The Chamber (2016)

Director: Ben Parker

Writer: Ben Parker (Screenplay)

Starring: Johannes Kuhnke, Charlotte Salt, James McArdle, Elliot Levey, Christian Hillborg, James Artaius

 

Plot: A claustrophobic survival thriller set beneath the Yellow Sea off the coast of North Korea where the pilot of a small submersible craft and a three man Special Ops team on a secret recovery mission become trapped underwater in a fight for survival.

 

There may be spoilers the rest of the review

 

Verdict: ABC of Underwater Thriller

 

Story: The Chamber starts when submersible pilot Mats (Kuhnke) finds his craft needed by an elite three person special ops team, Edwards (Salt), Parks (McArdle) and Denholm (Levey) having to guide them on a secret mission in a 6 hour dive off the coast of South Korea in the Yellow Sea.

The topside side gets boarded by the North Korean’s the submersible is alone with the mission going on. When the mission gets complete the submersible finds itself damaged and taking on water with no hope of rescue, with the tensions rising we are left to see who could escape and if there will be anyone waiting on the surface for them

 

Thoughts on The Chamber

 

Characters/Performance – Mats is the expert when it comes to surviving underwater in the submersible even if things do go wrong, he is calm through the situation as long as no one does anything rash. Edwards is the leader of the team who will do anything to complete the mission putting the civilian life before hers and soldiers. Parks is the panic quickly one and Denholm is the one who does believe Mats could be making the right decision.

The performances are all fine with nobody truly standing out or coming off terrible, every performance just keeps the story rolling.

Story – The story is easy to follow without being anything we haven’t seen before, group of divers get trapped underwater let’s rely on the tension to keep the audience happy. While this isn’t bad its just what we have seen in ‘Pressure’ or ‘Pioneer’ previously.

Thriller – The being trapped underwater with no potential escape is always good for a thriller movie because it plays into a fear very well.

Settings – The film is mostly set in the submersible both pre-mission and post-mission trying to survive, this works and is the highlight of the film.

Special Effects – The special effects are few and far between which is good because the film doesn’t leave us having to deal with a CGI mess rather than focusing on the character decisions.

Final Thoughts – This will fit into the trapped underwater genre of films well without being truly special.

 

Overall: Easy to watch thriller

Rating