Fin-tastic Voyage

Adrian Grünberg on what makes his shark movie The Black Demon different to the rest

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ANY DIRECTOR attempting a shark movie is going up against some truly great films (Jaws, The Shallows, Kon-Tiki, Open Water) and some exceptionally bad ones (Sharknado). But how to make your shark flick unique?

“There’s a social message in this film about what we’re doing to our planet,” director Adrian Grünberg tells Red Alert, explaining what marks out The Black Demon from other elasmobranch-themed movies. “Then there’s the whole mythology behind the creature…”

That mythology is the legend of “El Demonio Negro”. In the film, “the Black Demon”, as the shark (or more precisely, megalodon) becomes known, is summoned after the construction of an oil rig off the coast of Baja California. A killer it may be, but the question The Black Demon poses is what is worse: the flesh-eating megalodon or corporate greed?

“I’ve got to admit, the first script I read [by Blackwater writer Boise Esquerra] was a little campier,” says Grünberg. “It was more on the comedic side, which I thought was more typical and more what you’re used to seeing. I liked the idea of trying to make this slightly more serious, trying to make the action and dramatic elements blend in together.”

Grünberg’s previous movie was Rambo: Last Blood and before that, the 2012 Mel Gibson actioner Get The Gringo. A supernatural eco-aquatic-thriller, he says, is not something he was ever expecting to be offered.