‘The Devil’s Mouth’ Review — A Survival Thriller With Teeth

A story about growing apart (and getting torn apart)

Throughout all of our lives, there are people we grow close to who act as beacons, a light in human form that allows us to find our way through the darkness. Sometimes this light merely diminishes or changes, but other times these beacon friends can become anchors, as their influence exerts itself and you discover that you and they are no longer going in the same direction. These people can easily get us in trouble, and as a result we may find our heads below water instead of above it. What if this sort of thing happened to you, and in addition, you were being hunted by a great big bull shark?

That’s the premise, thematic and literal, of The Devil’s Mouth, the new film from director Jeff Wadlow. The title refers to a rock formation within a cave system off the Thailand coast, a place of great beauty as well as danger that five college friends are taken to by the queen bee of their group, Max (Lana Condor). Max lives life fiercely and fearlessly, which is what makes her so attractive to her bestie, Sara (Kathryn Newton), who is far more prepared, practical, and reserved.

They have a bond which they both believe makes them inseparable, but that bond is put to the extreme test when circumstances strand them inside the cave system with no guide, no rescue, and a hungry bull shark waiting to strike. Make no mistake: The Devil’s Mouth is a gripping survival thriller with a shark, and not a shark movie a la Jaws or Deep Blue Sea. Screenwriters Aja Gabel and Myung Joh Wesner keep the film character driven without leaning too hard on the subtext, allowing Wadlow to get the maximum amount of suspense from the premise. 

Kathryn Newton beautifully demonstrates her considerable range

Though the film’s ensemble are believable and engaging across the board, the MVP of The Devil’s Mouth is unequivocally Kathryn Newton. On the one hand, this probably doesn’t sound surprising, given Newton’s impressive track record with horror and genre films, from Paranormal Activity 4 all the way to this spring’s Ready or Not 2. However, though Newton isn’t exactly someone who’s typecast in horror, it’s true that her characters tend to be more wild cards. For instance, she played a male serial killer in a teen girl’s body in Freaky, a strange misfit goth in Lisa Frankenstein, and a hacker turned vampire in Abigail. In this context, Sara is her sort of playing against type, given that the girl is written and coded as a traditional Final Girl. 

That’s precisely why Newton’s performance is so compelling, as it brings out some more dimension and realistic shading to a character that could’ve been stock. Newton makes Sara credible enough so that the character’s decisions come from a place of understandable logic rather than scripted beats. She also helps with Sara’s growing independence as a person, too. Then, of course, there’s the physicality aspect, and Newton sets the tone for how much trauma these people suffer through once they have to try and survive their predicament. Newton’s an actor with a considerable range, and The Devil’s Mouth is a great showcase for it.

Newton’s an actor with a considerable range, and The Devil’s Mouth is a great showcase for it.

The Devil’s Mouth could get lost in a survivalism and shark movie shuffle

The only major problem with The Devil’s Mouth lies in its genre trappings, which aren’t breaking any new ground. This isn’t something to be held against a film that hard, of course. Scream shouldn’t be demerited since Halloween exists, and so on. Yet it’s true that there’s been a considerable uptick in both survival thrillers and shark movies as of late, and their proliferation could mean that The Devil’s Mouth gets lost in the shuffle. The fact that it’s going direct to streaming certainly doesn’t help its case, as this only further guarantees it to be seen as more grist for the content mill rather than a movie worthy of seeking out on its own, which I think it is. 

That said, it’s true that the film is highly reminiscent of other survival/shark movies, which could diminish it. The 47 Meters Down duology is probably its closest cousin, as both of those films involve thrill-seeking young people trapped underwater with killer sharks, too. Thematically, films like The Descent and even this spring’s Apex (which was the original title of The Devil’s Mouth) hew pretty close. As such, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see other critics and audiences dismiss the film as too derivative.

A film that stands out thanks to its specificity 

If people passed over The Devil’s Mouth for seeming too familiar, however, they’d miss out on a really well-constructed thriller. The film gets almost no points for originality, sure, but it more than makes up for it by how intelligently and engagingly Jeff Wadlow puts it all together. One of the coolest aspects of the movie is how Wadlow uses the concept of an interconnected cave system as an excuse to give each room of the system its own look and feel.

It helps distinguish the spaces for the characters as well as the audience, and allows for the film to be visually diverse while remaining claustrophobic and maze-like. Another neat little flourish of Wadlow’s is the inclusion of an on-screen map of the caves which is referenced often. It’s reminiscent of the Indiana Jones films, but also feels like a way of grafting a video game-like element to the movie. Paul W.S. Anderson would undoubtedly approve. 

What ultimately makes The Devil’s Mouth work as well as it does is that specificity as well as commitment to its genre and its premise. The movie promises tension, suspense, danger and consequences, and that’s absolutely what it delivers with no equivocations. Wadlow has worked within genre for long enough to have dabbled in some experimentation, as with his last film, Imaginary. Here, he keeps The Devil’s Mouth focused and simple, proving that sometimes a “no muss no fuss” approach can have the strongest bite. 

The Devil’s Mouth releases on Prime Video on July 29th, 2026. 

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