What a demon Black Demon was...

There’s a lot of films that I was highly anticipating like Oppenheimer and Killers of the Flower Moon. One of the low budget movies i was looking forward too was the Paramount shark horror, The Black Demon… and what a demon it was.

Highly disapointed to say the least. A family of four return to Mexico on a vaccation, however, the dad, Paul Sturges, played by Josh Lucas, has too check the wellbeing of a oil rig for the company he works for. The place in Mexico is where Paul and Ines (Fernanda Urrejola) met and has taken a turn for the worse. Trying to find a place to eat, they pull over and speak to the local named El Rey (Raul Mendez) who takes them through the town and to a resturant. They walk past a little totem where their youngest child, Tommy, played by Carlos Solorzano, takes one of the figures on the totem and leaves a Snikers bar. When they arrive at the resturant, Paul departs his family to check on the rig where Ines books a stay a good hotel somewhere else.

Paul gets taken a distance to the rig, but not all the way to the rig, he has to do the final sprint by himslef. He manages too and safely gets to the rig, not knowing whats lurking underneath him. Once on the rig, he sees,first hand, th epoor condition that its in, leaking oil in the ocean. Almost desolate, there are only two members left on the rig, Junior and Chato, played by Jorge A. Jimenez and Julio Cedillo. Not knowing how he made the periless trip to the rig, they inform him on the awkening megaladon demon. I feel like the film would of been better if it wasnt related to the Megaladon being some sort of demon.

Meanwhile, the eldest child, Audrey Sturges (Venus Ariel) gets picked on by someone at the bar causing Ines to attack the man and fleeing the scene. They hire someone on a boat to take them to the rig but he declines, until he sees the money. The boat driver takes them to the rig and leaves, but doenst make it that far until the giant megaladon jumps out of the water and eats the boat. The first visual signs of the shark were very disappointing with it looking something out of Microsoft Paint. With that beign said, there were some good scenes with the shark. I thought the scene where Juniro and Chato go under water for one of Pauls plans, which takes a turn for the worse, was good when the shark brought the tank that Junior was in, to plummet to the floor.

The rest of the plot was rather basic with them on the rig, creating ideas and plans to get out, but having no luck. Arguments between Paul and Ines also occur a lot during these scene as well as a good friendship between Chato and Paul being created. After finding some signed papers from Paul, agreeing to usage of leaking oil and awakening the demon, Paul feels very guilty,giving the story of what he did to Chato. Ifeel like this was the best scene with some good music in the background and a monatge of everythign happening around the world which is slowly killing it. The only thinsg i didnt like about these sequences of scenes were the extreme close ups on Pauls face.

Once he finally has a plan that works, Paul orders Chato to get his family to safety whereas he goes underwater to use a bomb, planted on the oil rig, to blow up the shark. This turns out to be a ‘heroic sacrifice moment’ with Paul saying goodbye to his children adn wife over radio before the explosion happens.

Overall, just disappointing. The CGI for the shark was awful and the film hardly had any shots of the shark. It was lackluster in that department. Unfortunately, that wasnt the only thing that was disappointing. I feel like the plot was awful in regards to it being related to the shark being summoned and it being demonic. The acting was also quite poor with some scenes unwatchable because of the poor acting.

With that being said, the cinematography was quite good and i did like the wide shot scenes of the rig in the middle of the ocean. Other than that, nithing else about the film stood out to me. The only thing keeping it above a 1 is because i couldnt wait to watch it. How stupid of me.

1.5/5 PASS.