Paul Sturges plays a security officer who travels to an abandoned oil rig off the coast of Baja California to decommission it in Adrian Grünberg’s thriller “The Black Demon.” Paul discovers upon arrival at the rig that the area is impacted by a deadly megalodon shark, locally referred to as the Black Demon. Paul is forced to choose between saving his loved ones and slaying the monster shark when his family ends up at the drilling rig. The audience must be wondering if the movie has any real-life ties because reports of gigantic shark sightings are common in modern times. Let us now offer the solution!
The Black Demon: Separating Fact from Fiction
Is The Black Demon a True Story?
‘The Black Demon’ is not based on a genuine story, to be clear. However, it is based on a myth from Mexico that centres around the shark that serves as its name and is known there as “El Demonio Negro.” The existence of the giant megalodon has baffled residents of Baja, even though Paul, the other characters, and his corporation Nixon Oil are made-up. There are numerous reports of individuals claiming to have seen a shark in the Gulf of California, often known as the Sea of Cortez, that is between forty and sixty feet long. According to mythology, the shark is black, flips boats over, eats other marine life, and attacks whales.
First of all, there is no physical proof of the Black Demon’s existence that has been found. The existence of the killer sh ark off the Baja peninsula is not confirmed by any independent witness reports or photographic evidence. Despite this, a group of residents of Baja continue to hold the entity’s existence to be real. According to the eighth episode of History’s “MonsterQuest” season 3, a supposed eyewitness of the shark remarked, “I looking back, you know, see a big tail come up but that’s only a couple of seconds, that’s it.”
“[My boat] struck something very unexpectedly. I nearly fell on the deck as the entire boat jolted forward. […] I could see the tail’s tip suddenly rise and quickly spin around. It was maybe five feet over the sea, I guess. It was very scary. According to “MonsterQuest,” a purported eyewitness by the name of Erick Mack said, “It was one of the scariest things that’s ever happened to me on the ocean. As part of the “MonsterQuest” crew, a group dove into the Sea of Cortez to search for the shark, but they were unable to capture a photo of the reportedly underwater creature.
The fictional film, based on a story by Carlos Cisco and a folklore from Mexico, was written by Boise Esquerra. He incorporated the Black Demon mythology into the myth of Tloc, the rain god of the Aztecs. Because of his control over hail, thunder, lightning, and rain, adherents of the Aztec faith feared him. Esquerra used this legendary element to support Chato’s belief that the shark was created by Tlloc as retaliation for humans’ destruction of the environment and other living things. Esquerra is able to criticise capitalism for ignoring environmental issues by fusing the mythology of Tlloc and the legend of the Black Demon.
Multinational corporations damaging the environment and ignoring environmental risks happen in real life even though the movie is fiction. The purpose of Grünberg’s film is to draw viewers’ attention to the same through the fiction/legend of the Black Demon.