This week, we have a brand new movie that was just released on Amazon Prime that features caves, Claire Novak, and a potentially teleporting shark.
The Devil’s Mouth was initially very promising. (Yes, this does imply that such promise does not last, but we’ll get to that.) We follow five attractive young adults as they wander around Thailand with apparently no real plan. They don’t need any when they have Max, who must have some kind of superpower where she can instantly charm anyone and have them do exactly what she says.
And she is genuinely charming. Stubborn. Confident well past the point of arrogance. Selfish and entitled and completely unafraid to throw Daddy’s money around. She’s the kind of person who gets a job running Sabrina Carpenter’s social media because of a connection that her dad made back in Yale.
Max is deeply unlikable, and yet I found her fascinating. Well, I mostly found her relationship with Sara, our protagonist, fascinating. Sara is quieter and more willing to just follow wherever Max leads, even if she disagrees with her. Sure, she’ll protest, but she always gives in. And the second that Sara seems to exert some kind of independence, Max immediately turns manipulative and cruel.
It’s incredibly toxic and codependent, and yet there is a genuine layer of love there. Unlike a lot of movies, I understood why they were friends. I understood why Sara would agree to be the fifth wheel alongside two other couples.
Although, you could very easily convince me to read more than a little homoerotic subtext into their relationship; Max even goes so far as to carve their initials into the cave in what flat out reads like a romantic, albeit incredibly possessive, gesture.
Rounding out our main cast, we also have James, who is Max’s doormat of a boyfriend (although he did have the most emotional moment of the movie), Greg, a golden retriever in human form, and Adrienne, who I really liked and wished that we got stronger characterization out of.
The event that really shows off the characters’ relationships the best happens at the beginning of the movie when Sara, thanks to Max’s negligence, is nearly left behind while snorkeling. Or was it a more deliberate action to punish Sara for not immediately agreeing to give up everything and follow Max to LA? Again, you could very easily convince me.
While that is terrifying on its own, Sara is also enveloped in a swarm of jellyfish, which leave really amazing looking burns on her arms and legs. So right away, we not only have realistic and cool wounds, but also a complex and intriguing group dynamic that feels akin to the one in The Descent.
It’s when the shark appears that everything starts to go downhill, unfortunately. The first onscreen kill is brutal and makes great use of sound, but none of the other kills come close to matching that. In fact, there's incredibly little gore in general. Almost every death is enitrely bloodless, and a lot of the killing blows happen entirely off-screen.
It also doesn’t help that the shark’s behavior was ridiculous. I’m willing to ignore a lot of things, but a semi-poor CGI shark repeatedly leaping through the air to try and catch bats is not one of them. It looked like my cat trying to catch a fly that had gotten into the house.
Not to mention the thing teleports. I genuinely expected the movie to reveal that there were multiple sharks trapped in the cave because there was no way that one shark could be everywhere that it needed to be. But no. Even though characters can crawl through tunnels and be in completely separate caverns, the shark will always be directly underfoot.
It didn’t help that the cave was incredibly grey and murky, meaning that one part was largely indistinguishable from another. Now, there is something to be said about this. Having everything look the same can be useful if you were deliberately playing up the maze-like environment. However, it never felt like the cave was actually a maze. In fact, it seemed like there was really only one path through with no real way of getting lost.
Sure, the shark complicates things, but there was no reason why they couldn’t find their way back to the entrance. They literally had a map to the entire cave system. You should not be lost if you have a map.
It was also very dark to the point where I had to turn off my lights to try and see what was actually happening on screen, which is never good.
The script laid out several pieces of foreshadowing that were then completely dropped in favor of something wildly different. It made everything feel a bit sloppy, especially when the movie started to drag about midway through. Although it’s less than 2 hours, it still feels like you could cut a solid thirty minutes out and not lose anything of value.
Most of all though, the character dynamics that were so deliciously toxic never really went anywhere. They existed, hit all of the cliche beats, and weren’t interrogated or explored in even a remotely satisfying way.
There was still enough for my brain to crunch on, so I will ultimately recommend checking it out, but I had still hoped for more.
Random Thoughts
Another bull shark this time. A growling, roaring, leaping bull shark.
There is one really cool looking practical effect of a half-eaten turtle. I liked that one a lot.
I do love some good bioluminescence in the water. The movie did not use it nearly enough.
I’m torn about the occasional map graphic that popped up to show where everyone was. I’m not sure if it added anything.
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An Honest Fangirl loves video games, horror movies, and superheroes, and occasionally watches far too many shark movies.
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