Review of Underwater (2020) by Bertaut1 — 22 Feb 2020

A well-made creature-feature; it may not be original, but it is entertaining.

Underwater was shot in early 2017 and then sat on a shelf for over two years. Now that it's finally seeing the light of day in the January release window - a period traditionally dominated by duds and cast-offs; films the studios don't care about for one reason or another. A recent high-profile example is Blackhat, Michael Mann's underrated 2015 cyber-terrorism drama. However, much like Blackhat, Underwater is considerably better than most January releases. Sure, it's clichéd and predictable, and it shamelessly borrows from a litany of superior genre films, but it's also a very entertaining and enjoyable aquatic creature-feature.

At an unspecified point in the future, humans are attempting to drill into the ocean floor at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, almost seven miles down. As the film begins, the station is hit by a series of unexplained vibrations, causing a cascading pressure breach. Norah (Kristen Stewart) and Rodrigo (Mamoudou Athie) manage to escape and seal off the area so as to slow, but not prevent the inevitable implosion of the whole station. Shortly, they encounter other survivors – Cpt. Lucian (Vincent Cassel), Paul (T.J. Miller), Liam (John Gallagher, Jr.), and Emily (Jessica Fenwick). Lucien says their only hope of escape is to use pressurised suits to walk the one-mile distance to the drilling station and use the escape pods located there. And so they descend to the dark ocean floor. However, they soon discover that they aren't alone.

Written by Brian Duffield and Adam Cozad, and directed by William Eubank, Underwater walks a very fine line between rip-off and homage. The most obvious touchstones are Alien (1979) and The Abyss (1989), but one can also see the influence of films such as Leviathan (1989), Event Horizon (1997), Sphere (1998), and Sunshine (2007). In short, the set-up is your classic "group of isolated people getting picked off one by one".

Kicking into high-gear immediately, the opening scene is the initial implosion, and it's a good five minutes before things calm down. In essence, Underwater is the inverse of Alien in this respect, with all hell breaking loose before we know anything about anyone. Indeed, the only character we even see before the implosion is Norah. I wouldn't want every film to open this way, but it has an undeniable kineticism and appealing volatility, which Eubank does a decent job of maintaining throughout the next 95 minutes.

Aesthetically, there's a lot to like here. Production designer Naaman Marshall does a fine job, with the world feeling lived-in and authentic. Making especially good use of tunnels and low ceilings, there's a real sense of claustrophobia. This is aided immensely by Bojan Bazelli's cinematography. During scenes outside, he often shoots from within the characters' helmets, and even when the characters are inside, he often shoots in tight close-ups, heightening the sense of enclosure. When outside, the film uses the limited visibility to its advantage in establishing a tone of ominous danger. Some will probably find these scenes too dark, but I'd argue that that is precisely the point; the characters can't see much of anything, and neither can we.

Elsewhere, obviously inspired by H.P. Lovecraft, particularly Cthulhu, Abner Marín's creature design is suitably creepy and grotesque. The aesthetic element that really stood out for me, however, was Wayne Lemmer's sound design. The implosion scenes are accompanied with some bone-rattling LFE, whilst the ominous ambient sounds of the station are a constant reminder that it's on its last legs. The scenes outside are equally as impressive, with some excellent use of directional sound - it's a film that I would imagine will sound incredible on a 7.1.2 Atmos system.

In terms of problems, well, it isn't really about much of anything. There's a vague ecological theme that's brought up a couple of times, but it never amounts to anything even half-way substantial. There's also next to no characterisation. We learn bits and pieces about Norah and Lucien's backstories, but apart from that, the film is peopled by perfunctory cardboard cut-outs. There's also a rather unjustified use of voiceover to bookend things, and at times, Eubank seems somewhat confused as to whether he's making a disaster movie or a monster movie.

Underwater never manages to rise anywhere near the heights of films such as Alien and Sunshine, but it still deserved better treatment than it received from the studio. Given the January release, the clichéd setup, the two-year limbo, and the bland title, I wasn't expecting much from this, but I was pleasantly surprised. It won't change your life, but it's an entertaining and well-made creature-feature.