Underwater literally starts with a bang and doesn’t let up until the credits roll 88 minutes later.
Underwater is set in the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the ocean known to man. It’s six miles to the bottom of the sea. A company called Tian Industries is drilling there for unnamed resources. That’s about all we know when we meet Norah Price (Kristen Stewart,) a mechanic who looks like she’s having a bad day.
That day gets worse when an earthquake shakes the drilling platform, destroying much of it in the process. As Norah runs for her life through the corridors of the base, she meets up with other survivors, including Rodrigo (Mamoudou Athie,) Paul (T.J. Miller,) Emily (Jessica Henwick), Smith (John Gallagher, Jr.,) and Captain Lucien (Vincent Cassel.) They quickly realize that their only shot at surviving this disaster at the bottom of the sea is to walk to the next base. It’s a one mile trek with only their pressurized diving suits protecting them from 8 tons per square inch of water pressure. Oh, and there are strange, toothy creatures lurking in the shadows.
Underwater would have been very much at home in theaters in 1989 when a myriad of undersea horror films hit screens. DeepStar Six, The Abyss, and Leviathan all share the same DNA. And, in turn, they owe a debt to Alien. Although it might not be the most original film, Underwater certainly looks great. The cinematography, courtesy of Bojan Bazelli (The Ring,) is top notch. The CGI is plentiful but, thanks to the underwater environment, the floaty, weightless look of computer graphics works quite well here. Unfortunately, the murky setting sometimes makes it hard to keep track of what’s happening and to whom.
Although Kristen Stewart gets a bad rap as an actress, she’s very good here. Brian Duffield and Adam Cozad’s script doesn’t provide much of a back story for the characters. At the least, we get an idea of their relationships to each other. Stewart’s Price is well-liked, tenacious, and dependable. That’s all the script needs to convey. The rest of the cast delivers what the script asks of them. Only T.J. Miller’s incessant quipping brings things down a notch. (I think he plays the same character in every film.)
Director William Eubank (The Signal) keeps the tension high and the jump scares aplenty. Underwater literally starts with a bang and doesn’t let up until the credits roll 88 minutes later. Eubank is very much aware that this is a B-movie with an A-list budget. He has no pretensions about making it anything other than an atmospheric rollercoaster ride. By the time you get to the film’s decidedly Lovecraftian climax, you’re too exhausted to ask if anything made any sense. And if you do have any questions, Underwater‘s not really interested in answering them.
3.5 out of 5.0 stars
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