Twenty 20-Sharks is a chronological survey of shark attack movies. In this entry, it’s time to reckon with humanity’s lust for oil.
One theme that’s come up surprisingly little in Twenty 20-Sharks is the theme of Mother Nature exacting revenge for humanity’s exploitation of her riches. In fact, we’d have to go all the way back to Mako: The Jaws of Death to find a movie that actually regards sharks as beautiful creatures in their own right. The Black Demon isn’t exactly a film about saving the sharks, but instead makes use of them as a metaphor for nature’s wrath. In fact, one could argue that given the title, there isn’t actually a shark in this movie at all.
[ISSUING A SPOILER ALERT NOW, BECAUSE I WILL BE TALKING ABOUT MOST OF THE PLOT IN THIS PIECE. IF YOU WANT YOU CAN WATCH THE BLACK DEMON ON TUBI1.]
The film opens as we watch two men plant a bomb on the soon-to-be-derelict oil rig El Diamante off the coast of the Baja Peninsula. (Corporate sabotage, as we eventually learn!) But before they can make their getaway, the two men are immediately chomped by a mysterious creature of the deep.
Cut to some time later, and we meet Paul Sturges (Josh Lucas), an inspector for the Nixon Oil corporation, who’s brought his wife Ines (Fernanda Urrejola) and kids Audrey (Venus Ariel) and Tommy (Carlos Solórzano) on a family vacation down to Mexico while he pays a visit to El Diamante. The small town they wind up in is on the brink of collapse, and the locals are none too happy with Paul’s presence. Paul charters a boat out to the rig, only to find it mostly abandoned, aside from survivors Chato (Julio Cesar Cedillo), Junior (Jorge A. Jimenez) and their chihuahua Toro. Paul’s family are attacked by some lecherous locals, and flee on their own boat to join him on the rig.
There, they soon learn what’s up: A demonic megalodon has been eating everyone who jumps in the water surrounding El Diamante, as Audrey learns when she falls in and sees the water littered with body parts. Hoooly shit, that’s a lotta body parts!
I could go on, and I’m probably gonna have to, because it turns out this movie has a ton of plot for such a simple, sparsely populated movie. The Black Demon, not content to simply be a “killer shark holding people hostage” movie, is also a heavy-handed environmental screed about America’s greed for oil wreaking havoc on the natural world, and it’s neighboring countries in particular.
We eventually learn the reason El Diamante is literally crumbling into the sea: It’s been fraudulently passing inspection for years. The electrical systems have been failing, the pipeline has been leaking oil into the ocean, and now it’s in danger of collapsing altogether. This is all thanks to Paul, who has been personally signing off on the inspections for fifteen years. The company decided it was easier than decommissioning El Diamante or, god forbid, actually spending money to repair it. So instead, let’s send a flunky to cook the books and call it a day!
In trying to defend himself, he reasons that regulations were a lot looser back in the day. And here’s where we get to do a fun little bit of math, because this is the one thing the movie doesn’t actually spell out. Paul says his first gig with Nixon Oil was inspecting El Diamante, and he also says that first visit to Mexico was when he a) first met Ines, and also b) when they conceived Audrey, who is now 15 years old. If we assume the movie takes place in 2023, then that would place the start of all these shenanigans right at the end of the George W. Bush administration when, yes, regulations were a hell of a lot looser. See, kids? Math is fun.
The other item worth mentioning with The Black Demon is that it’s littered with imagery from ancient Aztec religion. The shark itself is said to be the herald of Tlaloc, the Aztec god of rain. According to the locals, the pollution caused by the oil leak from El Diamante has angered Tlaloc. Tlaloc summoned the giant shark as a punishment, but has also caused a drought that’s effectively killed the coastal village. This is all explained to us as Tommy is deeply invested in learning everything about Aztec mythology. It’s a neat little narrative device, to use an iPad kid as an exposition dump. But it’s also a clever little setup where, because Tommy learns about his heritage and shows respect for Tlaloc, that’s what ultimately saves his family.
Soon it becomes clear that not only is Paul the reason the oil rig is leaking and ultimately the culprit of this entire fiasco, but the bomb we saw planted in the opening scene was meant to kill him so the company could use him as a scapegoat and wipe the whole thing under the rug. Bastards! Once Paul realizes what’s been going on, he hatches one last plan to save the day, which requires scuba diving down to retrieve the bomb and using it to rid them of the shark. It’s a risky plan, and Paul is rightly scared shitless. And, because this is a movie about sharks, this is where we get The Black Demon‘s one and only Jaws reference:
The whole purpose of this project was to chart the long shadow that Jaws cast over an entire genre of cinema. I get that. I realize that. But do we really have to keep doing this? Is Jaws so crucial to the fabric of shark movies that we have to acknowledge it every time we make one? Like how any good fantasy movie worth its salt finds a way to reference The Wizard of Oz. When it’s done right, it can be a tip of the cap from one filmmaker to another. But when the movie is as low-rent as some of the ones we’ve covered lately? It just comes across as an admission that you don’t have anything else in the tank. I wouldn’t even rank “I got no spit” among my top fifty lines from Jaws, but it’s apparently the only thing they could think to include here.
And I would say that The Black Demon is better than this, but honestly? It’s not. It’s fine; it’s a perfectly acceptable outing as far as shark attack movies go. But it’s also just… not very exciting. I respect it for weaving an environmental theme with a distinctly Mexican flair. I appreciate Josh Lucas’ performance, especially considering how many times he’s played shitheels like this in the past. It’s kinda like he’s recognizing that and finally letting the movies get their revenge on that character. The narrative choices it makes, even if they make for an ultimately dour movie, all at least make sense. I’m fine with that. I just find myself only able to give this an absolute baseline critique. It’s alright.
FINAL RATING
2.5 stars (out of five). S’whatever.
NEXT TIME: Ninja vs. Shark (2023)
- The People’s Streaming Service. ↩︎
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