A sequel to The Black Demon is being discussed after the movie held the number-one spot on Amazon’s streaming rankings for seven days.
Despite facing stiff competition from major studio movies such as Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves and Cocaine Bear, one low-budget shark movie has reigned above them all. The Black Demon held the number-one spot on Amazon’s streaming rankings for seven days, which has prompted discussion of a sequel.
The Black Demon is a shark thriller with a supernatural edge that follows a family stranded on a crumbling oil rig in Baja facing off against a vengeful megalodon shark. Produced for just under $10 million, The Black Demon may not have received the best reviews upon release, but it’s clear that there’s an audience for the movie.
“No one has ever seen a genre shark movie with a Latino bent,” Black Demon producer Javier Chapa told THR. “That’s where we saw the opportunity, given our company’s ethos is all about really supporting people of color on both sides of the camera — but also filling a highly underserved need in our community.” Chapa added, “That the Latino community doesn’t get a lot of support on films, it’s shocking to me. They are the most aggressive moviegoing audience, more than any other cohort. And to me, it’s the million-dollar question: why aren’t more people making films that are universal but that are by and for that community?“
Whether the success of The Black Demon will translate to a sequel remains to be seen, but producers say there has been talk, but that nothing can move forward until the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes conclude.
Our own Cody Hamman reviewed The Black Demon earlier this year and called it “middle-of-the-road entertainment” that should have embraced the cheese rather than try to be so serious. “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,” Hamman wrote. “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.” You can check out the rest of Hamman’s review right here.
Would you like to see a sequel to The Black Demon?