We watch several movies a week. Every Friday, we'll talk a little about some of the movies we watched that we felt were Worth Mentioning.
The following reviews originally appeared on ArrowintheHead.com
THE BLACK DEMON (2023)
There are a whole lot of shark thrillers out there, but not many of them have a supernatural edge. That makes director Adrian Grunberg’s The Black Demon stand out from the pack a bit, because while the shark in this thriller is described as being a megalodon, like the sharks in The Meg and Shark Attack 3 and probably plenty of others, this isn’t just a megalodon that has resurfaced from the prehistoric age. This movie, which has marketing material that informs that it’s “based on the Mexican legend”, presents us with a giant shark that is actually a vengeful god, awakened by the pollution that has been spilled in its waters, and is able to do more than just swim around and bite people. This shark god has the ability to give people trippy visions right before it strikes. The text and narration that opens the film tells us the shark is capable of “driving people to the brink of insanity with visions of death” … but the “tripping victim” scenes never actually go that far.
Written by Carlos Cisco and Boise Esquerra, The Black Demon centers on American oil man Paul Sturges (played by Josh Lucas), who has come down to the Mexican town of Bahia Azul to check on an oil rig that sits off the coast and decide whether or not it should be decommissioned. It definitely should be, because it’s leaking oil into the ocean at an insane rate, which is what has awakened the titular shark god. Paul has come to Mexico with his wife Ines (Fernanda Urrejola) and their young children Audrey (Venus Ariel) and Tommy (Carlos Solórzano), with the idea being that they’ll hang out on land while he goes to the rig. But circumstances force Ines, Audrey, and Tommy to follow Paul out there – and it’s when they’re arriving at the rig that Paul realizes there’s a megalodon in these waters. A megalodon that has whittled the number of rig workers down to just two: Chato (Julio Cesar Cedillo) and Junior (Jorge A. Jimenez). Now Paul, Ines, Audrey, Tommy, Chato, and Junior have to figure out how to escape from this shark god and make their way back to land – and watching over their efforts is Chato’s adorable little dog. Members of the Sturges family can be quite irritating at times, so Chato and that dog come off as the best characters in the movie.
A shark thriller starring Josh Lucas and helmed by the director of Rambo: Last Blood (I’m one of the apparently few fans of that movie) sounded like an awesome idea to me – but the execution of the scenario is lacking. There are moments when The Black Demon comes off as very cheesy, even due to some of the blocking and editing, but especially due to some of the dialogue. Like this exchange between Paul and Chato, which we’re treated to when Paul first sees the size of the shark: “Jesus Christ!” “No. The Black Demon.”
The problem is, if The Black Demon was going to have moments that are so cheesy, it should have leaned further into that cheesiness and been sillier overall. But it is dead serious most of the time, so any cheesiness seems to have been unintentional. Which means viewers are going to be laughing at the movie instead of with it. We’re supposed to take this all seriously. We’re supposed to be creeped out. But there’s some goofy stuff in here that trips the movie up – with another one of the standout goofy moments being the editing in the scene where Paul discusses the (lack of) environmental safety practices of the oil company he works for. Suddenly I was having flashbacks to Steven Seagal’s monologue from the end of his 1994 “environmental action movie” On Deadly Ground. The commentary isn’t the issue, it’s the clunky filmmaking.
As far as shark thrillers go, The Black Demon is middle-of-the-road entertainment. There are better shark thrillers out there (everyone knows Jaws; some of the music in The Black Demon is even clearly Jaws-inspired), but they also get a lot worse than this. So if you’ve seen enough of the lesser ones, The Black Demon is good enough to make you shrug and say, “It’s okay.” I was disappointed that it wasn’t better than it was, but I didn’t have a bad time watching it.
Go in with low expectations and you might find that The Black Demon is a decent way to kill 100 minutes. But be prepared to laugh at several moments that are unintentionally cheeseball.
SPACE WARS: QUEST FOR THE DEEPSTAR (2022)
I have a lot of admiration for filmmakers who don’t let financial limitations stifle their creativity or force them to minimize the scope of their stories. In that regard, there’s a lot to admire about director Garo Setian’s sci-fi adventure film Space Wars: Quest for the Deepstar. Just like the title instantly brings to mind Star Wars, Space Wars is reminiscent of the low budget sci-fi movies producers like Roger Corman pumped out in the wake of the original Star Wars’ success. You know, movies like Battle Beyond the Stars and the movies that featured stock footage from Battle Beyond the Stars. Space Wars just happens to have been made on an even lower budget than those had.
In his feature debut, the killer robot movie Automation, Setian featured more impressive special effects than you would expect to see in a movie with such a limited budget. He does the same in Space Wars – but on a much larger scale. Armed with a budget that other filmmakers would use to make a movie about people interacting in one location, Setian has made a universe-trotting adventure that takes place on different planets, space stations, and space ships, featuring alien creatures and action sequences that take place in the far reaches of space, including a chase through an asteroid field like in The Empire Strikes Back.
Michael Paré, who first gained attention from both the mainstream and fans of cult movies back in the ‘80s with the likes of Eddie and the Cruisers and Streets of Fire, and has plenty of sci-movie and Starhunter experience, stars as space scavenger Kip Corman. (And giving a nod to Roger Corman with the character’s name was a nice touch.) The year is 2980, and Kip roams the final frontier with his daughter Taylor (Sarah French), looking for a big score. By this time, scientists have figured out how to extract the soul from a dead body and use it to create a blue liquid called Essence, which can then be placed in a cyborg body to bring the dead person back to life. Kip’s wife / Taylor’s mom was recently killed in an accident, and while they have her Essence, they don’t have enough credits to complete the process of bringing her back in a cyborg body. This lack of funds leads them onto the adventure of the title, the Quest for the Deepstar, a long-lost freighter that is said to hold great treasure. Kip and Taylor team up with a celestial cartographer named Jackie (Anahit Setian), who claims to know how to locate the Deepstar.
Finding the Deepstar and its treasure would be treacherous enough, but the script by Joe Knetter (who crafted the story with the director) throws more problems at Kip, Taylor, and Jackie: not only are a group of mercenaries also seeking the Deepstar, but Kip is also being chased across the cosmos by his insane former employer Elnora (Sadie Katz). While Elnora is entertainingly unhinged for all of her scenes, the group of mercenaries are more layered characters. There’s the leader Dykstra (Olivier Gruner), his dedicated lackey Nina (Rachele Brooke Smith), the bloodthirsty Manx (Jed Rowen), and Wade (Tyler Gallant)… a guy who might actually be redeemable. There are some interesting scenes with this group, especially once Taylor ends up on their ship and starts trying to mess with their dynamic.
Some viewers will be put off by Space Wars right away due to its low budget. There’s a CG action sequence in the opening moments that will be deciding factor on whether or not viewers will be able to go on this ride or not. But if you can go along with a modern version of ‘80s sci-fi cheapies, there’s entertainment to be found in this one. Kip and Taylor are a fine pair of heroes, and their interactions with Jackie are fun. Setian and Knetter have put a good group of villains up against them, and also keep the action coming at a steady pace. I can’t say I was wrapped up in the story for every moment of the film’s 90 minute running time, but I could appreciate what the filmmakers were doing. I also liked that there were some twists and turns that I wasn’t expecting, and that it all wraps up with such a heartwarming ending.
Space Wars: Quest for the Deepstar won’t be for everyone. You probably already know whether or not it’s for you. But there’s definitely an audience that will have a good time watching it. This one didn’t connect with me as well as Automation did, but it’s fun – and if there were to be more adventures in the Space Wars universe, I would watch them too.
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