Kathryn Newton has spent more than a decade building a résumé most horror actors would envy, and her latest entry arrives with a genre distinction few of her peers can claim: a live shark thriller shot largely underwater. “The Devil’s Mouth,” which premiered Wednesday on Amazon Prime Video, marks Newton’s sixth horror film and her first real swing at an action-driven role, a shift she says she pursued deliberately after years of scream-focused parts.
Newton plays Sara, part of a group of college friends whose Thailand vacation turns deadly when a cave-diving excursion traps them with a bull shark. She told The Hollywood Reporter she took the project specifically to test her physical limits, drawing on a childhood spent swimming and snorkeling in Miami and rock-climbing skills she brought to several stunts herself.
Director Jeff Wadlow said he leaned on a testimonial from “Freaky” filmmaker Christopher Landon before casting her, and Newton shot the film almost immediately after finishing “Ready or Not 2: Here I Come,” leaving only two days between productions.
Critical reaction to the film has split sharply. Rotten Tomatoes shows an aggregate score in the 30 percent range, and several reviewers have called Wadlow’s direction flat and the shark effects unconvincing. Other outlets have been kinder to Newton specifically, crediting her performance for lifting otherwise formulaic material and singling out the friction between her character and Lana Condor’s as the film’s strongest element. The consensus across reviews holds that Newton and Condor outperform the script surrounding them.
Newton’s horror run began at 15 with “Paranormal Activity 4” and now includes “Freaky,” “Lisa Frankenstein,” “Abigail” and the upcoming “White Elephant.” She resists labels like “scream queen,” noting that interviewers rarely agree on what to call her. Beyond genre work, Newton is preparing for a far larger stage: she plays Cassie Lang in “Avengers: Doomsday,” due later this year from directors Anthony and Joe Russo.
She described the shoot as exceeding her expectations, saying she felt supported by directors she called deeply invested in the material. Newton discussed the film cautiously, given Marvel’s tight control over pre-release details, but said she left the production feeling energized about what the Russo brothers are building.
