REVIEW #138 Underwater (2020)

Underwater is a horror/sci-fi film set deep in the Mariana Trench as a group of workers try to find a way to the surface after an earthquake slowly destroys their underwater mining facility. Directed by William Eubank, it’s a fight for survival for Norah and her team.

CAST & THE ACTING 

Kristen Stewart leads the cast as Norah Price, one of the leaders in the film. She actually suits the role really well and delivers a pretty good performance. I don’t think it can compete with her recent roles in films like Spencer but it is a very different type of film, requiring a very different acting approach. She is supported by Jessica Henwick who plays Emily, T.J. Miller who plays Paul Abel and then a few lesser known actors. The rest of the cast do okay, Miller delivers in the comedic role and he is effective, I am a fan of his humour. I can’t help but think the casts biggest issue was not selling the danger they were in. They were all relatively calm considering the high stakes situation they found themselves in. Not only were they in a base 6 miles deep into the ocean, that was falling apart but they were also being hunted by deep sea creatures and I think they should have sold that aspect a lot more. 

PLOT & THE STORYLINE 

The storyline was actually pretty good, it’s often the same plot we see in a lot of sci-fis set in space so it was actually a unique approach having it set deep in the sea, after all we know very little about what’s in our deepest oceans. It almost reminded me of Alien or a film of that nature. The plot made sense because I would imagine it’s only a matter of time before we start drilling in even deeper areas of the ocean so it was actually fairly realistic in that aspect. The concept of the crew being hunted by unknown deep sea creatures added another layer of danger and upped the stakes. Unfortunately, as I mentioned above, I think the actors could have sold their fright a little more. It does seem to subtly set up a sequel if you watch the end credits, they did use the opening credits as a tool to give the audience the information they need for context. For example why they was drilling in the ocean. So overall I didn’t mind the storyline at all.

CINEMATOGRAPHY & SPECIAL EFFECTS 

This was probably the best aspect of the film, there was a lot of beautiful visuals that looked great. The stark contrast between the complete darkness of the deep ocean to the man made lighting that illuminated the sea floor created a really nice juxtaposition. I have included some examples at the end of this post, just a snippet of the cinematography. What I really enjoyed was a lot of the camerawork that was almost first person from their suits, when the creatures attacked the camera angle really helped build the tension. The creatures themselves had a pretty good design and did look quite freaky. They helped create those jumpy moments by having the creatures suddenly appearing out of the darkness, having odd spotlights from the machinery providing glimpses of their approach. So Underwater does display some fantastic cinematography and special effects for sure.

OVERALL (6/10)

Underwater is certainly a watchable film, it delivers excitement and some fantastic visuals. The plot is quite unique and I respected the fact they took a storyline that is so often set in space and put it in our own oceans. It plays on that belief that most of us have, that there is definitely some very dangerous creatures in the depths we know nothing about! The acting is okay but I don’t think they sold the danger enough for me, it was such a high stakes film that I just think these characters needed to be a lot more scared. Is it a horror sci-fi? I don’t think so, it’s not scary at all, theres a couple of jumpy moments but that’s about it. It’s just been put on Disney+ so I would definitely recommend giving it a go if you have time but I have seen better versions of a similar storyline. 

Thanks for reading.

Callan