January is typically considered a dump month for movies, where studios release films they don’t know what to do with. There are several reasons for this, usually because people are less likely to go to the movies post-holiday season. Every so often, there are some exceptions, such as Taken, The Grey, From Dusk Till Dawn, Paddington, and even Split. Many times, movies are dumped onto January when it’s been delayed over and over again after being filmed years ago. Such is the case with the new sci-fi horror film Underwater, the latest offering from filmmaker William Eubank. Having started as a Panavision technician, Eubank made his directing debut with 2011’s Love, followed by 2014’s The Signal. Though it was filmed back in 2017, Eubank’s new film wouldn’t be released until 2020 following Disney’s merger with Fox. With all that out of the way, let’s take a look at Underwater.
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Rating
Synopsis
Deep in the Mariana Trench, an underwater facility is drilling until an earthquake starts tearing the facility apart. Mechanical engineer Norah Price (Kristen Stewart) finds Rodrigo Nagenda (Mamoudou Athie) and Paul Abel (TJ Miller) while trying to escape. When they meet up with Captain Lucien (Vincent Cassel), they discover that the escape pods have been deployed. After finding biologist Emily Haversham (Jessica Henwick) and engineer Liam Smith (John Gallagher Jr), Lucien comes up with a plan. His plan is for the crew to trek along the ocean floor to get to a nearby base for help. Unfortunately, it turns out that in drilling through the ocean floor, mysterious creatures have emerged to kill off the crew. Along the way, many of the crew end up getting killed either by the creatures or the immense pressure. Who will survive, and will they be able to stop these creatures?
Review
If my plot description for Underwater sounds familiar at all, that might be because it takes many elements from Alien. Both films involve a crew trapped in some sort of scientific facility being pursued by an unknown creature. Also, both films mention some sort of evil corporation that tries to deny any involvement in the situation. While the Ridley Scott film takes time to develop the characters before things happen, this gets right into the action. Within the first five minutes, the facility is falling apart and the characters are running for their lives. This quick pace, combined with the film’s 95-minute runtime, makes Underwater a breeze to get through that goes by fast. Unfortunately, that’s also a detriment to the film, since we’re not given time to know any of these characters. None of the characters are terrible, but there’s also not much to them.
Speaking of similarities, Underwater also reminded me of the 1989 film Leviathan, especially in some of the creature designs. Acting-wise, the performances are better than expected for a January movie, Kristen Stewart and Vincent Cassel being among the strongest. The rest of the cast does a good job, though TJ Miller, who’s normally pretty funny, feels out of place. While there are some jump scares here and there, much of the terror is built around suspense and atmosphere. Admittedly, much of that is ruined when you see the CGI ocean creatures that look taken from a PS4 game. Eubank’s direction is fairly solid, clearly showing that he has some talent and a good eye for visuals. While this doesn’t break the January movie curse, it’s still better than the typical fare and worth a rental. Overall, Underwater doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it’s good if you have no other options.
