by Jack Bottomley
It is always nice to give a killer shark movie a try. Nicer still, one that swims its way onto the cinema schedule. Nicest of all, one that doesn’t populate the screen with spring breaker characters you can’t actually wait to see get brutally maimed. The Black Demon may look like The Meg with a smaller budget and a lead with hair, but despite starring a mighty fearsome Megalodon, it is a far different and surprisingly more thoughtful beast altogether.
Inspired by the real Mexican legend of El Demonio Negro, a supposed 50-foot shark that swims the waters of the Gulf of California, The Black Demon is actually a nature attacks concoction of Deepwater Horizon, Jaws, and Tobe Hooper’s Crocodile.
The film centres on Paul Sturges (Josh Lucas), who travels with his family to inspect an oil rig in Baja, only to find that not only is the small community around the rig in ruin but that something deadly is patrolling the murky waters below the beaten up rig, a monster with an eye on vengeance.
Far from just being another big shark movie, The Black Demon is a breath of fresh air in the genre, which tells an environmentally active story of mother nature out for revenge and mankind’s lies and greed poisoning the earth and oceans. The monster of the movie is the shark by definition, but thematically it is a far different story that uses its central predator as a metaphor for the wrath of the gods. In this case, Tlãloc, the god of rain, as the film links its oil-laden water-dwelling Megalodon to ancient Mexican heritage and beliefs, really quite admirably. In fact, there is set to be a tie-in comic series exploring the mythos behind the legend depicted here.
The Black Demon could so easily have settled for loads of crap CGI and silly action to make a quick buck, but Rambo: Last Blood director Adrian Grunberg, and writers Carlos Cisco and Boise Esquerra, take a risk and actually keep their deep sea terror very concealed by the black waters of man-made disaster (which gives the title a whole new meaning). Relying instead on story-driven thrill, the characters are trapped in the claustrophobic crumbling rig setting, with no help from a betrayed outside world to rely on and the shark waiting below.
True, some lines of dialogue are a bit hamfisted, and some plot elements don’t hang together neatly, but this film does so much right that you can forgive some of its missteps. The effects also sometimes show up, but Grunberg knows when to go for a money shot and when instead to rely on swift movements and Antonio Riestra’s cinematography that balances the dark with the light. A trick many could learn from in this field (or should that be pool?).
Lucas gives Paul a flawed humanity in the lead role, and the character develops well across the run time, while his wife Ines is played passionately by Fernanda Urrejola, and Julio Cesar Cedillo stands out among the supporting cast as the enlightened rig worker Chato. Bonus points, too, for giving dog lovers a breather in little survivor Toro!
The Black Demon is an entertaining and timely shark thriller with lots of meat on the bone… and plenty of teeth to chew it!
THE BLACK DEMON drops on DVD and Blu-ray July 17th from Signature Entertainment
