The Devil’s Mouth Review: ★★★☆☆ (3/5)
The Devil’s Mouth is a solidly entertaining shark survival thriller that distinguishes itself just enough from the overcrowded genre with a genuinely interesting toxic friendship dynamic at its centre — though the underwater scares are more efficient than truly frightening and the script never develops its best ideas as sharply as it should. Kathryn Newton is the film’s best asset, rising above the B-movie material with real spark and conviction every time the story gives her the chance.
Rating: ★★★☆☆ (3/5)
Director: Jeff Wadlow
Platform: Amazon Prime Video
Language: English
Cast: Kathryn Newton, Lana Condor, Nico Hiraga, Gavin Casalegno, Tayme Thapthimthong
Runtime: 106 mins
We are deep into shark movie season. Multiple shark films have already come out this year, with more on the way, and The Devil’s Mouth arrives on Amazon Prime Video at the peak of all this fishy activity.
The question any reasonable viewer asks before pressing play on another one is simple: does this one do anything different? The honest answer is — a little. Enough to make it worth watching if the genre interests you, not enough to recommend it to everyone regardless.
The setup is the kind you could write in your sleep. A group of American college friends on holiday in Thailand, enjoying what they assume is a carefree trip before real adult life begins.
The key relationship is between Max, played by Lana Condor, and Sara, played by Kathryn Newton — best friends whose dynamic is thoroughly unequal. Max is controlling, privileged, and the kind of person who frames every decision as being in her friend’s best interests while actually just being in her own.
Sara has spent years accommodating this without acknowledging the cost. A careless mistake involving jellyfish wounds creates tension just before the group enters a cave system their guide assures them is shark-free. It is not shark-free.
A bull shark — aggressive, territorial, and thoroughly uninterested in their personal drama — has been pushed into the freshwater cave system by recent ecological disturbances. The group now has to figure out how to survive both the animal and each other.
The Thailand setting and underwater cave system give the film a genuinely claustrophobic atmosphere that the better scenes exploit effectively.
The bull shark feels like a real physical threat rather than a digital afterthought, and a few attack sequences generate genuine tension through the narrow, rocky confines of the space.
Director Jeff Wadlow is not making anything particularly elevated here, but he keeps the pacing honest and avoids the worst temptation of the genre — padding the running time with scenes that go nowhere.
What most distinguishes The Devil’s Mouth from its competition is how the horror of the situation exposes the cracks in the central friendship.
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The controlling dynamic between Max and Sara translates directly into life-or-death decision-making in the cave, and watching Sara gradually find the resolve to stop deferring to someone who has consistently let her down gives the film a second story running alongside the shark one.
It is not as sharp or psychologically complex as it could have been — Max is written somewhat inconsistently, and the script occasionally cannot decide how sympathetic to make her — but it gives the film an emotional texture that most shark movies simply do not bother with.
Kathryn Newton is the standout. She brings real charisma and a growing steeliness to Sara that makes her transformation genuinely satisfying. Lana Condor handles the obnoxious, unravelling rich girl energy well enough, though the writing does not always give her the nuance the performance is reaching for.
A cut above average for the genre. Nothing more, nothing less.
The Devil’s Mouth is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.