Underwater

Underwater

Starring Kristen Stewart, Vincent Cassel, T.J. Miller, Jessica Henwick
Directed by William Eubank

People have said that we know more about outer space than we do about our oceans, yet filmmakers seem unexcited to explore the vast mysteries of this unknown foreign world all around us.  Only a few films come to mind when you think of deep sea horror, most notably "The Abyss," and now you can add "Underwater" to that very minimal list.  Half disaster movie and half monster movie, "Underwater" makes full use of its slim 90 minute runtime to deliver a thrilling, pulse pounding adventure set seven miles below the ocean's surface, where something has been awakened by human's desire for drilling.

After a mysterious quake shatters the underwater drilling facility, a small group of survivors consisting of Norah Price (Kristen Stewart), Captain Lucien (Vincent Cassel), Paul Abel (T.J. Miller), Emily Haversham (Jessica Henwick), Liam Smith (John Gallagher Jr.), and Rodrigo Nagenda (Mamoudou Athie) find that they have to evacuate before the entire complex is destroyed - but to do that they must walk to another station nearby.  As they make their trek to safety, they find they're not alone, as something is stalking them, killing them one-by-one - but that's only the start of the horrors that await them.

Thanks to the direction of "The Signal" director William Eubank and the cinematography of "The Ring" Bojan Bazellli, "Underwater" serves as a decent ocean horror film that's also an epic survival story, a movie that mixes both subgenres perfectly while not overstaying its welcome.  From the start of the film, we find the survivors under constant threat of death, either at the hands of the underwater elements or the creatures stalking them, and the tension is never calmed from start to finish.  As the facility implodes from an earthquake, our heroes have to literally crawl through claustrophobic-inducing tunnels and avoid huge falling debris as they traverse the mysterious bottom of the ocean, only to find themselves succumbing to deep-sea creatures who don't like humans meddling in their sub-aquatic domiciles.

Kristen Stewart continues to elevate her career after her laugh-out-loud terrible "Twilight" films, as she takes center stage as the no-nonsense, highly intelligent Norah Price, the woman that everyone looks to in order to make it out alive.  She's street smart and strong, serving as the Sigourney Weaver-Ripley type character, only this time at the bottom of the ocean instead of deep space.  The rest of the cast also does great work, except for T.J. Miller's Paul Abel, who tries to be the comedic relief of the film but his shtick grows tiresome after two minutes of his introduction, which serves as one of the few low moments of the film.

The other low moment comes with some of the underwater scenes, which mostly is due to the fact that there's obviously no natural lighting to see what's going on.  We're relying on the small lights from the survivors' suits, you can't really tell what's going on for a good chunk of time.  As the creatures attack and kill them, sometimes you're not sure who the creatures are attacking at the time, but once the film reaches its zenith, we're treated to some tremendously frightening deep-sea demons that are very unique in their creation, a species that look like they came out of the mind of Lovecraft.  It's worth the watch to see how or if they survive, and the odds that are stacked against them that seem insurmountable.  Plus it's only 90 minutes long, and in that short amount of time it provides a fun thrill ride that's concise, tightly-written, and greatly acted, even though it doesn't really tred on any new territory and basically feels like "Alien" in the deep sea.

Adding its own spice to the deep sea horror subgenre, "Underwater" blends disaster film and creature feature in perfect measure, providing a tightly-directed film that doesn't overstay its welcome and gives another impressive performance by Kristen Stewart.

The Score: A-