while the selachian serial killer is known locally as ‘el demonio negro’, oil is the other black demon here, dredging up humanity’s insatiably self-destructive corruptibility

Like Grunberg’s earlier work, The Black Demon might be called a B-movie, whatever that ancient term has come to mean. Or you might say that it was made by someone who remembers what genre movies in general were traditionally meant to look like.

The Black Demon effectively sticks to [its] well-greased formula.

Grunberg has some terrific films under his belt including the Mel Gibson flick Get the Gringo and Rambo: Last Blood, but The Black Demon is that blip in your CV you try and brush over in job interviews.