Underwater: Movie Review
Hello loyal readers!
I know I just posted a review recently but I saw Underwater last night and fell in love! I had to share it with you, I was too excited to wait! This movie just got released so there will be absolutely no spoilers above the spoiler line border so read on worry-free!
Underwater was just released January 10th of this year, by 20th Century Fox. It’s an American science fiction horror film set in the Mariana Trench. The movie was directed by William Eubank, written by Brian Duffield and Adam Cozad, and stars Kristen Stewart, Vincent Cassel, Jessica Henwick, John Gallagher Jr., Mamoudou Athie, and T.J. Miller.The story is simple. There is a drilling station in the trench and they dig too deep!
The movie starts with a supposed earthquake wrecking most of the lab and leaving only a handful of survivors who must try and get to the surface alive.
My Review
Easy. I LOVED this movie. Loved, loved, loved it. It is now in my top ten and I may or may not have a crush on Kristen Stewart. Hard to say.
Let me tell you why this movie was so good.
The beginning immediately hooks you. The movie starts with shots of various papers, reports, with information on deep water environments and the laboratory setting of the movie and strange phenomenon that can happen in isolation/under the water. That sets an eerie tone to begin with.
The movie starts off with a punch with a brief introduction to Stewart’s character and then the whole facility explodes. You’re gripped immediately and pulled right in.
The setting is so creepy. I don’t know about you but underwater or space settings always give me the deepest heebie jeebies. I mean, the deep sea is still relatively unknown and people were never meant to be down there. So many things can go wrong – the bends, being crushed by the pressure, drowning, monsters!
The characters were all very unique and interesting. Their reactions to the events and horrors were very human and realistic. Stewart’s character in particular was very badass.
Are the stars right? The whole movie had a strong Lovecraftian feel to it. I tried searching to see if the director was influenced or admitted being influenced by Lovecraft’s stories but couldn’t find anything. So, I may be just biased, because you all know I love me some Cthuthulian horrors! I don’t want to spoil anything so I’ll leave it below the spoilers line.
The tension was kept tight throughout the entire movie. Even though there were some quiet moments, just the fact that these people were in mortal danger kept things tense and the plot moving forward at whip crack speed.
The ending was spot on! ‘Nuff said.
Seriously, I really loved this movie. Just absolutely loved it. I guess there was only one issue that caught my attention and bugged me, I won’t mention here and will save it for under the spoiler line. But it wasn’t glaring enough to ruin the absolute glory of the movie.
Score: 9.5/10
SPOILER LINE – ALERT ALERT – SPOILER LINE
Okay, so the creatures that came out of the trench truly seemed influenced by Lovecraft’s work. For one thing, the little ones look like humanoid fish monsters – Innsmouth look anyone? Did someone say Dagon?
Again, if you don’t want the ending slightly ruined for you, do not keep reading! I hadn’t looked into the movie much beyond the trailer before I watched it so I did not see this last bit coming. Stop now if you want the same experience.……Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
The final monster that appears at the end looks very much like a modern take on Cthulhu himself! He’s got tentacles on his chin and what looks like wing-like appendages on his back in one of the final scenes, plus he rises up from the bottom the ocean. I loved it.
As I said, I had no idea it was coming. I thought the movie was just going to revolve around the Innsmouth folk-type people and then – BAM – a Kaiju appears to really amp up the excitement. Ah, my heart! I love surprise Kaiju! Especially because it seemed like a bit of a tribute to Cthulhu. From this we can extrapolate that R’lyeh is in the Mariana Trench. That’s science.
Now the only issue that briefly made me scratch my head was this: one supposed point of tension is when the characters decide they need to walk across the ocean floor to get to another station and it is brought up several times that they definitely do not have enough oxygen and it is such a huge risk to try this. However, then the rest of the movie, they are sidetracked and attacked or whatnot and spend a lot more time underwater then previously mentioned so they should have run out of air, right? It just felt like a contrived point of tension that wasn’t necessary.
The whole movie was so good! And that whole part didn’t truly make sense. But, again, not a major issue and didn’t detract from the movie at all. So definitely, I 100% recommend you watch this movie. It is so good. Let me know what you think after you’ve seen it in the comments below.
x P.L. McMillan