The Black Demon posters show need for a bigger boat

Any shark film is inevitably going to get compared to JAWS (1975), and the release poster for The Black Demon tackles that head on.

It shows a huge Megalodon shark breaking the surface, with a speedboat and its occupants trying to get away.

It's clear to anyone, including those in boat by the look of terror on their faces, that they are going to need a bigger boat.

That is of course an echo of the famous line uttered by Chief Brody (Roy Scheider) to Quint (Robert Shaw) after he first witnesses the great white surface when he is reluctantly chumming the water on the Orca.

In the background of The Black Demon Poster we see a burning Oil Rig, which presumably the speed boat is making a sharp exit from. Although his name is on the poster and he is headlining the film, Josh Lucas is absent from this particular design.

He is however front and centre,  along with his family, adopting what I call the 'Chrissie Watkins position'  in that they are above the rising shark and in its path – just like the iconic Roger Kastel designed poster for the Steven Spielberg classic film.

There is also a further nod to the first victim from JAWS as there is someone in the water in front of the shark, a variation on those scenes is shown on several shark film posters. All of which can be directly traced back to JAWS.

You can follow that homage path like a trail of chum from everything such as Great White to Lake Placid, Deep Blue Sea and Piranha.

Will you be swimming to your local cinema to see The Black Demon on the big screen when it is released in the US on April 28?

Words by Dean Newman

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