With so many recent movies revisiting the classic tale of sea monsters, “The Devil’s Mouth” might appear small and unimportant – a modest offering compared to the big-budget, spectacle-driven adventures we’ve been seeing.
This film reminded me a lot of Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” – it’s basically a vacation gone horribly wrong, led by someone who thinks they know best. This character is constantly rescuing everyone from trouble, but stubbornly ignores all warnings. Seriously, just listen to the guide when they say it’s time to leave! It’s this refusal to heed advice that ultimately leads to disaster for the whole group.
While “The Odyssey” is a classic tale, “The Devil’s Mouth” throws in a massive, incredibly hungry shark – something Homer definitely overlooked!
It wasn’t just any shark – it was a massive, extremely hungry bull shark, and it could live in both saltwater and freshwater.
As someone who’s been afraid of the ocean ever since seeing “Jaws,” I appreciate director Jeff Wadlow and writers Aja Gabel and Myung Joh Wesner letting me know I now have to be wary of rivers and lakes as well! Thanks a lot.
Hoping to catch some of the buzz around “Shark Week,” the film “The Devil’s Mouth” (a 2019 Black List selection) premiered Wednesday on Amazon Prime Video. Like most shark movies, good or bad, it begins with a group having fun – in this case, five college graduates celebrating in Thailand with Jägermeister.
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As a group plans a boat trip, their personalities quickly become apparent. Max is clearly in charge – she’s adventurous and makes all the decisions. Her best friend, Sara, looks up to her but tends to be more careful, while James, Sara’s boyfriend, loyally follows along, though he gets frustrated sometimes. Adrienne joins them with her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Greg, who seems content just to come along for the fun (and those watching shark movies know that’s often a bad sign!).
This story doesn’t have traditional villains – it focuses on a group of highly driven, young professionals. While the characters aren’t deeply complex, the actors, especially Condor and Newton, deliver compelling performances that evoke genuine emotion. A conversation early on reveals that Max’s drive to move to Los Angeles, despite shared plans for New York (where Sara is already employed), stems from a desire for adventure, and Sara needs to find her voice and be more direct about what she wants.
Sara experiences a series of unfortunate events after mentioning her snorkeling plans to Max. First, she’s stranded during a jellyfish bloom that reminds her of the movie “Finding Nemo” and gets stung. Despite being both physically and emotionally hurt, she continues on to the Devil’s Mouth caves – a place her late father loved visiting. She’s comforted by the fact that these are freshwater caves, meaning no more sea creatures to worry about.
This doesn’t make any sense at all. Thailand’s caves are either freshwater, found inland, or saltwater, located along the coast. But it’s just a shark movie, so it doesn’t really matter.
I was really surprised when Max decided he wanted to go through the tougher part of the caves! Sara initially picked what seemed like the safer, simpler way, but Max insisted our guide, Wat (you might recognize him from “The White Lotus”), take us on the more difficult route. Wat wasn’t thrilled – there’d been a storm and it was pretty flooded – but Max really pushed, and eventually, Wat agreed.
Swimming through the dark, underwater cave, the group used their headlamps to spot bats and stalactites. Wat cautioned everyone to be respectful of the cave environment. Adrienne scraped her leg on a rock, but Sara quickly helped by using her first aid kit, and soon everything was okay.
But then things change quickly. The group finds themselves surrounded by sea animals washed into the cave by the storm… and most of them aren’t alive anymore. While they consider going back, it becomes obvious that at least one creature is still very much living – a huge bull shark.
Because, as we all now know, bull sharks can survive in salt and fresh water.
Wat told us we had to get out, now. But Max, naturally, started questioning everything – the route, the timing… honestly, it was classic Max. Before you knew it, we were completely on our own, ditching whatever plan Wat had in mind.
Sara, ever the planner, has a waterproof map and suggests they leave immediately through the hole in the cave wall that let the shark in. However, Max disagrees, believing some smaller side caves would be a better route. (A good idea: maybe listen to the person who came prepared with a first aid kit and a map!) To make matters worse, the shark is turning up in all sorts of unexpected places.
Shark movies are basically horror films – though “Jaws,” with its themes of greed versus scientific responsibility and public safety, shares similarities with the dramatic play “An Enemy of the People” as much as classic vampire stories. Similarly, the cave setting in “The Devil’s Mouth” creates the perfect haunted house environment – a confusing network of spaces where characters have little defense against a terrifying creature that emerges from the shadows.
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Sara steps up as the leader of their shrinking group, while Max transforms from a controlling but well-meaning friend into someone everyone blindly follows – despite consistently making terrible choices. The actors Condor, Newton, and Hiraga work hard to justify Max’s behavior, but her relentless foolishness becomes increasingly unbelievable, stretching credibility to an absurd degree, like imagining a shark seeking revenge in a tiny freshwater cave just steps from the sea.
Even though there are a lot of shark movies out there, “The Devil’s Mouth” stands out with its smart plot, strong atmosphere, and the compelling way its main character, Sara, changes throughout the story – almost fitting the classic hero’s journey. That’s impressive for a film about a shark.
But honestly, it’s incredibly entertaining to watch. With so much talk lately about the frustrations of travel, this offers a perfect escape. No matter how bad your travel mishaps – lost luggage, canceled flights, disappointing hotels – at least you’ve never been hunted through dark caves by a massive, two-finned shark!
Not even Odysseus had to deal with that.
2026-07-29 13:32