The Black Demon ★★

LET’S get something straight from the outset.

The Black Demon is promoted as a shark movie but that is barely the case.

This sci-fi thriller does have a giant primitive shark on the attack but it’s hardly sighted.

That’s because the writers try to pack too many elements into the one story and director Adrian Grünberg seems unsure what to concentrate on.

Josh Lucas plays a guy who takes his family down to Baja where he used to work for an oil company.

But they get chastised by locals for abandoning the town after the offshore oil ran out and wind up stuck on an oil rig that is being menaced by the megalodon.

Why Lucas’ character didn’t know the town wasn’t doing well is never explained and neither is the ancient shark’s existence or that fact two guys and their dog are already stranded on the rig.

I take some of that back; they do try to explain some of this but nothing makes much sense.

There are a couple of decent moments and the overall message of nature’s revenge against corporate greed does come across, albeit in a muddled way.