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2020 sci-fi horror film “Underwater,” hails from director William Eubank. While the Adam Cozad and Brian Duffield-written movie doesn’t tread (water) into new territory, it’s a fresh genre update that maintains a tense atmosphere. Bolstered on solid acting, excellent effects, and a fantastic score, “Underwater” stays afloat as an engaging B-Movie.
Company Tian Industries is slated to drill seven miles into the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest ever drilled. Its mining rig, Kepler 822 Station, suffers catastrophic damage during a massive earthquake. Mechanical engineer Noah Price (Kristen Stewart) manages to escape along with another rig worker, Rodrigo Nagenda (Mamoudou Athie). Price and Nagenda seal off the area preventing further damage to Kepler 822 Station. Along the way, Noah and Rodrigo happen up on Paul Abel (T.J. Miller). Together, the three Tian Industries workers head to the escape pod bay where they reunite with Captain Lucien (Vincent Cassel). Unfortunately, all escape pods have been deployed.
Upon rendezvousing at a control center, Noah, Lucien, Abel, and Nagenda discover engineer Liam Smith (John Gallagher Jr.) and biologist Emily Haversham (Jessica Henwick). Met with futile attempts to communicate with the surface, Lucien suggests a treacherous one-mile trek across the bottom of the ocean to Roebuck Station 641. Responding to the distress signal of an escape pod, a strange creature attacks Paul. However, Smith manages to kill it. From a cursory glance, Haversham realizes that it’s a yet-unknown creature, the hatchling of what turns out to be a humanoid aquatic entity.
While “Underwater” bears many similarities to the 1989 sci-fi horror flick “Leviathan,” which is akin to “Aliens” at the bottom of the ocean, the William Eubanks-directed movie stands on its own. Like the 1979 science fiction-horror classic “Alien,” “Underwater” features a minimal setup. Its cast of characters are introduced in much the same way as the Ridley Scott-directed classic: there’s a barebones framework consisting of the crew and the rig. But “Underwater” forgoes the slow burn. A few minutes into the film, while Noah brushes her teeth, an earthquake severely damages the rig, flooding it with water. From here, it’s a tense, claustrophobic romp.
The effects glisten, and masterful camerawork often forces the audience to assume the perspective of its ravaged crew with eerie shots peering out of diving helmets. There’s a grey, bleak atmosphere, an intentionally drab color palate meant to inspire dread and a sense of foreboding. Marco Beltrami backs the visuals with an epic score, varying from symphonic, warbling string numbers to frenetic electronic pieces. Paired with the on-screen action, Beltrami’s musical accompaniment paints a frightening portrait.
Creature design is delightfully Lovecraftian. Humanoid sea monsters, terrifying enough in their own right, are trounced by an enormous big bad. Aside from the menace of the creatures themselves, their mere existence instills a chilling cosmic dread of the unknown. Cleverly, “Underwater” suggests that Tian Industries may have known about these aquatic critters. While venturing to the Roebuck, Noah seeks refuge in the abandoned Shepherd Station. There, Price discovers that Lucien previously worked at the Shepherd and may have harbored information about the sea monsters. Additionally, the end credits feature news clippings and snippets revealing that Tian Industries continued their drilling efforts while classifying the incident, thus suggesting a conspiracy of Weyland-Yutani Corporation proportions.
Although the tone remains mostly consistent throughout, TJ Miller’s Paul Abel provides a bit of unnecessary comic relief. Thankfully, the humor and accordingly Paul, are both short-lived. Still, it somewhat distracts from the gripping tension. There’s an environmentalist theme that’s touched upon slightly, but feels underdeveloped and could have been nixed or further explored. Nevertheless, “Underwater” is an otherwise atmospheric, taut thriller. An effective B-movie creature feature fusion, “Underwater” is buoyed by its superb acting, Lovecraftian atmosphere, and an excellent score.
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