The Devil's Mouth

Devil's Mouth is the fourth shark film I've reviewed in a very short space of time. I like shark films, as you've probably realised. Or, with hindsight, perhaps I should be honest: I like the idea of shark films more than the films themselves, because the truth is that they rarely - in fact, almost never - manage to be more than mildly entertaining. And this year, the subgenre has also been hit by an influx of new releases. I don't know how many shark films have been released, but I've missed at least a couple that I reckon I can happily do without. Still, I thought the premise of Devil's Mouth sounded silly enough to actually pique my interest, without being naïve enough to build up any sort of expectation.

Plot:
Five friends set off into Thailand's Devil's Mouth cave system for one last adventure before real life begins. Soon, however, they realise that something is hunting them beneath the water's surface - fast, silent and deadly. In the suffocating darkness, their trust is put to the test, panic takes over and every misstep becomes a struggle for survival.

When I read that Jeff Wadlow was directing, I was initially quite pleased, as it's a name I'm familiar with. But then I realised that this doesn't necessarily mean anything positive. After all, it was Renny Harlin who directed the mediocre Deep Water, which is also the second-best shark film of the year so far - though that's not saying much. Then I realised that Wadlow had directed Kick-Ass 2, which was anything but good. And the fact is, he doesn't really have anything on his CV worth writing home about.

The cast are relatively unknown. Kathryn Newton, who plays the lead role, has a fairly solid CV, including Ant-Man and the Wasp, Ready or Not 2, Three Billboards and Big Little Lies. As for the rest, I've perhaps seen them in the odd production here and there. They do the best they can with a script that's hardly memorable, and much of the time is spent looking terrified and screaming in caves.

The choice of plot structure is somewhat interesting. We're used to a shark film - or horror in general - beginning with some sort of attack, but not here. We meet the group of friends who are in Thailand, where they're set to party and go yachting in turquoise waters. It actually takes 31 minutes (yes, I checked) before we see the film's antagonist on screen. I realised afterwards that the same could be said of Deep Water, which also builds up slowly with an introduction to the main characters and their respective personal stories, before really taking off when the fateful flight begins. The difference is that in that film, even though the characters were neither deep nor particularly likeable, we still managed to develop some connection with them.

Here, it feels more as though the screenwriters want us to stick with these utterly uninteresting and rather irritating teenagers for long enough that we actually find ourselves longing to see them get their comeuppance. And they certainly succeed in that, even if it doesn't feel particularly pleasant. There's absolutely no dynamism or chemistry. Best friends Sara and Max should have ended their relationship ages ago, and overall the bonds of friendship feel very tenuous.

Two-thirds of the film takes place inside the cave system, and on the face of it, that sounds as though it could be both nerve-wracking and claustrophobic, but the problem is that the film has quite effectively managed to avoid both tension and unease. This is partly linked to what I mentioned in the paragraph above. You don't care about the characters, so you don't care that they're scared either. And the threat from that hungry bastard, who initially stays below the surface, is anything but effective. If they'd dared to go a bit over the top with the gore instead of forcing a PG-13 rating onto the film, it might at least have been a bit more interesting, but it's simply too child-friendly.

Visually speaking, it's hard to say. The scenes set outside the caves are certainly attractive, but it's difficult to make an ugly film in such a beautiful setting. Inside the caves, on the other hand, it's, of course, dark and bloody awful. And that's probably a good thing in the sense that it's easier to get away with mediocre CGI. In that respect, Devil's Mouth is neither bad nor well-made. It ends up being a bit of a 'meh'. Then the shark starts leaping out of the water to catch fireflies or something, and that's... unexpected. And it really enjoys ramming into cave formations as if it had a ram in its armour. When it gets its head stuck in a cavity, one of the characters shouts that 'sharks can't swim backwards', and for a second I think they're going to do a Deep Blue Sea and prove the poor thing wrong. But they avoid that. Half a plus point or something.

I'd hoped that Devil's Mouth would at least deliver entertainment worth watching on autopilot, but it barely manages even that. I've become more and more impatient over the years, and here I lose focus and start checking my watch, wondering when it's all going to end. So, if you're easily entertained, patient and fancy joining a bunch of irritating teenagers and a grumpy shark on a trip, then perhaps Devil's Mouth is right up your street. Otherwise, you'd actually be best off keeping a safe distance. And by the way: the best shark film of the year so far is called Thrash. It wasn't brilliant, but it wasn't rubbish either. That's all from me.