The Black Demon (2023)

The Black Demon (2023). The Black Demon: Directed by Adrian Grunberg. With Omar Chaparro, Bolivar Sanchez, Carlos Solórzano, Josh Lucas. Stranded on a crumbling rig in Baja, a family faces off against a vengeful megalodon shark.

“That headline is not a reference from The Black Demon. Itu0026#39;s a question I have for the movie. To say itu0026#39;s all over the place would be a severe understatement. It doesnu0026#39;t know what it wants to be. Most people will watch this because they want to see a creature feature, but that plays a tiny part in this movie. Even itu0026#39;s themes and messages are so random and unconnected.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe Black Demon opens with a scene that made me think, u0026quot;Oh no, what have I gotten myself into.u0026quot; It seemed immediately bad even by B-movie standards. Then it does a few things that made me think, u0026quot;Wait, this might be decent.u0026quot; There are some cool shots. I enjoyed the family dynamic and the little boy is hilarious.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBut then it drops right back down to being unbearably low-quality. The shark attack scenes are awful. Every u0026quot;horroru0026quot; element fails. We start to see how horrendous the acting is by the two leads when the scene requires yelling. My jaw literally dropped at a couple of the performances.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWorst of all, it becomes unbelievably stupid. Throughout. Iu0026#39;ll give one example from the very beginning. They plan a trip to a town but when they arrive, the hotel is closed down, as is most of the town. There are shady people lurking around. Itu0026#39;s clearly unsafe. Instead of driving his family somewhere else, they get out and try to get directions to a restaurant from some shady people. They leave their car and follow them on foot to this restaurant, which also has shady people. And he leaves his wife and children while he goes to work for a few hours. Itu0026#39;s the basis for how this entire movie happens and is, to the full extent of the word, moronic.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003e(1 viewing, opening Thursday 4/27/2023)”