Underwater Movie Review

Here's what you need to know; seven miles down at the bottom of the Mariana trench, the pressure is quite literally building for the crew of the Kepler drilling station. When a sudden earthquake devastates most of the station, the handful of surviving crew are faced with an unwinnable situation; wait for rescue and get crushed to death, or risk death by suffocation in a daring mission to cross the ocean floor on foot. But it soon becomes very apparent that the crushing pressures and limited oxygen aren't the only dangers, and that the station might not have been destroyed by a simple earthquake, but by something unfathomably worse, lurking in the dark.

In my neck of the woods, this film opened on the same day as Birds of Prey, and not surprisingly, that film was playing on most of the screens at my local Odeon, whereas Underwater was limited to a measly two late screenings. What was surprising though was that the first of those two screenings was packed, while Birds of Prey had a pretty quiet day, the word bomb is beginning to come up around Birds of Prey, but for me, it wasn't a choice, because I had a feeling. Every once in a while, a film will come out that just satisfies me on a visceral level, a film like Overlord or Ready or Not, and sure enough Underwater is another, a monster movie set on the bottom of the ocean, gimme gimme. And do you know what, not including Godzilla, I don't think a film has felt me this thoroughly satisfied since Overlord.

Underwater doesn't waste any time, how can it, it's only got ninety minutes to work with and so, shit starts hitting the fan within the first two minutes. And when I say shit hits the fan, it really fucking does, from the opening scene to very end of the film, things are always happening, something is always going wrong for our survivors. This does mean that character introduction tends to be a brief affair, and this crew isn't anything massively subversive, you've got a seasoned commander in charge, a shit talking comedian, an easily frightened one and a resourceful, determined lead, and a black guy who dies first, horror movie 101. While these characters fill archetypal roles, I was surprised by how invested I found myself with them. Over the course of the film, I found myself coming to really like them. They're not complex by any means, but this film's atmosphere is so incredibly effective that you can't help but become attached to them. As the film goes on and they start getting picked off, we slowly begin to learn more about some of them, chiefly Kristen Stewart's Norah, the captain and the girl, who is dating one of the other survivors, while the captain has a daughter on the surface to get back to. This is all basic stuff, but the magic is how this film basically forces you into their shoes, to the point that they aren't just characters, but rather your fellow survivors. Underwater could easily be described as derivative, but it's strength is just how well it pulls off what it tries to do, and a lot of that is down to atmosphere.

From the opening scene to the final shot, this film never stops, our survivors never have a moment to relax as at any minute, the room they're in could implode, or their suits could fail and implode, or one of the monsters could leap out from the blackness and snatch one of them away. And in a film where there is no natural light, where they're always lumbering around in bulky, clumsy pressure suits, where the very air they breathe is a limited resource, and where the room they have to work with is constantly shrinking and filling with water, is it any wonder that this film makes you feel a little claustrophobic. Even in my packed screening, there was barely a peep from the audience, barely even a sigh or a gasp, it was like they were all holding their breath, and it's understandable. The film is wet, cramped, dark, and the threat of death is constant, the dark, murky abyss being a perfect place for building tension. It even got to the point where the jumpscares didn't bother me. Now, you know I hate jumpscares, I think they're incredibly lazy, but Underwater is so effective at building tension and atmosphere that the jumpscares are less cheap attempts to scare you and more culminations of minutes and minutes of dread. But if I'm giving you the impression that Underwater doesn't lean hard into science fiction and even into fantasy, that'd be wrong, which means I'd have a hard time selling it to my brother. It's got a decent amount of Life in it, if anyone remembers that film, both films follow similar stories as a group of characters thousands of miles from any hope of rescue or escape find themselves in a seriously fucked up situation, but while Life is a bit stronger on the science fiction, Underwater's undoubtedly stronger on the horror.

The monsters of Underwater are only one of the threats our survivors face, though they naturally are the catalyst of their struggle. They actually spend as much time dodging debris and crawling through suffocating gaps in rubble, or running for their lives as the hull around them collapses as they do running from the monsters, but it makes the moments where they show up a real treat, and makes them so much more intimidating, as not just a problem to solve but an active and persistent adversary. The film also uses its setting brilliantly in building the monsters; in the crushing depths of the trench, where there is no light at all, and a monster could get within a few feet of you without you having a chance of noticing. But once again, if you're hoping to really get to know these bastards, you'll be disappointed; you get a good enough idea of what they look like by the end, but Underwater isn't a film that gives you answers. It doesn't really explain what they are or where they're from, outside of establishing that the drilling operation was what woke them up. Rarely does one get close enough for you to get more than a glimpse, but when they do, the film makes the effort to show you just how terrified our crew is of them. The trailer might have also given you the wrong impression if you think these monsters are constantly showing up, because it takes quite a while before they show up, and even longer before you get a sort of look at them.

I'm very much of the belief that understanding a monster makes it less scary, it's one of the many reasons the Xenomorph was scarier in Alien than it was in Alien: Covenant, it's why Calvin stopped being scary when they gave him a face in Life. If you understand a threat, you can overcome it, which is a fundamental problem with a lot of horror movie monsters, especially if we're talking sequels, but when you don't understand a threat, when you can't predict its actions, when you don't understand its intensions or even really know what it looks like, at that point it can be as scary as your imagination can conjure, and that's what these monsters are, they're unknowns, creatures our crew, and by extension, us do not understand. I was already loving Underwater, it's atmosphere had completely hooked me and I was intrigued by its monsters and its world, but in its final moments, it suddenly goes full on Lovecraft, and I can't put into words just how happy that made me. Just the shot of when Norah shoots a flare at it is such a mesmerising and haunting image, it's the most Lovecraftian image I think I've ever seen on the big screen. A lot of talk has been going around about what the thing in this film is, and if I'm honest, I don't think it's Cthulhu. Sure, there are plenty of visual similarities, and the film makes numerous implications pointing in that direction, but I don't think it is so obvious; Cthulhu inspired, absolutely, but this is not a Lovecraft monster, rather, it's a monster in the spirit of Lovecraft, if that makes sense, this is a very Lovecraftian film in a lot of ways, and that might make it a little too bleak for some people, but I eat that shit up.

Worst Idea Ever

Underwater is not a ground-breaking film, in fact it feels kind of out of it's time, you might even call it uninspired, but that's not the case for me, it's one of those films that I'm a complete sucker for; a science fiction horror set on the ocean floor and it has monsters, what's not to love. As it turns out though, Underwater ticked all the boxes for me, I adored this film from beginning to end. I must confess that this is the fourth 2020 film I've seen, and the first one I've reviewed, but some films just fill me with enthusiasm, I have to talk about them, films like Godzilla, Overlord, Life, Ready or Not, and now Underwater, it's my favourite film of 2020 so far and I'm just going to say it, it's an absolute must watch.