The Devil’s Mouth (dir. Jeff Wadlow)

by Jack Martin | Jul 29, 2026

Certificate: 15

Running Time: 104 mins

UK Distributor: Prime Video

UK Release Date: 29 July 2026

WHO’S IN THE DEVIL’S MOUTH?

Kathryn Newton, Lana Condor, Gavin Casalegno, Nico Hiraga, Tommi Rose, Tayme Thapthimthong

WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?

Jeff Wadlow (director, producer), Aja Gabel and Myung Joh Wesner (writers), Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee (producers), Bear McCreary (composer), James Kniest (cinematographer), Sean Albertson (editor)

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

A cave diving expedition turns into a deadly battle for survival…

WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON THE DEVIL’S MOUTH?

Among the sixty-odd scripts that made up the 2019 Black List – an annual curation of then-unproduced screenplays considered to be the most appreciated – only twelve were eventually made into movies. But whereas such scripts like The Menu, Don’t Worry Darling, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent and They Cloned Tyrone all ended up being pretty memorable in their own unique ways, there’s ones like screenwriters Aja Gabel and Myung Joh Wesner’s The Devil’s Mouth (previously known as Apex, before the Netflix film from earlier this year nabbed that title) which end up being so blandly paint-by-numbers that you wonder how exactly this script managed to impress enough people to even make it onto the Black List in the first place.

The movie, brought to life by director Jeff Wadlow, is formulaic to a near-fatal fault, playing into most typical traits of the classic shark slasher/survival movie template that rob the script of any real weight or intrigue. Saving it, albeit barely, is a somewhat tense atmosphere that the committed cast members are talented enough to sell, all in spite of the thin plotting and characterisation, not to mention effects that are on par with the ones in the Sharknado franchise.

We open with a group of college friends – Sara (Kathryn Newton), her bestie Max (Lana Condor), her boyfriend James (Nico Hiraga), and airhead couple Greg (Gavin Casalegno) and Adrienne (Tommi Rose) – who are already deep into their sun-soaked trip to Thailand. Things take a slight turn when Sara is briefly left by the others in the middle of the sea to be stung and scarred by a bunch of jellyfish, but not even that compares with a planned cave diving trip the next day which is rudely interrupted by a bloodthirsty shark, having somehow been swept inside with a bunch of other sea creatures during a recent storm. Now, the shark is picking the group off one by one, leaving everyone who’s left to desperately find a way out of the cave – named The Devil’s Mouth, for those wondering where the title comes from – and make it to safety.

It really is exactly the kind of movie you’re expecting it to be from that premise alone: a survival thriller with a shark stalking and killing a bunch of people. But it’s not even a particularly good one, as anything to do with the plot and characters are kept firmly on the surface, going no deeper than the most basic attributes assigned to them by a script that sticks far too closely to the typical formula. You know within seconds of meeting this group of shark snack options young people which of them are going to bow out pretty early on, who among them will most likely be the designated “final girl”, and even the order in which they meet their grisly demises, since the writers signpost each one of their arcs (or lack thereof) as though their script is actively spelling out for the viewer who’s about to die, through a bunch of terribly on-the-nose dialogue that more or less seals their fate.

Moreover, there’s even less reason to care about any of them, because these are the kind of obnoxious and dim-witted characters that you’d actively root against in an equally bad slasher movie. From the high-maintenance control freak to the horndog couple with barely a braincell between them, The Devil’s Mouth is full of such archetypes that continuously do the dumbest things imaginable in order to either keep the plot from ending quicker or to get someone killed much faster, while the more straightlaced and therefore the most likeable characters are mainly just blandly written, despite the actors doing their best to make them more interesting than they actually are. As for the shark itself, it being a horribly rendered CGI abomination is one thing, but often the film doesn’t even let it commit any memorable kills, with its only effective sneak attack being its only move which gets repetitive after a short while.

Once in a while, though, there will be a decent amount of tension that, if nothing else, gives The Devil’s Mouth something to chew on. Wadlow’s track record as a director isn’t especially strong, as those who have seen the likes of Truth or Dare and Fantasy Island will attest, but here he manages to create an unnerving atmosphere where these cavernous depths carry some menace to them, especially when they’re presented in near pitch-black darkness that almost makes these sharp and easily breakable rocks seem quite threatening. There will also be some intriguing use of light, particularly when the group makes it to a cave filled with bioluminescence that brings a bit of soothing colour to an otherwise harsh environment. In terms of Wadlow’s filmography, it’s probably among his most visually accomplished, though honestly that really isn’t saying much since there are still portions of the film which are hard to make out, seeing how much of it takes place in dark caves with little to no natural lighting.

It isn’t among the worst films of the year, not by a long shot, but The Devil’s Mouth still isn’t good, largely because it’s just too dull to even work up any real hatred towards it. This is simply a by-the-book shark survival thriller, nothing more and nothing less, but its light plotting and thin characterisation – particularly with people who more often than not don’t entirely earn your overall interest – makes it feel much longer than it is, and leaves the viewer in a mostly bored state because not only have they seen it all before, but also in much better and more interesting ways.

Again, it all makes you wonder: how exactly did such a stock screenplay make it onto the Black List in the first place?

SO, TO SUM UP…

The Devil’s Mouth is a blandly formulaic shark survival thriller that suffers from a script that is light in both plotting and characterisation, which makes it much less entertaining despite the occasional moment of tension within its visually gripping environment.