Rent The Black Demon (2023)

Daft But Ok Giant Shark Film - The Black Demon review by GI

Great White Shark's don't cut the mustard in movies today, now we get giant prehistoric sharks, Megladons and that's what this creature feature has pootering around harassing an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. The film's title is also a euphemism for oil of course as there's a daft interwoven theme here around unscrupulous oil companies damaging the environment and in this case invoking the wrath of said giant shark. Josh Lucas plays Paul, an oil rig inspector, sent by his company to do the annual inspection on a rusty old rig. Paul takes his family with him for a bit of a holiday only they find themselves stranded on the rig that has no comms, only two surviving workers and lots of body parts floating around. Every so often the creature comes patrolling looking for its next meal and Paul must work out how to get everyone to safety, which of course involves killing the shark. There's the inevitable and a bit too obvious homage to Jaws (1975) with a line from that classic. The budget was obviously a little tight and the creature is mostly glimpsed in the dark, murky waters very briefly. The theme of oil companies being very, very bad for the environment is slapped on a little too heavily after all this is a giant shark narrative and not a climate crisis drama. This has a degree of entertainment value and one or two great moments but think about the plot too much and you'll soon begin to groan.