Kathryn Newton as Sara, Tommi Rose as Adrienne, Lana Condor as Max, and Nico Hiraga as James in The Devil’s Mouth
Jirathit Saengavut
The Devil’s Mouth is not rewriting the book on shark survival movies, but the Prime Video original is nonetheless a solid addition to the genre.
The film follows a group of post-college grads on a summer trip in Thailand before they head out to their new lives. But their adventure in the eponymous (and fictional) caves that are meant to be the highlight of their trip goes disastrously and fatally wrong when they come up against a hungry and aggressive bull shark in the tunnels.
The draw for this movie is its cast. Like the slashers of yore, it relies on the star power of actors who are familiar to the 18-34 set who will make up its core audience. There’s Kathryn Newton (Big Little Lies; The Society) as Sara, Lana Condor (To All the Boys) as Max, Gavin Casalegno (The Summer I Turned Pretty) as Greg, and Nico Hiraga (Love in Taipei; Sweethearts) as James. Tommi Rose, best known for her role on Sweet Magnolias, rounds out the friend group as Adrienne.
But what will keep viewers tuned in is the interpersonal drama that spills into these characters’ interactions even in the midst of terror and trying to escape the caves. Not to mention the suspense that hovers over who will die, how, when, and why as bickering turns into yelling matches and the truth of the dynamic between Sara and Max bubbles to the surface.
Gavin Casalegno as Greg, Tommi Rose as Adrienne, Lana Condor as Max, Kathryn Newton as Sara, and Nico Hiraga as James in The Devil’s Mouth
Jirathit Saengavut
‘The Devil’s Mouth’ Is A Mid-Tier Thriller For The Streaming Age
With theatrical struggling outside of big tentpoles and franchise films, it’s fallen to streaming to pick up the slack when it comes to mid-tier offerings that fulfill that buttered popcorn craving without asking too much of its audience. The Devil’s Mouth falls right in line with the kind of movies teens and young adults would flock on to on weekends and nights when it didn’t cost an arm and a leg to go to the theater.
The formula is simple. Cast stars with recognizable faces and big fan bases, film in stunning locations that set the tone and mood for the movie, and put their characters in life-threatening peril to provoke enough emotion that word-of-mouth distribution becomes part of the marketing game plan. It helps that the performances and the thrills are worth the watch, too.
The friendship between Sara and Max does the brunt of the emotional work in The Devil’s Mouth before the bull shark claims the spotlight. The best friends who’ve been joined at the hip since sophomore year of college are so inseparable that they planned to move to New York together. Only, Max changed course, deciding LA would be a better fit for herself and expected Sara to follow suit.
Their relationship, which is a source of tension and comfort throughout the film, shapes the central question for the plot. What happens when grief and love get in the way of making the right decision for yourself? The stakes are not low in this movie. What starts as an existential question transforms into a survival-based one that’s juxtaposed with the inherent flaws of the characters.
There’s some depth to the story that may be unexpected for viewers thinking they’re only going to be watching rich kids get chomped by a shark. To be clear, the latter does happen. This group falls into the trap of excess money and privilege with Max, in particular, unable to take accountability for how her actions affect people. But The Devil’s Mouth is also a layered, and sometimes heavy-handed, metaphor about the importance of not letting someone make choices for you. That’s the duality of a good mid-tier movie.
Kathryn Newton as Sara in The Devil’s Mouth
Courtesy of Prime
A Bull Shark With An Appetite Carries ‘The Devil’s Mouth’
Suspend disbelief about a bull shark finding its way into a cave system and you’ll have a good time with this movie. The deaths start simple. The first two are a warm-up for what’s to come as the group does what they can to survive. As time passes, the kills have to get more inventive to sustain the level of suspense required for a decent sized group of people to be in fear of their lives for a prolong period of time.
The tunnels add both a challenge for the film not to become repetitive as well as a creative point that allows for moments that elevate the danger and the risks the group have to take. The best sequence involves a race against the bull shark through narrowing spaces and a struggle to get the air needed to keep going.
While there are times that The Devil’s Mouth drags, the scenes with the shark are always eventful and heighten the performances of the actors. With the PG-13 rating don’t expect gruesome or overly bloody deaths, but they’re definitely uncomfortable and unsettling. Unfortunately, the ending of the movie falls a bit flat, but it’s still worth the watch, whether for a solo night in or a hang out with friends.
The Devil’s Mouth is available to stream on Prime Video. Follow Sabrina Reed on Forbes for more coverage of what’s airing on television, like her weekly recaps/analysis of Lucky, and explainers on what’s happening in the entertainment industry that’s impacting consumers.