Underwater opened in cinemas early this year in January in the USA and a month later in the
UK. Produced on a budget of over $50 million it only managed to recoup $41 million worldwide.
I completed missed this movie when it came out and only recently managed to catch it on TV
and it really surprised me in how enjoyable it was. Now the film was dumped in the January
release schedule which is often not a good sign and is seen as a way for studios to put
out movies they don’t really care much about to cut their losses. Underwater is directed by
William Eubank who was known for directing the low budget movie The Signal in 2014.
William started out as a cinematographer and worked for Panavision for a number of years
before making the leap into directing features.
The film didn’t do well with critics which may have hindered its poor performance at
the box office, the film was deemed as a flop. Critics felt it borrowed too much from 1979
classic ALIEN which isn’t hard to see and they complained it focused too much on the visuals
instead of the story which was void of any drama, highlighting style over substance. Mark Kermode in
particular referred to it as wet aliens, he said it wasn’t that bad but its not any good either,
lots of potential but it just was by the numbers and relied too much on copying the ALIEN formula.
Others however were very impressed with its visuals and production design
and felt it did a good job with the horror with some effective tense scenes and jump scares.
This would be the last feature distributed by 20th Century Fox as the studio had been purchased by
Disney, the name has now changed to 20th century studios. Due to the change in the studio and
Disney’s move to focus less on physical media the 4K Bluray release was cancelled and is only
available to purchase digitally in the high res format and the regular Bluray was only put out in
a few countries, the UK never got a release. For this review I had to purchase a copy from Germany.
The script to Underwater was written by Brian Duffield it was a spec script
that was shopped around to the studios and was eventually picked up by Fox,
the script would go through many changes under the direction of Will Eubank.
The director said the original script was terrific and scary but felt like
a Tarantino film and had a lot of comedy in it, William wanted to take it in a different
direction and take the idea of this underwater horror story more seriously shifting its tone.
Filming would take place in New Orleans in March of 2017 and they would wrap in May,
with a tough shooting schedule they shot everything in chronological order.
The director did have experience shooting under water but most of the movie they would simulate
dry for wet, resulting in a movie that is designed to be underwater but with no
water. The visual effects team the Moving Picture Company would simulate the effect
of having the actors deep in the ocean. The actors would sometimes be attached to wire
to create the slow pace of walking in a highly pressurised environment.
For the design of the facility and the deep diving suits the cast would wear,
the filmmakers took a lot of inspiration from video games, you can see the suits appear very
similar to Gears of War and would weigh nearly 100 pounds and the control room and endless corridors
feel straight out of the alien series. Even if they pulled ideas from video games,
game designers have pulled designs from movies so they have all borrowed from each other.
To help with designing the elaborate sets they created a virtual world and wore VR googles to
walk around the sets to get a greater sense on how it look and would make changes if needed.
If you’ve seen the film or seen clips of the monsters that appear largely appear in
the 3rd act onwards, you will notice that the filmmakers have pulled from ideas from Lovecraft,
the film is littered with visual clues throughout building upon a mythology and a connection between
man vs nature. There are wall sculptures shown in an older section of the facility
which they loosely indicate the previous crew may have come into contact with these monsters
from the deep ocean before. Like the space jockey in Alien, it gives you little bits of information
leaving you with a lot unanswered questions, the audience are left to fill in the gaps themselves.
The director said the original script wasn’t written be a Cthulhu movie,
the beast they designed was first called the Behemoth but as they further refined it
Eubank wanted it to be more mythical, it would become a god like creature
that had been woken up by the humans for drilling too deep into the ocean sea bed.
With the film finally edited by late 2017, the film would end up sitting on the shelve
for over 3 years, intended for a release in 2018 but due to the Disney purchasing Fox,
many films were delayed while the deal was completed, and during the last days of the
studio those films left waiting to be released were just quickly put out with little advertising.
The film opens in a research and drilling facility and engineer Norah played by Kristen Stewart
is suddenly shocked by what appears to be an earthquake, as the water blasts through the
structure she fleas to the exit and bumps into her colleagues Rodrigo played by Manoudou Athie
and Paul by played by T.J Miller. They manage to shut off the area to avoid drowning. They predict
the whole facility will be destroyed by the pressure and they need to get to the escape pods.
However, the three discover that all of the escape pods have already been deployed in that area,
with Captain Lucien played by Vincent Cassel being the only one left. Together they reach
a control base and find biologist Emily played by Jessica Henwick and engineer Liam played by John
Gallagher jr, the systems are down in the control room and they can’t communicate with the surface.
The Captain suggests using pressurized suits to walk one mile across the ocean floor
in the hope of resurfacing from another part of the facility. As they descend to the surface,
Rodrigo’s defective helmet which he failed to warn the others about, implodes under the water
pressure. The surviving crew spot a distress beacon from one of the escape pods below,
and Liam and Paul go to investigate. Once they find the body a creature emerges from
the corpse and attacks. Smith kills the creature and takes it inside. Haversham
examines the creature and discovers it’s an unknown species, they realise this is a baby.
The system and lights are suddenly shut down and the hear a noise outside that isn’t human.
As mentioned earlier I finally caught the film on streaming and was pleasantly surprised by it,
I honestly really enjoyed it. First off the production design and photography is fantastic,
a of lot in camera practical stunts and really detailed sets,
the filmmakers have really gone above and beyond to create a believable world. This giant structure
underwater seems completely plausible in its scale and how they get from point to A to point
B there is clear visible journey despite this maze like structure and obstacles in their way.
The film cuts through a lot of its backstory through the opening credits, with newspaper
clippings and images to inform the audience of the drilling facility and explained tremors and
figures seen in the depths of the ocean then after the credits were are quickly thrown in the chaos
as the base is attacked, it becomes this intense escape as the fast editing and shaky camera work
spice up the danger to see Norah shut off the doors before the remaining survivors are drowned.
There is a great sense of claustrophobia as the crew work their way through tight areas
in their efforts to get to the surface. With its quick attempts to cut through the backstory,
it feels like you’re starting out in the 2nd act, which isn’t a major problem but with all sci-fi
films that have a sense of mystery to what is going on, we are often wanting more information
to help get invested in this story instead of be drip fed little bits here and there.
The comparison to the alien series is very apparent and you could say a little on the nose,
the filmmakers try to avoid talking about the alien films in the special features on the disc.
Kristen Stewart is clearly an Ellen Ripley like character, her look seems inspired by Ripley’s
look in Alien 3, you have the similar sense of execution in how the survivors are hunted by
the monsters, You have a control room that feels directly pulled from the Alien universe. If you
listen out there are similar sound effects for the computers used in the background. It’s a mix
of alien and the Abyss but there was already film like that called Leviathan starring the legendary
Peter Weller which was criticized at the time for being a cheap knock off but since then it’s
become a cult classic. I don’t really care if it rips off Alien or other movies of a similar vain.
Many movies or even video games borrow off each other, Dead Space has elements from Aliens and
event horizon and as long as they take those elements and doing something different with it,
to present something new then its totally fine with me. I do love it when random sci-fi films
turn up in the cinema that aren’t based off a comic book or novel or say another remake.
Underwater feels familiar but fresh enough to enjoy as a new entry in the horror/sci-fi genre.
The Gears of War like suits look great and I applaud their efforts to have the actors in real
physical suits, we don’t have any dodgy bobble heads you see in the marvel movies for example.
The characters are the usual affair of stock characters you find in this genre sadly,
you have a nervous one, one for comedy, a captain who isn’t telling everyone the truth
and others who feel this mission is a waste of time and they can’t see a happy ending in sight
but they are not unlikeable though there are a couple who can be frustrating
and the ones you do like often get killed off.
The films score by Marco Baltrami and Brandon Roberts is interesting but doesn’t leave a lasting
impression. The approach is very haunting adding to the atmosphere, with coral voices to give a
sense of a past when these monsters roamed the ocean and it adds to threat of the sea and what
lies beneath. Lots of electronic compositions often sound a little retro in its design,
with stabbing sound effects to punctuate scenes, Marco has scored a lot of horror films and follows
with a similar style, so it doesn’t feel like a traditional sci-fi score in that respect.
There are emotional moments written for the character Norah that do the job where she
feels completely beaten down and worn out. For the film it does provide what’s needed
but as a listening experience, it doesn’t make for a memorable score, as there isn’t
really anything that stands out to make you want to rush out and purchase the soundtrack.
Underwater is beautifully photographed movie and for its modest budget the visual effects are very
impressive, I didn’t look at it and think that looks like bad CGI, its very polished throughout
and a lot of thought has gone into this world of the future. The performances are very good,
Kristen Stewart makes for a nice Ellen Ripley substitute, she handles the action scenes and
emotional parts in a genuine way. It’s a shame it didn’t perform well at the cinema
and due to the pandemic it may have hinder it staying around for longer in theatres.
But I would certainly recommend you check it out on streaming or if you can find a bluray
then give it a go as the special features alone are worth watching to see how the movie was made.
It’s not a perfect film by any means and its far from original but it’s like comfort food,
you’ve had before but it’s still satisfying.