[Nerdspresso] A Bad Taste in The Devil's Mouth

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By Jeff Stanford, Special to Southpoint Access

If I had to quickly describe The Devil’s Mouth, Prime’s recent shark thriller starring Kathryn Newton, I'd call it Jaws met Gossip Girl on The Beach. And that’s being generous.

Newton (Antman & the Wasp: Quantumania and Lisa Frankenstein) leads the cast of this tepid tale of vapid vacationers hunted by a hungry bull shark while on a snorkeling excursion in Thailand. 

The Devil’s Mouth is the name for the underwater cave they’re exploring when tragedy strikes. It could also be what was used to dictate prompts into ChatGPT for this rote thriller. Beautiful scenery and some cool underwater photography can’t distract from a predictable story with insufferable characters. Newton stars as Sarah, a recent college grad on a trip with her rich bestie Max, played by Lana Condor from Netflix’s To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before. 

Max has bankrolled an extravagant getaway for her friends to celebrate their new degrees. I obviously ran with the wrong crowd back in the day. My friends just treated me to cheese sticks at TGI Friday’s.

There’s a lot of talk about kicking back and starting their big jobs in NY and LA running social media for celebrities. You know, your typical starter jobs for recent grads. 

This movie’s opening moments are like a series of Instagram carousels strung together, featuring exotic locales and attractive young people partying. I definitely got FOMO while watching, but it was more because I was afraid of missing out on plot and character development. But life is not all sunbathing and drinking games. Sara is grieving the recent passing of her dad, and Max is trying to help her cope when she’s not downing Jaeger bombs.

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