Prime Video’s ‘The Devil’s Mouth’ Has Nothing On This Underrated Creature Feature
Ever since Jaws (1975), shark movies have been a hot commodity. Some get close to greatness, but so many others lean too heavily into the campiness. Recently, Prime Video's latest shark film, The Devil's Mouth (2026), has been in the top three on the charts, even if audiences aren't responding well to it.
But for as much as the film isn't clicking with audiences, it's still a fun movie to watch and experience for yourself. But, there's another shark film that's underrated: The Shallows (2016). A story of survival, similar to The Devil's Mouth, there's something impressive about The Shallows that makes it a better watch than the former.
Why Is ‘The Devil's Mouth’ Such a Controversial Shark Film?
The Devil's Mouth is a shark film where a group of friends explores a cave that, unbeknownst to them, has a hungry and malicious shark trapped inside the system and starts feeding on them. The premise should've been enough to hold its own, but it struggles on many facets.
For starters, the characters aren't the most likable, and in the moments where we're supposed to root for the humans, we find ourselves rooting for the shark. But when the humans are eaten, the film will cut away before things get too bloody, and it never feels satisfying.
The shark itself also created a new range of issues as it acted more like a slasher that knew what it was doing than an animal trying to eat. From bashing victims and their head into rocks to breaching the surface to eat bats, there's a lot about the movie that made sense to elevate the shark. It was a poor killer and a bad example of a hungry shark, and with a cast we can't connect with, The Devil's Mouth drowns.
’The Shallows’ Is More Than a Shark Film
The Shallows follows a young woman who has lost her mother and chooses to surf at a secluded beach on her journey of grieving. But what she failed to realize was that there was a hungry and relentless great white shark stalking the shallow water, leaving her stranded and trying to survive.
Easily the scariest part of The Shallows was the shark, but it was also the least of her concerns. From dangerous coral to starvation, the film's protagonist had to face the rigors of the ocean while the beach was just in sight. It gave the film a cruel tone because she was so close to safety, and yet those who would help would be devoured by the fish as well.
The brutality of the shark is hard to forget, and unlike The Devil's Mouth, you actually root for the lead because she had already been through so much long before she started surfing. Now all we want is to see her get to safety and finally move on to a new chapter of her life. That alone gave The Shallows a weight it desperately needed.
Years Later, ‘The Shallows’ Isn't Great, But It Still Holds Up
Unfortunately, The Shallows isn't the most perfect shark movie ever made, as Jaws still carries that crown with pride. But there's still a wonderful quality to the movie that holds up and makes it worth watching a decade later.
We see the shark as an antagonist but, more than that, it's an animal. A vicious and deadly animal with a taste for humans, and there's no deeper motivation than to eat the biggest thing in the shallows: the young woman. Because of this, it's easy to believe what's happening even if it's not something that has actually taken place to this level.
The Devil's Mouth, on the other hand, doesn't understand what made shark movies scary and feels like it tried to reinvent better films and take what worked with those without the meaning behind it. Therefore, it's hard to root for anyone or anything by the time the movie ends, and it makes viewers realize why certain shark films are better than others.
The Shallows remains one of the few modern shark movies with something to say and a story that's easy to get attached to. It's not trying to reinvent the wheel, but it is trying to make shark films scary again. What we get in the end is a story where the victim becomes the hero, and seeing her survive becomes tension-filled from start to finish.
