Los Angeles, CA – Director Jeff Wadlow (Kick-Ass 2) delivers a surprisingly tense and fun-soaked creature feature with The Devil’s Mouth, a survival thriller that pits five college friends against a grinning bull shark in a flooded cave system. Starring Kathryn Newton, Lana Condor, and Gavin Casalegno, the film offers a classic blend of jump scares, screaming, and recrimination, all set against the eerie, claustrophobic backdrop of Thailand’s cave systems. It’s a perfect send-off for the summer month, proving that a widely grinning shark with an appetite for humans making incredibly poor decisions is a major charm of this effective little shocker.
The film quickly introduces its cast of archetypes: the good girl Sara (Newton), the controlling Max (Condor), the jock Greg (Casalegno), the dopey James (Nico Hiraga), and the pretty Adrienne (Tommi Rose). The five friends are on a final adventure in Thailand before adulthood, but tensions simmer as Max constantly steamrolls Sara’s wishes. When a storm floods the Devil’s Mouth cave system, the group becomes trapped with an angry bull shark. From there, it’s a battle for survival as the shark picks off the annoying humans one by one, with the cast telegraphing the order of their demise and the identity of the Final Girl.
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Newton does a fair job as Sara, though her sly glances hint at a darker twist that the film ultimately doesn’t deliver. Condor sheds her To All the Boys warmth to play an awful person leading her friends into dreadful situations, and Casalegno looks as pretty as ever. The writing makes the characters choose weirdly, but as the film suggests, if everyone were sensible, the story would be over in ten minutes. Shot on location, the caves provide an eerie, claustrophobic vibe heightened by the bull shark’s presence. With its blend of teen drama and shark-infested terror, The Devil’s Mouth is a fun, if predictable, thriller that knows exactly what it is. It is currently streaming on Prime Video.
