Whenever a movie like this comes along, it is always comparable to Alien. Underwater is aware enough to steer into it, providing some pretty cool nods to Ripley and her Xenomorph franchise. These movies love to cast a comedian; Ryan Reynolds in Life, Danny McBride in Alien: Covenant, Chris O’Dowd in The Cloverfield Paradox and TJ Miller here – whether it be to play it straight, or go to show us that even the most dangerous and disastrous survival horror doesn’t have to be glib. TJ Miller’s character chews bubble-gum in his pressure suit, carries a plush rabbit like his life depends on it and wants to talk about anime; there’s quirky and then there’s OTT.
Directed by William Eubank, Underwater follows Norah Price (Kristen Stewart), as one of a group of technicians stranded in the wreckage when their underwater drilling station blows up. All the escape pods have been deployed or have malfunctioned, so the survivors plan a deep-sea trek to another abandoned facility over a mile away. What caused the station to explode in the first place – an earthquake, or monsters in the dark? The supporting cast includes Vincent Cassel, Jessica Henwick, John Gallagher Jr., Mamoudou Athie and TJ Miller.
There’s something more tangible about a threat at the bottom of the ocean, rather than up in space – perhaps it’s simply that we don’t have to leave the planet to get to the ocean. If an alien has the ability to travel to Earth, then it could probably kill us, and there’s not much we can hope to do about it. But we, as humans, master the species of Earth, so if there’s an ocean hunter we are yet to discover, then that’s scary. That changes our relationship with nature, and perhaps we aren’t the top predator on our home sphere after all.
Norah faces her fair share of encounters with the creatures of the deep; she is not just the ‘final-girl’ who happens to be the last one standing. When a creature goes to eat her like a snake, it’s a genuine wow-moment for me; a practical element of these creatures I was not expecting. I love being able to see a monster up close, and don’t subscribe to the idea that keeping it hidden is the scariest, so this movie really pleased me by not shying away from giving us many glimpses of the creatures, head on. I loved getting a look at the baby that attacked Paul Abdul (TJ Miller), and extrapolating how powerful these creatures must be when they get bigger. The creatures kind’ve look like giant sea-monkeys, and it makes me shudder to think of ever wanting to own those childhood pets ever again. These creatures also seem to have a hive mentality (not dissimilar to Aliens actually) but I will admit, I did find them more intimidating as a free-thinking pack, instead of led by the Goliath-portioned mamma closer to the end – unless you’re wanting to pit that thing up against King Kong or the Cloverfield monster, the human race stands no chance.
The supporting cast is filled with recognisable talent, but I was always locked in with Kristen Stewart. It’s no secret I’m a fan of hers, but her characterisation of Norah is strong, helped in unison by her setup with the spider, and Stewart’s remarkable acting. These movies; they always want to be about something more than just survival, don’t they, having to stab at an aspect of human life in general. This one is for fighting beyond your break – Norah and Captain Lucien (Vincent Cassel) have both lost significant others, and it’s changed the way they value people. Norah is super caring, but very manic with attachment issues – after talking about not finding it easy to be a ‘glass-half-full’ sort’ve gal, she grabs for her chest a few times early in the piece, and it comes across as stress, until it’s revealed she is carrying her engagement ring. Even the Captain has to tell her to take a breath, as she tries to solve the dire situation and figure out who might still be alive. This comes full circle at the end, when there’s a moment where all seems done, and Nora seems to be at meditative peace. Her attitude reminded me of Kevin Smith in interview, where he described his heart attack and how he felt when he thought his life was over – as he reflected back, he said he was remarkably peaceful, instead of sad; that he thought he’d reached the end, and when answering the question, ‘is this all I get?’ he concluded, like everyone else, yes, “you get a life.”
Underwater is effectively suspenseful the whole way through. It’s as much about surviving an underwater ocean disaster as it is a monster movie – the monsters only provide an additional threat at first, to the already life-threatening reality of being stranded miles under the sea. I don’t know if all the SCUBA-science checks out – it probably doesn’t – and I doubt you can have so many flickering lights without deathly wiring mixing with water; but Underwater is strong enough to overlook such concerns anyway. Let’s not forget, apparently pressurised diving gear doesn’t permit pants, which provides legitimate reasoning for Kristen Stewart to run around in her underwear for the last third of the movie. Hubba-hubba. As the red-blooded male I am, that’s just… well, that’s just nice!
3.5
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