UNDERWATER is a film that sounds generic on paper but is an exhilarating breath of fresh air to experience. The audience barely gets a minute to settle in after the credits, where we meet Norah (Kristin Stewart) going about her mundane task of brushing her teeth, when we're propelled immediately into the action. The film, and the tense excitement, kicks off in under five minutes of screen time (including opening titles, which show the schematics of the underwater facilities we'll be spending the next 90 minutes in & around): before we know most of the cast or even the layout of the sets we're in. In the quiet moments before things kick off with al literal bang (or, to be precise, several bangs), we see Norah's compassion with a daddy long-legs found in a sink: a tender moment that gets us on her side immediately.
And then we're off to the races! Some unknown event has caused major structural integrity issues, and Norah is sprinting off to escape floods and a structure falling apart rapidly around her. Along the way she meets up with her colleagues Rodrigo (Mamoudou Athie), Paul (TJ Miller), the Captain (Vincent Cassel), Smith (John Gallagher Jr), and Emily (Jessica Henwick), the only remaining survivors. The crew also encounter a few dead bodies along the way as they frantically have to figure out how to exit their facility before it completely collapses AND where they can go for safety.
The first 3rd of the film is all about surviving the catastrophe & problem solving, with little to no hint of what's to come. As I became engrossed with the tension I almost forgot that the movie was about the sea creatures that pop up for the back hour of the film. Our first glimpse of the creatures are a little one (a baby?) found near some dead crewmen outside of the facility. I appreciate the creature designs, even though because of the environment we rarely get a good look at them. But what we see is effectively creepy, and the creatures are often utilized for jump scares: adding to an already massively tense situation.
Many have naively wanted to compare this as "ALIEN underwater," but to me this film feels far closer to horror film THE DECENT. We have a small group of folks in a claustrophobic situation that starts off with the crew trying to problem solve their way out of a disaster, and come into contact with a new species seemingly intent with taking them out. Director William Eubank takes what feels like a simplistic script and really makes the most of it: maybe even overachieves. This film doesn't feel like an original idea, and there is little to no character development for the most part. Many of the characters get their own little trait or quirk (for example, we learn Norah has her own tragic backstory but seems to be a wiz with the computer & hardware stuff around the multiple complexes), but they feel more like archetypes rather than actual characters. The plot is a standard creatures-chase-the-heroes type of movie, complete with mostly predictable story beats.
So the story is unoriginal, and the characters are non-existent. But sometimes, none of that really matters in the moment, and that's where UNDERWATER really excels! I started watching this film around 9:30pm one night, and I had to turn it off around the 20 minute mark because my heart was racing and it felt a bit too intense! I started again the next night earlier, and my apple watch was constantly reminding me to breathe as I easily got caught up in the excitement. Stewart is a wonderfully subtle actress, and she really makes us feel the danger and nerves with subtle jumpy gestures: like twitchy, nervous reactions as she internally accesses situations. The strong cast does what they can with the thin characters they have, and only during an occasional quiet moment does one's mind start to think about the lack of development, or the cooke-cutout characters (of course TJ Miller plays the goofball guy; of course there is a naive newbie type character; etc). The film wisely doesn't spend much time with where the creatures come from or why they're seemingly just toying with our characters. We get everything from a "maybe they're mad that we took a baby" to Emily saying several times that man was never meant to be that deep in the ocean (about 7 miles down), implying their drilling rig has maybe 'unleashed' heretofore unknown aggressive species.
There's a nice twist near the end of the film that I'd be remiss without commending, but I don't dare want to spoil for anyone who hasn't already been spoiled. It ramps up the tension even more while given fans of a certain genre author a squeal of delight. The reveal was spoiled for me so I don't want to diminish the effect for others.
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Overall, UNDERWATER is a mostly fun, entertaining experience. The characters or plot aren't a revelation to the genre, but the tight, claustrophobic horror/disaster film has the perfect pacing and makes for a nice rollercoaster ride of a movie.