THE DEVIL'S MOUTH (AMAZON PRIME) (2026)

SYNOPSIS: Five friends explore The Devil's Mouth cave system in Thailand for one last adventure before life in the real world begins. But they soon discover that something is hunting them under the water…fast, silent, and deadly. In the suffocating darkness, trust erodes, panic spreads and every wrong turn becomes a fight for survival.

MOVIE REVIEW:

The Devil’s Mouth is yet another shark-attack thriller that fails to bite. It’s a thoroughly predictable affair that makes you wonder why Amazon and Lionsgate even bothered to co-produce it.

Directed by Jeff Wadlow, the filmmaker behind forgettable thrillers like Fantasy Island and Imaginary, the film follows five college friends—Sara (Kathryn Newton), her best friend Max (Lana Condor), Sara’s boyfriend James (Nico Hiraga), and couple Greg (Gavin Casalegno) and Adrienne (Tommi Rose) who embark on a cave-diving trip in Thailand. Their little getaway soon turns deadly after they encounter a ferocious bull shark.

Screenwriters Aja Gabel and Myung Joh Wesner attempt to establish the toxic relationship between Sara and Max before the attacks begin. Max is the rich, showy, tough girl who expects everyone to do things her way, while Sara struggles to remain cordial following a previous jellyfish incident that Max was likely responsible for.

Unfortunately, the film spends about 20 minutes too long setting up its main characters. With the exception of Sara and Max, the rest of the group exist merely to fill the shark’s stomach. Still, credit must be given to Newton and Condor, who at least manage to maintain some emotional weight and believable chemistry throughout the ordeal.

Wadlow’s handling of suspense is also rather questionable. The Devil’s Mouth repeatedly shows the bull shark swimming nonchalantly behind the divers, as if that’s supposed to generate tension. It doesn’t. Coupled with the constant murky underwater photography and dimly lit shots that seem designed to hide the poorly rendered CGI shark, the attacks end up feeling frustratingly underwhelming. The shark sequences are simply not executed well enough to deliver the suspense and tension the film desperately needs.

If there’s one aspect worth praising, it’s the production. The Devil’s Mouth features impressive on-location filming in Thailand, complemented by convincing water tank work on soundstages. At least the filmmakers deserve some credit for that.

As far as we’re concerned, The Devil’s Mouth belongs squarely in the “shark movie of the month” category—utterly forgettable and bland. The underwater attacks are choreographed in the least imaginative ways possible, and if you’re looking for one of the better creature features in recent years, you’re far better off revisiting Alexandre Aja’s Crawl.

MOVIE RATING:

Review by Linus Tee