Underwater (2020)
Directed by William Eubank
Viewed in Theatre
Another January week, another horror movie release to be dumped in theatres and quickly abandoned. But wait, could this one be different? I will admit, the trailer looked pretty good and Kristen Stewart is usually pretty good, despite everyone telling the same stale Twilight jokes whenever she is brought up, so I was excited going in. Did Underwater live up to my expectations? Let’s dive in (I’m so sorry) and find out!
The Plot Of Underwater: Or, Why To Never Go In Water
Underwater is the story of a team of people working on a deep-sea mining operation where things immediately go horribly wrong. That’s not a joke, Scene 1 is Nora, played by Kristen Stewart, brushing her teeth moments before the state of the art submersible living quarters she’s in gets hit by some kind of bizarre earthquake that nearly kills her. Likely concussed and nearly trapped in the falling debris, Nora manages to meet up with the other surviving members of her team, who must then make a treacherous journey across the ocean floor, unaware of the hidden dangers that may be laying in wait.
Zero to Sixty In One Scene.
To answer your first question, no, none of that is a spoiler, that summary covers about the first five minutes of this movie. With that let’s start this review by tackling the pacing of Underwater, which was breakneck. Usually, that’s a bad thing, here it is not. For the tone Underwater was reaching for, a house of scares style fright-fest set in a world that is big and loud and in your face, the pacing and story structure feel more than appropriate to get us into the story from the get-go and spark the energy that a movie of this type needs to establish to keep things going. After watching a lot of humdrum horror lately, this speed boost is a more than welcome alternative, and the movie knows when to slow down and let a few scenes breath so it isn’t constant action, which I appreciated.
Efficient, If Not Groundbreaking, Characterization
Getting back to the characters on hand, there’s a lot of efficient storytelling here. That is to say, most people here aren’t super well developed, you just get bits and pieces of who they are, or were, which keeps the pace moving quickly. A lot can be inferred about these people just from the fact that they’re on a prolonged mission far away from everyone else, but there are many sprinkles of characterization that I found neatly sprinkled in with the intense scenes. We learn who is always cracking jokes, who is a wide-eyed idealist in over their head, who is dealing with unresolved trauma from their past, etc. Yes, there are a lot of scenes where people kind of announce things and that feels a bit clunky but at least there aren’t a ton of moments where the story completely stops to establish character details.
Oh My God The Ocean Is So Scary
So that’s all good, characters and pacing and whatnot, but they’re probably not why people would want to see Underwater. They’d probably be more interested in the scary bits, of which there are plenty. Maybe it’s just me but the premise alone here is absolutely terrifying, the concept of being at the bottom of the ocean and your supposedly safe base begins hemorrhaging water and collapsing at your feet is more than enough to make a good disaster movie. The opening act may be my favorite part of the movie for that reason alone, that this problem is so immediate and so instantly understandable and relatably frightening that if the movie were only these people trying to escape to the surface, I would still enjoy it. Things start to falter a bit when the monsters show up.
These Monsters, Mildly Less So
While sea creatures are some of my favorite monsters, the basic premise of having an underwater base fail is so scary that it almost felt unnecessary to even have these monsters to be here. But they’re here, so let’s talk about them. I liked how they showed up in the first act, often just out of sight or skittering around somewhere laying in wait, which did help build some tension. Unfortunately, they are revealed too soon and shown too frequently, and this tension that was so well crafted is thrown straight out the window.
Wears Out Its Welcome, But I Enjoyed It
I’m not saying the movie gets bad, but it does get very different. Once these sea monsters emerge there are a lot of jump scares and the monsters take center stage in a way that is a lot goofier than anything we’ve seen before. It is definitely still fun but it is a different kind of fun and one that is much blunter. Hell, even though the third act goes places I really like, but I can’t help but think how much better the movie could have been if it had just stuck with the original premise or maybe had a bit more subtly. All that said, I did enjoy Underwater and I would recommend it to people looking for a tense fun time with some sea monsters.
Recent Comments