Do you like seeing people getting eaten by honking great sharks? That’s the only barrier to entry to the new horror thriller The Black Demon, which is now playing in Australian cinemas.
This one comes to us from director Adrian Grünberg, who gave us the Mel Gibson Mexican crime drama Get the Gringo and the ridiculously gory Rambo: Last Blood. Once again returning to Mexico, Grünberg’s The Black Demon sees him dabbling in eco-horror. Josh Lucas, recently seen playing the young John Dutton in Yellowstone, is oil company guy Paul Sturges, who brings his wife Ines (Fernanda Urrejola) and kids Audrey (Venus Ariel) and Tommy (Carlos Solórzano) with him on a visit to Baja to scope out an offshore oil rig, only to find the rig is falling apart, and the crew are dead apart from Chato (Julio Cesar Cedillo) and Junior (Jorge A. Jimenez).
The culprit? El Demonio Negro (The Black Demon if tu no hablas Espanol), a 50-foot killer shark.
El Demonio Negro is actually real, or at least purported to be real. According to local legend, the big fish has been prowling the Sea of Cortez for generations, munching on unwary fishermen and the occasional cartel go-fast boat. That makes The Black Demon not just a shark movie, but a cryptozoological movie, which we always have time for. Creepy critters heretofore unknown to science is always a good time.
Of course, we won’t pretend that Jaws is in any danger of losing its place at the pinnacle of the Best Shark Movies Of All Time leaderboard. That’s okay, but it’s important to grade on the curve. We basically have two criteria for shark flicks: is there a shark? Does it eat people? If both answers are in the affirmative, then we’re on board…but hopefully not in the water.
