The Devil’s Mouth review – Amazon’s shark thriller gives us just about enough to chew on

Benjamin Lee Wed, July 29, 2026 at 3:26 PM UTC

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The cast of The Devil's Mouth.Photograph: Jirathit Saengavut/Courtesy of Prime

We’ve officially reached maximum shark movie this year, with about six released so far and even more on the way and so the drop of yet another one, in the middle of Shark Week, raises a number of questions: is it in any way essential? Will anyone ever come close to matching what Steven Spielberg achieved with Jaws or, more realistically, Renny Harlin with Deep Blue Sea? How junky are the shark effects? And most importantly, at least for those of us watching the majority of them, is it more of the same or is there an attempt to do something even slightly new with the swim, stalk, slash formula?

Related: Just when you thought it was safe … the shark movie is back for more

Trying something a little different is in itself extremely hit-and-miss because while I appreciated last year’s unusually striking Dangerous Animals for smartly inserting a serial killer into the mix, the addition of a hurricane to this year’s Netflix one-star dud Thrash meant that the film was both a terrible shark horror and a terrible disaster thriller. In recent months, we’ve seen Harlin return to the subgenre with Deep Water weaving in a plane crash and this week’s Antonio Banderas-starring Above & Below adding a drug cartel which makes the week’s other shark movie, Amazon’s gen Z-led offering The Devil’s Mouth, seem somewhat quaint in comparison. The special ingredient here is something a little less grandiose, but more potentially intriguing: a toxic friendship. It’s a movie that asks the rare question: what if you finally came to terms with how awful your best friend is just as a bull shark starts picking you off?

I don’t think that the Black List script, from TV writers Aja Gabel and Myung Joh Wesner, quite threads that needle (as a portrait of a disintegrating female friendship this is no Animals or Insecure season four) but it’s an intermittently effective tension added to a mostly cut-and-paste genre flick.

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Set in Thailand, amid a spate of ecosystem-shifting storms, it follows a group of American college friends holidaying before they finally enter the real working world. Lead besties – privileged and controlling Max (To All the Boys breakout Lana Condor) and the softer, more submissive Sara (Freaky and Ready or Not 2’s Kathryn Newton) – are debating next steps together (New York or LA?) before a careless mistake adds friction, and jellyfish wounds, to their already tense dynamic. Max’s docile boyfriend James (charismatic Moxie and Sweethearts actor Nico Hiraga) and an overly amorous, clearly disposable couple (Gavin Casalegno and Tommi Rose) try to play peacemaker but the group heads into a cave-exploring trip with unresolved drama.

Reassured by their guide (last season’s White Lotus newcomer Tayme Thapthimthong) that the freshwater caves will be shark-free, the group soon discovers that recent disturbances have nudged a particularly aggressive bull shark into the system with them. It’s almost as if heading on a trip to a cave known as the Devil’s Mouth was something of a bad idea …

For the real sharkheads in the house, the set-up is rather reminiscent of 2019’s slick 47 Meters Down sequel which had scuba-diving teens battling a shark while trapped in a labyrinth of underwater Mayan caves. But for anyone who’s even vaguely aware of how contemporary survival thrillers now play out, it’s also familiar in most other ways, most regrettably with the now unavoidable trope of giving both of our lead characters monologue-ready trauma (Max and Sara are part of the dreaded “dead parents society”). Director Jeff Wadlow, whose ho-hum horror-heavy résumé veers all the way from just about OK (Truth or Dare) to genuinely heinous (Imaginary) is efficient enough at orchestrating the unfolding chaos and if he never quite pulls us to the edge of our seat there are enough jolting and gnarly moments to keep us from slumping to the very back of it (our bull shark likes to bash at both rocks and bones).

But what most most enlivens the film is how the horror of the predicament exposes the cracks in the central friendship. Dictating social plans above water becomes insisting dominance over life-or-death decisions in the caves and while the writing could afford to be far spikier and more consistent (Max is both in charge of every detail yet confesses that she is allergic to logistics), it adds extra gristle to the finale. Condor plays obnoxious and unravelling rich kid well enough but it’s an increasingly sparky Newton, a pro at rising above B-movie fodder such as this, who steals it, finding her strength to both stand up to her friend and take charge of the situation. The toxicity of their friendship isn’t quite sharp enough to give The Devil’s Mouth teeth exactly, but it adds more than just body parts to the water which, at this overly prolific time for the shark movie, counts for something.

The Devil’s Mouth is now available on Amazon Prime Video

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”