Underwater’s charms are simple: sea beasts attack an ocean drill site, people try to escape, everyone has a bad day. It’s not complicated, and nor does it need to be, because this 2020 film is an overlooked genre treat that’s lean, mean and submarine.
There’s no time to get comfortable as Underwater throws us right into the thick of the action with a frantic opening sequence onboard Kepler Station, situated on the bottom of the sea bed near the Mariana Trench.
We are introduced to engineer Norah (Kristen Stewart) as she meanders about the sleepy, nighttime corridors of Kepler. She is allowed one small, precious moment of calm – pondering the curious presence of a daddy long legs spider in her ocean home – before all hell breaks loose. Alarms blare and water pours from the ceiling when Kepler’s hull is severely compromised. We’re barely five minutes in before Norah is hurtling down a rapidly flooding hallway toward the safe haven of a bulkhead.
She encounters a handful of impeccably cast survivors en-route: the excellent Jessica Henwick, John Gallagher Jr, Mamoudou Athie, TJ Miller and the ever-great Vincent Cassel. Kepler, it transpires, has been attacked by vicious, razor-tentacled sea creatures. The only way off the crippled station is to try to make it across the ocean floor to another nearby drilling station. Counterintuitively, the crew must descend further into the foggy, plankton-strewn depths before they can make their ascent.
When it was released in 2020, Underwater received a pretty lukewarm response from critics and public alike. But fear not, because my theory is that, as far as action movies and creature features go, true genius lies in the middle to lower reaches of the Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB scores.
People love a good genre movie, just not a modern genre movie it seems, as there is really not much separating Underwater from your favourites of the video store era. The film combines the sweat-drenched panic of The Poseidon Adventure or The Abyss with the glorious, aquatic monsterism of Deep Rising or DeepStar Six to highly enjoyable effect. And although it’s not explicitly mentioned at any point, the creatures provide a nice, subtle tether to some classic horror literature (which I won’t spoil here, but horror nerds might appreciate looking up after the credits roll).
Substituting deep space for the deep sea, it’s fair to acknowledge there are similarities between Underwater and the Alien franchise. Norah’s quick thinking and authority in the face of an unknown threat bring to mind similar attributes in Ellen Ripley. The bulky deep-sea diving suits, with their bulbous headpieces, bear a resemblance to the suits worn by the crew of the Nostromo as they explored the egg-laden chambers of LV-426. John Gallagher Jr even sports a blue headband like Yaphet Kotto. But personally, I’d rather watch a dozen Alien(s) homages, even straight up knock-offs, than any of the actual Alien movies that came out after 1986.
For its own part, Underwater is very adept at generating the asphyxiating claustrophobia of being trapped under the sea. Point-of-view shots from inside Stewart’s helmet, with heavy, nervous breathing ringing in our ears, perfectly replicate the discombobulating chaos of being thrown headfirst into the maelstrom of a threatening ocean.
The deep, dark water proves to be just as forbidding as the vastness of space, heightening the sense of something lurking out there in the dark. When the creatures do attack, it is in a frenzied blitz of sudden implosion and bloody viscera, propelling the crew forward by one gut reaction after another.
Everything in Underwater happens on the move, so aside from the relentless pace, it also clocks in at a very agreeable 96 minutes, which is perfect for some uncomplicated Friday night viewing. And while it’s true that Underwater is not exactly reinventing the wheel, what’s wrong with the wheel? The wheel has been serving us very nicely for a number of years. So this Friday, why not strap on your swimming trunks, keep an eye out for sea monsters and submerge yourself in nautical terror.
