The Black Demon (2023)

1 Star (out of 4)

A Crude Shark Movie

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Megalodon enthusiasts beware: there's barely any shark action in this drippy, eco-friendly message movie, an anti-thriller filled with obnoxious characters, draggy pacing, and wince-inducing dialogue.

Oil company inspector Paul Sturges (Josh Lucas) is sent to a small town in Baja to check on an oil rig called "El Diamante." Having fond memories of the town, he brings his wife Ines (Fernanda Urrejola) and two kids — teen Audrey (Venus Ariel) and younger brother Tommy (Carlos Solórzano) — for a vacation at the same time. When they arrive, they discover that the town is in ruins, a former shell of its old self.

Then, there seems to be some urgency to get Paul out to the rig, so he catches the first boat, leaving his family on shore. He not only discovers that the rig is also dilapidated, a hazard, but also that there is a megalodon shark prowling the waters beneath the rig. Unfortunately, Paul's family decides to follow him, and they all wind up stranded there, along with the rig's two remaining workers, Chato (Julio Cesar Cedillo) and Junior (Jorge A. Jimenez). Worse, time is running out for the rig itself.

Whereas Last Sentinel showed how a low-budget movie set on a remote ocean outpost could work, The Black Demon is an example of what not to do. Directed by Adrian Grunberg (Rambo: Last Blood), the movie gets off on the wrong foot with its characters, especially Paul.

He's a typical "ugly American," elitist and entitled, asking locals if they speak English, and passing out money in exchange for favors. Even after his big redemption, he's still kind of obnoxious; a "confession" scene accompanied by a montage of images of the environment ruined by oil production is eye-rollingly awkward. (Lucas overacts a bit, snarling his dialogue in a Clint Eastwood-type manner.)

The family is superfluous, except for the little boy, Tommy, whose love of pirates and mythology is blatantly exploited to further the plot. And the movie fails to make interesting use of the tension between Paul and the Latin workers Chato and Junior. But the worst crime in The Black Demon is the broken promise of a shark. We get only a few blurry shots of the creature, rendered in smudgy CGI, that no shark fan would give a fin for.

Note: The Black Demon is part of a weird current trend consisting of astonishingly bad shark movies, including, but not limited to: 47 Meters Down: Uncaged, Maneater, The Meg, Open Water 3: Cage Dive, and The Requin.