The Devil’s Mouth, on Prime Video

In shark movies, it seems the dumber characters are, the better they taste. No shark ever ate gristly old Sheriff Brody, right? If that is indeed the case, the college kids in this movie must be absolutely delicious. Admittedly, finding a bull shark in a fresh water cave system is rather unexpected, but once they do, they make every bad decision possible in Jeff Wadlow’s The Devil’s Mouth, which premieres today on Prime Video.

Sara is understandably annoyed with her “friends,” because they accidentally left her behind, swimming in jellyfish infested waters. Hey, they came back for her. Hence her bad mood and numerous welts during their cave diving excursion. However, Sara had her heart set on seeing “the devil’s mouth,” the cave opening ringed by teeth-like stalactites and stalagmites, so she soldiers on.

Their guide, Wat, wants to take the easy route, because of recent typhoon activity, but, instead, Max, the group’s bossy queen bee, insists on taking the black diamond trail. As always, everyone defers to her. However, when the storm raised the water levels, a bull shark swam into the caves, where he now remains stuck, angry and hungry.

This is one of those sharkploitation movies where most viewers will root for the shark. Sara represents the logical final girl candidate, who must learn to trust herself and reject Max’s bad judgment to survive. That could be a credible dramatic arc, but the young shallow cast are mostly good for one thing: chumming the waters.

Frankly, what most stands out during Devil’s Mouth are the stunning location shots. If it weren’t for the shark attacks, Wadlow’s film would be a highly effective PSA for Thai tourism. Wadlow, who previously helmed several Blumhouse horror releases, including the hot unruly mess of a guilty pleasure, Truth or Dare, so it isn’t surprising he helms some satisfyingly gory feeding frenzies. However, character development is thinner than dictionary pages.

Chum: The Maltese Shark

It's the Maltese Shark, the stuff that nightmares are made of. Ordinarily, sharks shouldn’t reach Malta, but this one does, because of climate change. If you missed that eco-point, don’t worry, because the film will repeat it again and again and again. Oh, by they way, there's also a shark as well as climate change in Jonathan Zuck’s Chum, which opens Friday in theaters.

As a further bonus, Chum opens and closes with ridiculously heavy-handed voiceovers. When Captain Roy lost his beloved to an invasive shark, it left him broken. Jaws’ crusty old Quint looks sociable and gracious in comparison. Nevertheless, Roy saves newlyweds Tina and Tom and their bridal party pals when a combination of a collision with the shark and their own clumsy stupidity scuttles their party boat.

However, the squirrelly skipper has sinister plans for the entitled revelers. They are going to be chum, in his Ahab-worthy scheme to avenge his late wife. That’s what the diving cage is for. Frankly, this was already the worst wedding ever, because Tina and Tim were on the verge of annulling the whole darn thing. They just couldn’t reconcile her work as counsel for a petroleum company with his dilettantism as a wealthy and privileged environmental activist. However, if they can survive this crisis, then maybe these crazy kids (technically fortysomethings) can work out their differences.

Like a black sheep uncle walking into the Church during the exchange of vows, Chum arrives late to shark-wielding serial killer party. Last year’s Dangerous Animals (also distributed by IFC) got there first and did it better. In Sean Byrne’s earlier film, Jai Courtney plays a flamboyantly and entertainingly deranged predator. In contrast, Zuck and co-screenwriter Joe Leone clearly never truly decided whether they wanted to humanize Captain Roy or not, so they have actor Jim Klock randomly vacillate between tragic obsessive and stone-cold maniac, while maintaining the same impassive reserve.

Beast of War, on DVD/BluRay

The sinking of the HMAS Armidale was a lot like the tragedy of the U.S.S.Indianapolis. It was bad enough when both were sunk by the Imperial Japanese. Yet, for the survivors, fending off sharks in the water was even more horrifying. Everyone knows Quint’s monologue about the Indianapolis in Jaws. This is Armidale’s story, with a few dramatic liberties taken, in director-screenwriter Kiah Roache-Turner’s Beast of War, which releases tomorrow on DVD/BluRay.

Will seems ill-prepared for war, but he makes a good mate in Leo, an Aboriginal recruit who is probably the fittest for service, assuming he survives some of the racists also going through boot camp. Unfortunately, they will see little of the “proper” war, because they ship out on the Armidale, which is way too lightly armed and armored for the enemy-infested waters it set out to traverse. Their ill-fate led to a thorough review of such procedures, but that would mean little to Leo and Will as they watch a giant female great white circle their makeshift raft.

Of course, they are also stranded with Des Kelly, the worst racist of their unit, along Thompson, whose grave head wound makes his judgement dangerously unsound. It will be uncomfortably tight on that life-raft, but having a comrade to rely on, unconditionally, like Leo and Will, makes a big difference in their odds for survival. Indeed, that truly is the film’s takeaway.

Roache-Turner stays true to his genre roots by conceiving Beast of War as essentially a historically based sharksploitation horror movie. That is somewhat risky, considering many brave Australian servicemen died aboard the Armidale. It also shortchanges some of the heroes who fought and died valiantly, but it also forces viewers to confront the terrors they endured. Frankly, this is the sort of film that makes Quint look reasonable and justified.

Mark Coles Smith is also terrific as Leo. He seethes with anger, but also conveys a passion for life. Will is a much quieter, more passive character, but Joel Nankervis develops convincing and compelling comradery with Smith’s Leo, so viewers will enthusiastically root for them both to survive.

Jaws @ 50, on Hulu

This Blockbuster hasn’t aged day in the fifty years since it first released. That’s because the shark doesn’t care what kind of smart phone you carry or whether you drive an EV. You’ll still taste the same once you get into the water. It inspired one under-appreciated sequel and two truly terrible bombs, but the original will always be the greatest shark movie of all time. For the golden anniversary, cast, crew, fans, and the Benchley family look back on the film’s production and sensational reception in Laurent Bouzereau’s Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story, which premieres tomorrow on Hulu.

Surely, everyone has seen the film, or at least knows the music (duly discussed by John Williams). Unfortunately, primary cast-members Robert Shaw, Roy Scheider, and Murry Hamilton (the sleazebag mayor) are no longer with us, while Richard Dreyfuss was either unavailable or considered too canceled. However, viewers hear extensively from Steven Spielberg and author Peter Benchley’s surviving family.

Fittingly, Bouzereau starts with the book, which was a hit even before the film released. In fact, the studio adapted the publisher’s jacket art for the movie poster” the iconic giant shark ominously rising beneath an oblivious swimmer paddling above the waterline. Believe me, that never happens for publishing houses.

Frankly, despite the documentary’s suggestions otherwise, Benchley’s novel was not particularly well reviewed at the time and has not critically appreciated over time. Nevertheless, Spielberg offered his services after reading a galley and accepted the job when the first director pulled out. Unfortunately, when the book became such a runaway bestseller in mass market, the studio moved up production, leaving little time for the construction of the notorious mechanical shark. According to the surviving crew, that is why “Bruce” constantly broke down.

Jaws @ 50 is considerably more fun than most behind-the-scenes docs or DVD extras (which Bouzereau is no stranger to), in large part because of the sharks, real and animatronic. It also chronicles an incredibly stressful shoot that Spielberg feared might end his career. Mind-blowingly, Bouzereau documents the set visits from his famous filmmaker friends, like George Lucas, Martin Scorsese, and John Milius, who came to offer encouragement.

The reminiscences also take on a family vibe from the Benchleys, who later became active shark conservationists, and Martha’s Vineyard locals, who played many roles on both sides of the camera. In fact, only eight cast-members came from outside the island. One of whom was Susan Backlinie, who sadly passed away last year, but fortunately Bouzereau incorporates footage of her discussing her role of Chrissie Watkins, the shark’s first victim during the memorable prologue.

Dangerous Animals: Finally, a Good Shark Movie

Bruce Tucker makes crusty old Captain Quint in Jaws look like a charmer. He is a serial killer and his weapon of choice is the shark. That is why his shark charter diving business has so few Yelp reviews. Zephyr is exactly the kind of nomadic surfer he likes to target, but her resourcefulness surprises him in Sean Byrne’s Dangerous Animals, which opens tomorrow in theaters.

Zephyr lives out of her van and has no real family. Both she and Tucker assume nobody will come looking for her. However, she made quite an impression on Moses Markley, before her Irish-goodbye. He comes looking, but he is about a quarter of Tucker’s size and has about half of Zephyr’s survival instincts. Nevertheless, he represents her best hope.

Basically, if you fondly remember either Chief Brody’s nightmare of getting wheeled into the shark in the under-rated Jaws 2 or the shark tank in The Spy Who Loved Me, Dangerous Animals is the film for you. Tucker’s weaponization of sharks is reasonably credible, in a nasty serial killer way.

As Tucker, Jai Courtney is one of the most fiercely man and boozily blokey movie serial killers of all time. It seems pretty Shaw’s Quint was a reference point for the character as well as Courtney’s performance—and well it should be.

Obviously, Tucker is the showy role in Dangerous Animals, but both  Hassie Harrison and Josh Heuston are far better than you would expect from the potential shark meat in a movie like this. As a result, we really care about their survival, which duly leads to suspense.

Into the Deep: Richard Dreyfuss and Sharks, Together Again

Jaws 2 gets a bad rap. People unfairly lump it together with the next two truly dreadful sequels. Of course, for many, it was doomed from the start when Richard Dreyfuss refused to reprise his original role. Now, forty-five years later, Dreyfuss finally appears in another shark movie (Piranha 3D and documentary narration don’t count). Technically, he never leaves shore, but he still has some of the best moments in Christian Sesma’s Into the Deep, which releases today in theaters and on VOD.

Years ago, Cassidy Branham’s parents moored their boat at a spot where sharks had never been reported, but a great white ate her father right in front of her anyway. She has had a love-hate with the ocean ever since, largely because Seamus, her marine biologist grandfather, keeps pushing her to face her fears. That is why she agrees to join her archeologist husband Gregg and his scruffy skipper pal Daemon Benz on a treasure dive.

Tragically, both sharks and pirates crash their party. First sharks chow down on one of their companions. Then they hail the nearest boat for help, but the bandits aboard are decidedly not good Samaritans. Led by disgraced Navy SEAL Jordan Devane, they are tracking the signal of a large submerged shipment of drugs that they intend to hijack/salvage. However, they need a better, lighter diver to ferry the drugs back up in the shark cage.

Mixing sharks with pirates gives Into the Deep a slightly different angle than other sharksploitation movies. It also has a decent cast, especially Dreyfuss, whose appearance is quite a coup for a movie of this stature. Essentially, crusty Seamus, who constantly warns his students to fear nature’s wrath, is a combination of his original oceanographer character, Matt Hooper, and Robert Shaw’s salty sea dog, Quint. He never gets within earshot of a shark, but delivers several colorful monologues and makes an extended pitch for shark conservation during the closing credits.

Sharksploitation, on Shudder

It all goes back to Jaws, the movie that changed everything. It even has its own behind-the-scenes Broadway play opening soon (unless there is yet another strike). The idea of a summer “blockbuster” as we know it started with its release. On the other side of the spectrum, Jaws also inspired a whole school of cheap knock-offs. This documentary is all about the knock-offs. Filmmakers and critics celebrate shark cinema in Stephen Scarlata’s Sharksploitation, which premieres tomorrow on Shudder.

From time to time, you saw sharks in movies before Jaws, particularly as the pets and executioners of Bond villains. Obviously, the Spielberg classic took them to a whole new level. Naturally, there is analysis of all three sequels, but a lot of viewers might wish for more dish on the notorious Jaws 4: The Revenge. Weirdly, it is almost like nobody who was in the film wants to talk about it anymore.

Scarlata’s coverage of Jaws 2 gives the first sequel some of the credit it deserves. It really is a great film, but it gets unfairly lumped in with the next two sequels, which were dreadful. (However, it is hard to believe Murray Hamilton could still be the mayor. Honestly, Bill de Blasio must be the only other mayor who did more damage to his town.) It is also important to remember “just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water” was the constantly quoted tagline for Jaws 2.

Scarlata and company survey shark-specific imitators, as well as other sea predator rip-offs, like Joe Dante’s Roger Corman-produced Piranha (both of whom off on-camera commentary). There is coverage of reasonably presentable films like Orca, Open Water, and 47 Meters Down. Unfortunately, the French film Year of the Shark might have been too recent and not widely enough screened to make the cut, but there is a good hard look at The Last Shark, an Italian copy-cat that was so shamelessly derivative, Universal successfully blocked its release. Of course, no films were more exploitative than the Sharknado franchise.

The Black Demon

It's a shark, it’s a megalodon, it’s an Aztec god—and a structural engineering inspector. It’s the god, Tlaloc and he is really ticked off. Fortunately, he mostly swims around a soon-to-be decommissioned petroleum platform, which should be easy to avoid, but that is exactly where Paul Sturges and his family go in Adrian Grunberg’s The Black Demon, opening this Friday, only in theaters.

Sturges always enjoyed inspecting this platform, because the town that services it is so quaint and welcoming. He doesn’t even bother making a reservation at his hotel, because planning ahead is for squares. Much to his surprise, he finds the town practically shuttered. The locals who remain are creepy bad-touching rustics. One of them even starts pawing his wife, Ines, who coldcocks him in response. That is why she commandeers a boat to follow her negligent husband out to the oil platform.

Unfortunately, as Sturges already discovered, she finds the platform under siege from a massive prehistoric shark. She and the kids barely make it on to the platform. To get back to the mainland, they need a bigger, more shark-proof boat. Unfortunately, coms are out and even if they weren’t, the villagers are so disgusted with the environmental damage wrought by the platform, they wouldn’t be much inclined to help. In fact, that is why the rag-tag platform survivors believe Tlaloc is terrorizing them. He has judged the rig’s environmental controls and found them lacking.

Maybe when the development process started on Black Demon the oil rig setting looked like a fresh hook for a shark attack movie. However, in the last sixteen months, Prime’s The Rig, Globo’s Ilha de Ferro, and The Burning Sea have made petroleum platforms a whole lot more familiar. Screenwriters Carlos Cisco and Boise Esquerra also try to introduce elements of New Agey Aztec spirituality, but their corniness is embarrassing.

Brooklyn Horror ’22: Year of the Shark

This shark is about to discover French people taste great. It only makes sense, considering how much wine they consume. Naturally, the killing machine with fins shows up in the waters surrounding a French resort village, a mere two days before Maja Bordenave expected to retire from their local coast guard station. Of course, she wants to stay to catch the big fish in screenwriter-directors Ludovic & Zoran Boukherma’s Year of the Shark, which screened at the 2022 Brooklyn Horror Film Festival.

The mayor of La Pointe is not much, but at least he moves quicker to close the beaches than Murray Hamilton did in the Jaws movies. People did not want to believe Bordenave’s initial reports, because they already lost one season to Xi’s Covid, but it is hard to argue with the body parts in the water. Frankly, this is the sort of crisis she has been preparing all her career for, but not so much her junior colleagues Blaise and Eugenie. Throughout it all, her devoted husband Thierry loyally stands by her, even when the town turns against her.

The Boukhermas never hide the inspiration they took from the great granddaddy of all shark movies. In fact, they even quote directly from Jaws, in a way that makes sense within the dramatic context. There is definitely a shark out there eating people, but Year is sort of a shark movie with a pinch of Ibsen, focusing just as much on the implications for the Bordenaves' marriage and the divisions that start tearing the community apart. In that respect, the Covid references make sense, because they further raise the stakes for the beleaguered local business owners.

Great White: They are a Summer Tradition

It wouldn't be summer without sharks, just like barbeque and the MLB All-Star game, but they are preferably seen from the safety of a movie screen. For a Japanese couple’s excursion, Kaz and Charlie did not set out looking for sharks, but they found two as a cool bonus. Somehow their clients don’t see it that way when they all wind up clinging to a life raft, with the sharks circling beneath them, in Martin Wilson’s Great White, which releases in theaters and on-demand this Friday.

Kaz and Charlie are really scuffling, so they needed Michelle and Joji’s tour, especially since Kaz is newly pregnant. As a trained marine-biologist working as a charter pilot, Charlie did not expect sharks to still be swimming in these waters so late in the season, but boy was he wrong. The entitled Joji took exception when Charlie made a detour in search of a missing vessel, but in retrospect, he may have had a point.

They do indeed find the derelict yacht, but they also discover what totaled it: two great white sharks hunting in tandem. The sharks make quick work of their seaplane, but the bright orange inflatable life raft is far more durable. (Seriously, the producers should tell us what brand it is, because it is amazingly shark resistant.) Regardless, it is highly unlikely help will be coming, so they must try to quietly ride the current back to shore. Of course, there are obvious flaws to this plan. If Joji and Michelle survive, Kaz and Charlie certainly can’t blame them if they leave a scathing Yelp review.

The reviews from film critics will not be much better. There have been plenty of entertaining post-Jaws shark movies (Meg would be a standout thanks to the energy of Jason Statham and Li Bingbing), but Great White is just too simplistic and uninspired. Even the lifeboat tension between the super-jealous Joji and the charter’s Islander chef Benny feels blatantly contrived.

Deep Blue Sea 2: Deeper, Bluer, Hungrier

Among fish, sharks are considered comparatively intelligent and sociable. However, bull sharks are such mean killing machines,even a touchy-feely shark conservationist like Misty Calhoun won’t go near them. So why would pharma billionaire Carl Durant make them his smart drug guinea pigs, like Bradley Cooper in Limitless? Maybe it has something to do with his reckless megalomania. Regardless, people are about to become fish food in Darin Scott’s direct-to-DVD sequel, Deep Blue Sea 2 (trailer here), which releases today.

It has been a while since the original Deep Blue Sea released in 1999, so you may have either forgotten it, or been faithfully pining for a sequel. In either case, you can feel free to dive into DBS2, because there are no returning characters. We just get another batch of smart sharks. As we know, sharks are Calhoun’s specialty. That is why Durant wants to recruit her for the project, even though her value-added seems minimal. At least she can tell just by looking Bella, the queen bee bull shark is mega-pregnant.

Of course, Calhoun is appalled by Durant’s scheme, as any rational person would be. Even his shark herder (or whatever) Trent Slater is pretty disgusted with his boss. Frankly, Durant was always arrogant, but he has become alarmingly erratic since he started dosing himself with the experimental cocktail. However, things really get ugly when the facility starts to flood—and Bella gives birth to a gaggle of piranha-like babies.

So yeah, killer sharks. Its definitely meathead stuff, but the execution is more competent than we would expect. Michael Beach is flamboyantly nutty as Durant and his motivating fear of an artificial intelligence-induced singularity is an interesting touch. Danielle Savre also makes Calhoun a pleasingly forceful protag. However, the rest of the ensemble bring little energy to their stock characters. Frankly, many of them look like they are just waiting around to get eaten.

Hopefully, The Meg will be better than this. However, as direct-to-DVD sequels go, this is much more watchable than most, but whether it is worth the nineteen-year wait is a question only you can answer for yourself. Probably decent hangover viewing material, Deep Blue Sea 2 releases today on DVD, exactly where it belongs.

47 Meters Down: Mandy Moore vs. Sharks

Seriously, why didn’t they just go whale watching? They could have been safely drinking coffee and eating scones on-deck. However, Kate thought her sister Lisa needed to become more adventurous, so she cajoled her into some shark-cage-diving. She might just fix her permanently in Johannes Roberts’ 47 Meters Down (trailer here), which opens today nationwide.

Lisa has just been dumped by her longtime BF for being a fuddy-duddy, so Kate took his place on the vacation her sister had planned. Kate decides a little shark-cage-diving will be good for what ails her, especially since they will be joining two very single fellow tourists on the S.S. Rickety Barnacle, skippered by the Captain Ron-like Taylor. Shrewdly, he doesn’t waste money on extravagantly strong cable, allowing him to pass the savings on to you.

For about ten seconds, Lisa and Kate ooh and ah at fish. Then the cable slips a little and bam—47 meters down, baby. At this point they are in a world of hurt. Good old Taylor just chummed the water so its shark central out there. They only have about an hour of oxygen under the best of circumstances, but it is depleting more quickly due to panic and exertion. Plus, their scuba coms are only in range around the 40-meter mark, so someone will have to swim up seven meters to talk to the boat.

As set-ups go, Roberts and co-screenwriter Ernest Riera put the sisters in quite the pickle. This is definitely a B-movie, but it is still pretty compelling to watch the shark-bait siblings struggle to survive. Although a few scenes are a bit murky, most of Mark Silk’s underwater cinematography is rather spectacular. However, the ending is bound to be divisive. Viewers who manage to emotionally invest will most likely get angry, but those who are only there for the shark show will just say the heck with it.

Mandy Moore and Claire Holt do almost all of their acting wearing diving masks, but to their credit, they are convincingly freaked out. Frankly, as Captain Taylor, Matthew Modine spends so much time explaining the Bends and nitrogen narcosis, he could probably do safe-diving PSAs in his sleep. Roberts opts to keep him largely off-camera as the disembodied voice they hear, so we never see Taylor up-top, worrying about the scathing Yelp reviews the sisters will write if they survive. As for the sharks, they are big.

It is definitely sharks—plural. Unlike Jaws 4: The Revenge, there is nothing personal here. Lisa and Kate are just trapped (and eventually bleeding) amid a whole mess of jabber-jaws. Obviously, it is no accident 47 Meters is opening in mid-June. It is nothing fancy, but it delivers “beach read”-style suspense, without even scaring viewers away from the beaches. Recommended as a drive-in, bonehead-distraction kind of movie, 47 Meters Down opens today throughout the City, including the AMC Empire and the Regal Union Square.