Is The Black Demon the worst shark film of 2023?

The following review contains spoilers.

Less The Black Demon and more The Bland Demon, this shark film never actually really delivers on its promise of being that, easily taking the most disappointing shark release crown from last year’s The Requin (also known as From Below in the UK).

Like that, it had a familiar star name, an exotic setting and very little actual shark action. The Black Demon certainly didn’t give the people behind The Meg 2: The Trench anything to worry about.

Perhaps the biggest surprise about The Black Demon is how it scored a theatrical release in the first place, everything about it suggests straight to DVD or digital. It certainly does shark cinema no lasting favours.

And this isn’t ‘this is no JAWS’ snobbery; I’ve really enjoyed the likes of direct to digital shark releases such as the much maligned Great White and Shark Bait as solid B-movie sharksploitatioin thrills. The Black Demon shark may be big in size and folklore, but sadly the film itself is little more than a whimper and folkbore.

That’s not to say that the ingredients weren’t there, but with zero thrills and a poor script with leaden dialogue, send this one to the bottom of the ocean never to return.

“For hundreds of years, fishermen have shared tales of a mythical shark off the Baja coast. One of Godlike proportions, driving men to the brink of insanity with visions of death. To my people, it is known by the name ‘El Demonio Negro’.”

“Legend says it only comes when summoned.”

So starts The Black Demon with this booming voiceover, sadly that is pretty much as exciting as the film gets. With a legend and title like The Black Demon, you’d think the giant shark would get plenty of screen time, it doesn’t.

Neither did the shark in JAWS (1975) I hear you say, you’re right but that at least kept things interesting and taut, and there was always the spectre of the shark, this is more shark(less) film masquerading a heavy-handed eco message story that is more like a sixth former’s PowerPoint presentation, complete with cutaways to burning oil fields and dead whales to hammer home the message.

Think of it as the On Deadly Ground of shark movies, just with very little shark featuring. And even when it does there is zero excitement. At least On Deadly Ground had some nice action scenes and JAWS the Revenge’s Michael Caine on villain duties.

It is clearly man who is the monster here, and talking of monsters, some of the dialogue is scarily bad. Such lines as “It’s not a shark, it’s a megalodon” are perhaps not the cleverest lines of dialogue in a shark film that is very much pitched as a shark film. No wonder that line never made it to the trailer.

Later in the film we are told that the shark is born from extinction as a curse, a demon to protect the ocean. I don’t mind that supernatural element, it reminds me a kittle of some of the eco horror from the 1970s, just don’t base a drinking game around each time it is mentioned or signposted. It is a lot.

We open on a man diving at night off an oil rig, which can never be good, right? When the diver is named Nacho, he even sounds like a light snack, and soon enough he becomes just that. The sea turns red underwater, we don’t see anything, and we get an unsatisfying shark mouth point of view of its mouth closing around his friend on a small boat.

I’ll be honest, it isn’t the most compelling or interesting of starts, it just doesn’t look very good and isn’t as strong as say the similar mood setting intro for JAWS 2 (1978), it neither being intriguing or exciting.

The town we see next has been built on oil, but with the rig that fuelled the economy now decommissioned it is a ghost town, think of it a little like a boarded-up Amity – which was the original vison for the darker John Hancock JAWS 2. Although here, it seems to be some curse at work.

And the company name is Nixon Oil, none too subtle reference on what that company is like. Again, everything in this film is about as subtle as a brick, even the JAWS reference we get later with Lucas ready for a dive saying he has no spit. He may as well have winked at the audience. It just feels awkward.

Paul Sturges (Josh Lucas) and his family are there, mixing vacation with work, as he has to go check out the rig.

I haven’t got a problem with the eco angle, it actually makes perfect sense with what we are doing to our ocean and sharks, but it is all hammered home as subtlety as Quint turning off the Orca’s radio with a baseball bat. The eco angle is something that was touched upon with The Meg (2018) a few years ago with its shark finning boats.

Sturges goes out alone on a boat as the locals have ‘bad vibes’ about going any further to the rig and of course there is no cell service out there. On shore, there is a threat from the locals to the family – it never seemed like the smartest move to leave them in a bar in this town - but at least it gives a somewhat plausible excuse for them to leave shore and join her husband/dad on the rig.

As his family approach the rig, the black demon shark has the boat they are coming in on in its sights and you see a hint of its giant shadow and dorsal fin just break the water.

The boat docks, the daughter falls in by the rig, surrounded by body parts – which actually seem to be some hallucination vision triggered by the shark, with similar visions happening throughout the film. All of which makes JAWS the Revenge look all the more of a plausible shark film.

The boat that brought them makes a hasty exit, but The Black Demon is in hot pursuit. The CG shark, which we see rise for the first time is like something out of a PS2 game, although admittedly it is rather satisfying to see the behemoth shark rise from the depths and shatter the boat like a jumping shark tossing a seal during shark week, in full view of the family. The music when the huge shark is in pursuit even sounds similar to the JAWS them by John Williams.

The Black Demon it turns out is man, and in this case, it is Sturges. He is Mayor Vaughn, but regarding oil, either way it is all about summer dollars.

His company lures him to the rig to get him blown up with it. Which begs the question, if he knew the rig was in such a bad way, why is he so surprised by the state he finds it in? Sure, it is probably part of his deception, but it makes for hard viewing. I like Josh Lucas, even shining in the likes of Stealth and Poseidon (alongside Matt Hooper actor Richard Dreyfuss), but here he isn’t given a lot to work with.

We do get one nod to JAWS though before Lucas enters the water, he says he hasn’t got any spit, but even that feels kind of awkward.

At the opening there was a message about people making a sacrifice, so you guessed it we have Sturges doing a No Time To Die ending, right down to talking to his family before he’s swallowed whole by the shark, which then explodes seconds later and takes the rig with it.

Should I be applauding that it was trying something different, but that something different meant that the shark very much played second fiddle. Try different, but don’t sideline the shark, it was people came here for, it is what the film is named after and is what was on the poster. Even the excitement of a ticking clock of a bomb can’t save this dud, it’s dead in the water long before the climax.

The remote location with limited crew and family could have been exciting – look at Alien or JAWS or Deep Blue Sea – but the body count isn’t great, thrills are few and far between, it just kind of unfolds.

The final shot we see is off a small wooden boat with five figures on it, which Sturges’ son had put in the water. One of those fell of, meaning his dad. But then the boat with the four of them is suddenly dragged underwater, the film sank without a trace long before that boat did.

Words by Dean Newman

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