What evil could be lurking in the picturesque waters off the Baja coast? Could it be…nature’s revenge? The Black Demon is yet another shark movie — specifically, another megalodon thriller — and in this case, the eponymous creature isn’t just hungry for blood—it’s looking to collect its bloody dues from humans who have exploited the planet for far too long. But despite offering predictable plot points and easy environmental messaging, director Adrian Grunberg (Rambo: Last Blood) delivers enough B-movie energy to make you forget how forgettable the actual demon is.
Josh Lucas stars as Paul, a smarmy oilman (working for Nixon Oil, so you know they’re bad) who’s taken his family on a vacation to Bahia Azul, where he’s getting ready to decommission an oil rig in the middle of the sea. A pre-credit sequence immerses us in the wonders and horrors of the tainted region, as we see divers plant a strip of explosives at the base of the oil rig — only to be quickly dispatched by The (pretty murky) Black Demon.
As soon as Paul and his family land, we know there’s hell to pay, and from Paul’s thoroughly obnoxious behavior, condescending to local residents and careless with his family: sure, wouldn’t you leave your young wife, teen daughter and young son in a strange shady-looking bar in the middle of nowhere while you go take care of things on the doomed rig?
Screenwriter Boise Esquerra sets up hero and victim in one smug swoop, and the tension becomes a matter of not How will he save the day but When do we get to see him eaten alive? Still, Chato (Julio César Cedill), one of the few rig men to survive the demon’s initial savagery, becomes at once a valuable ally and a possible conscience for Paul, who has—imagine!—ignored years of safety warnings around the rig. And the script is peppered with touches of Aztec mythology that slightly elevate this beyond the typical man vs. nature conflict into a battle with angry ancient gods. (In fact, seeing this right after Trenque Lauquen makes The Black Demon feel a little like the mummy B-movie that makes up the first episode of La Flor.)
Of course, you watch a shark movie to see people eaten by sharks, and The Black Demon disappoints on that level. It’s implied that one character meets his awful fate when he’s lifted out of the sea and his body has been chewed up below the torso, but you don’t really see the carnage. What you do see is underwater photography, and cinematographer Antonio Riestra, who deploys some vintage lenses to keep things from looking too clean, gives the watery proceedings a little grit, while editors Sam Baixauli and V. Manu Medina help keep things moving. And Grunberg gamely eggs on his cast; even though Lucas is totally unsympathetic, he and most of his castmates each get a turn with well-timed overheated B-movie emoting.
The plot isn’t air-tight (one wonders how Chato survives one dive but his partner doesn’t), and the last act doesn’t completely pay off; and you barely see the shark. But the wave of ½-star reviews on Letterboxd are perplexing. One can’t honestly call The Black Demon a good movie, but it’s several spirited steps above the winking slickness of the Sharknado films. Aside from the lame creature (the real monster is of course man), this Dominican production hits solid B-notes in a crowded shark-infested seascape.
Photo courtesy of The Avenue
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