Director: William Eubank
Writer: Brian Duffield, Adam Cozad (Screenplay) Brian Duffield (Story)
Starring: Kristen Stewart, Jessica Henwick, T.J. Miller, Vincent Cassel, John Gallagher Jr, Mamoudou Athie, Fiona Rene, Amanda Troop, Gunner Wright
Plot: A crew of aquatic researchers work to get to safety after an earthquake devastates their subterranean laboratory. But the crew has more than the ocean seabed to fear.
Tagline – 7 Miles Below the Ocean Surface Something Has Awakened
Runtime: 1 Hour 35 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Verdict: Nice Underwater Horror
Story: Underwater starts when the underwater research facility is hit by an earthquake, compromising the whole station, Norah (Stewart), Captain (Cassel) Paul (Miller), Emily (Henwick), Smith (Gallagher Jr) and Rodrigo (Athie) are left stranded after the escape pods are used, leading to them needing to make a daring journey across the ocean floor to their own option for rescue.
With the journey already facing obstacles, the crew find themselves facing up against an unknown creature from deep, one that will hunt anything in their territory.
Thoughts on Underwater
Characters – Norah takes centre stage of this story, she is an engineer on the facility, she knows how to deal with crisis, needing to take on difficult decisions along the way, she will dive in head force to make sure other could make it and will use her knowledge to stay ahead of the problems that might come her way. Captain takes the lead with the plan, he gives the crew two options, neither of them is letting them die, he remains the leader through the problems they are facing. Emily is the youngster member of the team trying to get out, she is the least experience when it comes to diving with the rest of the team needing to give her more time, while still rushing her.
Performances – Kristen Stewart does standout in this role, giving us a strong leading performance as the tough smart character, we see everything from her point of view. When we go into the supporting Jessica Henwick, Vincent Cassel, T.J. Miller and John Gallagher Jr all give performances that play to the strengths of the characters in the film.
Story – The story here follows the crew of an underwater research facility needing to fight to survive after an Earthquake destroys part of their base, with a new unknown threat from the deep looking to hunt them down too. This story does get straight into the action with the incident starting the film, which does help us get right into wanting to know how they will survive, without needing to get too involved with the backstory behind the characters, as they wouldn’t need to discuss this as part of their everyday routine. This could easily be compared to many films, while it still gives us something fresh with the approach to how they look to escape, it shows the calm required and how the plan could work to survive, the pace keeps things flowing nicely is everything needed for the story to keep us engaged.
Action/Horror – The action in the film does follow the destruction happening around them with the race against time, add in the creatures which give us a horror inclusion to the story which plays into not knowing what is in the dark or the bottom of ocean.
Settings – The film remains at the bottom of the oceans which shows us how the team must stay calm to escape, with the unknown out there waiting for them.
Special Effects – The effects are used to show the destruction which looks wonderful, with the creatures looking good even though they remain in the dark.
Scene of the Movie – The earthquake.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – Getting to know people too much.
Final Thoughts – This is a nice little action horror, it flows nicely and doesn’t want to stop once the early action starts, even if it might have a couple of traits borrowed from other successful franchises.
Overall: Enjoyable Horror.
