Jeff Wadlow on Making 'The Devil's Mouth' Shark Film
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- Jeff Wadlow directs "The Devil's Mouth," a one-location shark thriller written by Aja Gabel and Myung Joh Wesner that landed on the Black List in 2019 and was originally set in Mexico
- Kathryn Newton and Lana Condor lead as best friends Sara and Max, and both initially wanted to play the other role before stretching into quieter and edgier territory respectively; the pair became real best friends during the shoot
- The cast trained for two weeks treading water, doing breath holds, and practicing with real kayaks, and performed nearly all stunts themselves except a 35-foot cliff jump by Newton's character
- The shoot relocated from the Dominican Republic to Thailand just 10 days before production when Bangkok soundstages opened up; Wadlow embraced the switch after research into Thai freshwater caves echoed the Thai cave rescue in the zeitgeist
- Production designer Alec Hammond built 13 sets across two soundstages, including a 120-by-70-foot cave flooded with five feet of water and a 60-by-70-foot tank holding 15 feet of water, rotated and relit to simulate an endless cave system
- Underwater cinematography required HydroFlex housings weighing 120 pounds, forcing the crew to abandon dollies, steadicams, and handheld shots; New Zealand camera operator Pete McCaffrey worked from a technocrane while custom headlamps were built to motivate lighting
- Wadlow called the film the hardest he's ever made, framing it as a hybrid of the shark genre and claustrophobic horror with a nuanced take on female friendship
Why it matters: With 85% of the film shot in water and cameras locked into 120-pound HydroFlex housings that ruled out dolly, steadicam, and handheld work, Wadlow and his team essentially built a new underwater cinematic vocabulary around a technocrane, custom headlamps, and relit set-pieces. Turning two Bangkok soundstages — one a 120-by-70-foot cave flooded with five feet of water — into the illusion of an endless Thai cave system is a notable logistics win for mid-budget genre filmmaking.
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