“The Devil’s Mouth” had stunt performers, but that didn’t stop the young cast from scaling rock faces and putting everything they had into the project. The shark film, directed by Jeff Wadlow (“Truth or Dare,” “Fantasy Island”), follows five friends after they become trapped in an underwater cave system with an aggressive bull shark.
Starring Kathryn Newton, Lana Condor, Gavin Casalegno, Nico Hiraga and Tommi Rose, the actors were all game to do as many stunts as possible. For leading actor Newton, she found herself hanging from a cliff on location in Thailand and climbing rock walls as part of the job.
“You get banged up, but it’s all part of the fun, you know. It adds to your performance,” she told Variety Australia. “We were really climbing and using our physicality.”
The actor praised her co-stars’ performance, saying everybody had to be capable physically for the demanding roles. “Having each other’s backs, that really motivated you. So yeah, sometimes we were bleeding, but it didn’t slow you down. It was cool, it was cool to be bleeding. It’s like battle scars.”
The director said nothing about making “The Devil’s Mouth” was easy, and noted there were no simple scenes to shoot. “Usually on a movie, you [have a simple scene] and you’re like, when we need a break, we’ll go shoot the phone booth scene. We didn’t have any scenes like that,” Wadlow recalled.
“Every scene presented its own set of challenges. Even the one sequence where they’re out of the water, [the cast] had to crawl around on their hands and knees for hours and hours in that tunnel.”
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After Newton’s knees were torn up by the rock, crew had to place skin-coloured bandages on her knees along with kneepads so they could keep shooting.
“He believed in me… [and] fought for things that maybe a young actor wouldn’t get the chance to, because you don’t need to today,” Newton said. “They didn’t need me hanging off a cliff out of a cave on a real mountain in Thailand. They didn’t need it, but he made sure we got it, and I got to do that.”
“The Devil’s Mouth” will be available to stream on Prime Video from July 29th, 2026.