The Black Demon – REVIEW
Image: THE BLACK DEMON. film still
Just when you thought it might be a good idea to check out this latest shark-themed movie at the flicks do yourself a favour and don’t!
An American co-production with Mexico and the Dominican Republic, the movie stars American actor Josh Lucas. Unfortunately, it’s obvious even before the opening credits finish rolling that this will unquestionably be a bad movie.
Lucas plays the role of an inspector who is sent to an off-shore Mexican oil rig. His family follow from the mainland shortly after being harassed by local men of questionable character.
They become stranded on an oil rig which is falling apart and is also being threatened by a vengeful megalodon shark known as the Black Demon!
It doesn’t really matter why the shark is vengeful in this extremely silly and cliched movie which is basically a rip-off of The Meg, an equally silly movie but with higher production values. What really matters is, how the hell did this movie get beyond the pre-production stage?
What obviously brings this ‘action packed drama’ down to a D grade level are the horrendously laughable visual effects. There’s certainly nothing special about these “special effects” with truly unremarkable CGI that must qualify as amongst the worst in movie history.
The movie lacks suspense, realistic shark action sequences and decent storylines which are ludicrously nonsensical at best. The actors are competent but performances are normally graded alongside the material actors have to work with.
As the movie progresses audiences may ask, who is responsible for the negligence and mismanagement of the oil rig? Is the shark the real monster at hand? But the real question on everybody’s mind that demands an answer is, whatever possessed Josh Lucas to lend his talents to such a demeaning movie?
Long passages spoken in Spanish with no subtitles also detract from this movie, which should have by-passed a theatrical release and moved straight to some low quality unknown streaming service.
For an enjoyable shark themed movie revisit Jaws….
★1/2
In cinemas June 8
