Is this Amazon Prime offering razor sharp,
or does it lack serious bite?

If there was ever a blueprint on how to make an exciting, engaging and terrifying shark horror flick, then Spielberg did it with Jaws. 50 years later, and it’s still the best shark horror ever made. Many have come after it, such as Deep Blue Sea, The Meg and many more. All of which absolutely pale in comparison. Some are OK, some are just popcorn fodder, while some are clearly tax break incentives.

Throw into this ever expanding mix, this latest effort by Amazon, ‘The Devil’s Mouth’. Here’s the official synopsis…

A group of college friends’ Thailand adventure turns deadly when they become trapped in submerged caves with a dangerous predator. As oxygen runs low, past conflicts emerge in their desperate fight for survival.

This film was the bench-mark example of how a trailer makes a film look way better than it actually it is. It’s a trend that has been in place since time immemorial, and it doesn’t get any more misleading than this. Enough of that for now, let’s look at the film retrospectively.

The Cast

Now I’ll be up-front with you, I only recognised Kathryn Newton in this film because not so long back I watched Ready Or Not 2 in which she plays Faith, the lead character’s sister.
I won’t say she’s a stand-out actress, but she does a fairly plausible job here, even if the character she’s playing in this film is very generic.
Other cast members include Lana Condor as Max, Nico Hiraga as James, Gavin Casalegno as Greg and Tommi Rose as Adrianne. All of which I have no prior knowledge of, with the exception of Lana Condor who was in X-Men: Apocalypse.

There are moments of tension within the film that make you feel the moment, and the cast does a semi-admirable job of working with a script and premise that is utterly ridiculous. This segues into just one of the many bones of contention this film forces me to look at.

Kathryn Newton (left), Lana Condor (centre) and Nico Hiraga (right)

The Script

The structure of this script is weak, as weak as a cup of Yorkshire Tea that’s only been able to glance at the tea bag. The pacing of the dialogue is spotty at best, as well as feeling a bit un-natural at times. This is probably because the writers have never been in this kind of situation, and really weren’t sure of how to write the scenes. The characters themselves are very passive, who are offset by the highly annoying Max character. I’ll put my hands up here folks, half way through this film, I was begging for the shark to make her an All-You-Can-Eat buffet.
The other characters try to add some emotional depth, but unfortunately there’s more depth in a kids paddling pool than what you find in these people.
The other exception is, of course Sara (Kathryn Newton) who follows the now familiar trope of the action heroine. She starts the film as being somewhat reserved, almost shy in a sense. After a nasty start to her filmic journey (one which I found very good indeed), her leadership qualities rise to the surface in the face of terror. Actually, all she really does is remain calm whilst a Bull Shark has take-out on her friends. She was so calm, you could almost see her pop herself onto a rock, smoke a cigarette and drink a apple spritzer while the shark does his thing.

The Score

There is nothing remarkable about the soundtrack to this film, including it’s sound effects. In fact I would suggest the sound effects used were all from a online library.
The score itself is serviceable, if not forgettable after the end credits have rolled.

Special and Visual Effects

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear! This film is meant to be a survival horror involving a shark. What I saw in the effects of the shark, was a series of PlayStation 3 cut-scenes from a game nobody played. Seriously, I’m not over-exaggerating this point. The shark effects, all of which were CGI, were pretty bad, but even this added more tension than the terrible script.
The sets themselves were not entirely great, and at a few points I did ask myself if the Blue Peter team had come in and built a life-sized Tracey Island with papier mache.
There are effects here that do deserve mention because they were very well done, and that is the Blue Cave scene’s, where the water has a bio-luminescence. This I found was very well conceived and produced.

The Director

Jeff Wadlow is the director for this, and his work is mostly low budget affairs, with the exception of Kick-Ass 2. I really do think he tries his very best to get the most of out of what he’s given to work with, but you can’t dig a hole with a blade of grass. Make from that what you will.

Overall Thoughts

Myself and my better half were dupe’d. Lulled into a false sense of entertainment by a trailer that literally made itself look far better than it actually is. Yes it has a few moments of genuine suspense, but no where near enough for it to be memorable in all the right ways.
The toxic nature of the two lead characters shines through, but I couldn’t help but feel this toxicity was mostly one-way via the character of Max, probably one of the most annoying and obnoxious characters to disgrace the screen in some time. And let’s not forget the heroine here, who tries so hard to become a Ripley clone, but ends up more like MJ’s pet, Bubbles.
The effects are laughable. At many points you’ll see the shark reverse itself out of cavernous holes, something a shark cannot do! What it does get right, is that a Bull Shark can in fact survive in freshwater. So fair play to the writers for at least spending 10 minutes on Google to research that little nugget of knowledge.

Avoid it folks! It’s ok if you’re bored and want to throw away nearly two hours of precious life away rather than pluck your own eyeballs out of your skull. Otherwise, go watch Jaws or even Jaws 2 to satisfy that killer shark itch and have a far better time of it than you will with ‘The Devil’s Mouth’.

I give this film a…

Thanks for reading, and if you enjoyed this review, please do give it a like, and let us know what you thought of this ‘masterpiece’. Maybe you disagree with my reveiw, in which case you’re more of a narcissist than Max (I’m joking!). Or maybe even tell us what you think we should have a go at reviewing next. Until the next review…stay frosty, people!