that everyone follow him back to the cave entrance, abandons his charter and starts to head back on his own. That has an outcome about as predictable as, but much more infuriating than, if he had confidently stated he would be coming right back.

It all comes back around to the shark, who circles the waters in search of food (and, in one genuinely startling moment as directed by Jeff Wadlow, lunges suddenly out of the blackest waters), and to the human drama between the characters, which only reaches critical mass in one genuinely emotional moment that can be described as an act of fatal gallantry. As the latter attempts to overtake the former, all that’s left to analyze about The Devil’s Mouth is that it’s as half-hearted a shark movie as it is a soapy melodrama about characters we only basically care about.

Rating: ** (out of ****)