Gaia's Vengeance takes the shape of a Threatening Shark...
The Black Demon is a 2023 film directed by Adrian Grünberg, starring Josh Lucas, Fernanda Urrejola, and Julio César Cedillo. It was released on April 28, 2023.
Paul Sturges (Lucas), an inspector for Nixon Oil, travels to a small town in Baja California, Mexico to inspect an offshore oil rig. He decides it will be a good idea to bring his wife (Urrejola) and children and turn this work trip into a family vacation. But the locals receive them with hostility. And there is a nasty surprise waiting for him at the rig in the shape of el demonio negro, the Black Demon.
Tropes in this film include:
- Animalistic Abomination: The Black Demon is a monstrous, undead-looking megalodon. According to the locals, he has been sent by Tlaloc, the Aztec god of rain, to punish the greedy who take from nature.
- Bittersweet Ending: The Black Demon is killed, the oil spill is closed, the survivors are rescued by a motorboat, and it's implied that Nixon Oil will be caught in the act, but Paul had to give his life, many other men died, and it's surely going to take a long while for the town to get back to its former glory.
- Fall Guy: Paul has been set up as one by Nixon Oil; the company has set up the rig to explode and kill him so that he takes the fall for ignoring hazardous work conditions.
- Gaia's Vengeance: One of the two oil rig workers, Chato, believes the megalodon is the herald to Tlaloc, the Aztec god of rain, who punishes those who take too greedily from nature.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: Chato and Junior, the two workers left at the offshore rig, dive underwater. The former comes up in one piece. As for the other, Paul tries to pull him out of the water, not realizing the megalodon has chewed off his lower body.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Paul Sturges realizes he will have to do this to save his wife and kids.
- I Did What I Had to Do: Paul's justification for signing false reports that showed the oil rig as safe. He felt he had to in order to keep his job and support his family.
- Redemption Equals Death: To destroy the Black Demon, Paul detonates the bomb Nixon Oil had attached to the rig and takes the megalodon with him.
- Shark Fin of Doom: Inés watches through binoculars as a gigantic fin advances towards the boat that brought them in. It disappears for a second and then the Black Demon attacks the boat, leaving everyone stranded on the rig.
- Shout-Out: The Black Demon is killed by feeding it a bomb.
- Tagline: "Nature bites back."
- Threatening Shark: No ordinary great white or tiger shark. This is a Megalodon and an animalistic abomination to boot.
