Underwater (2020) - SPOILER-FREE Review
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Directed by: William Eubank
Written by: Brian Duffield, Adam Cozad
Starring: Kristen Stewart, Vincent Cassel, Jessica Henwick, John Gallagher Jr., Mamoudou Athie, T.J. Miller
Runtime: 95 min
Synopsis: A crew of underwater researchers must scramble to safety after an earthquake devastates their subterranean laboratory.
I was surprisingly interested in and even optimistic about this movie. Why “surprisingly”? Well, first of all, the cast doesn’t really have a big name attached to it even though I actually enjoy some of Kristen Stewart’s performances (who, like Robert Pattinson, has a few blind haters that haven’t seen anything else other than Twilight), as well as a few other actors (Jessica Henwick, particularly). Then, no director or screenwriter caught my attention. William Eubank hasn’t done anything exceptional yet. Brian Duffield co-wrote Insurgent (awful) but delivered a surprisingly fun horror screenplay with The Babysitter. Finally, Adam Cozad helped to create some underwhelming narratives (The Legend of Tarzan, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit).
In addition to this, I’m not in favor of films written by more than two people since these usually disappoint, and... it’s a January movie. So, why was I slightly excited to watch Underwater? For the same reason a lot of people probably avoided it: its formulaic horror-thriller story deep at the bottom of the ocean. If a sci-fi film has a premise based on a team that works on a claustrophobic location and some sort of entity “disrupts” their job, I’m instantly drawn into these movies. There’s something about them that makes me enjoy them more than most people. Usually, this type of film has a low-budget and really requires a talented director who’s able to generate genuine tension and suspense.
Underwater is 2020’s big surprise. January movies are known to be Hollywood’s trash bin, so I’m honestly dumbfounded that this film is far from being bad. It’s very, very good! The set and production design are impressive, and they help create that isolated, suspenseful atmosphere. The first few minutes are nail-biting. The next twenty minutes are fantastic. The following twenty minutes continue to be a blast of entertainment. I felt continuously surprised by how good the movie actually is. I still can’t believe what I just witnessed!
Don’t twist my words, it’s not a masterpiece or even a “great” film. It still follows a plot-driven narrative that countless other movies did better. It borrows inspiration from Alien, Cloverfield, 20000 Leagues Under the Sea, and every other film involving an alien-like form threatening a crew. Plus, it lacks characterization of pretty much every character. There’s no real attempt at deeply developing a single character to make the audience care about it, but this doesn’t mean the movie can’t succeed. Like I wrote above, there’s a whole lot of plot-driven films that went on to be phenomenal.
The difference between those and Underwater is that the latter doesn’t truly bring anything new to the genre. It just uses the known cliches and executes them really well, which is itself a massive surprise. I can’t deny that I had a lot of fun watching this thriller. I expected messy action with way too dark lighting making it impossible to see anything. I received surprisingly visible, well-filmed sequences, packed with tension, tons of panic, and a palpable sense of urgency. There aren’t that many moments to breathe and relax.
The VFX team and Bojan Bazelli (cinematographer) deserve a lot of credit because the “aliens” not only are visually captivating, but they are shown just in the right spots for the exact right amount of time. Underwater doesn’t possess a huge budget, so the creatures need to be shown “in the shadows” to make them look and feel “realistic”. It might seem like an obvious technical decision to be made, but its execution it’s far from being an easy task, so kudos to everyone that participated in making the monsters a genuinely menacing threat.
The cast is excellent. Kristen Stewart continues to break out of the Twilight shell, proving again and again that she’s a wonderful actress. Jessica Henwick is pretty great, as well as Vincent Cassel. Everyone delivers fairly decent performances, even T.J. Miller, who portrays the always divisive comic-relief character that will surely be extremely annoying to some, and quite funny to others (I stand in the middle, I think his character is fine).
It’s definitely a good sci-fi horror-thriller, way better than most January flicks (Underwater is one of the last 20th Century Fox’s movies, which probably means that Disney had no clue what to do with it, hence dumping it in the worst month of the year). I just added William Eubank to my list of directors to follow. His commitment to actually make a good film is demonstrated on screen, so I really hope that his movie gains some sort of following when it reaches people’s homes.
Final Thoughts
Underwater is 2020’s (first) massively positive surprise. A January film far better than most of the month’s competition. William Eubank delivers a remarkably well-filmed sci-fi horror-thriller filled with great tension, surprisingly visible (!) action, fantastic production design, and some really captivating VFX work. It’s by no means a brilliant movie! It takes inspiration from better films of the same genre, and it follows a straightforward, plot-driven narrative with close to zero character development. It simply uses the known cliches but executes them really well. An underrated cast led by Kristen Stewart offers some notable performances, but it’s the claustrophobic atmosphere surrounded by incredibly well-generated suspense that turns this movie into a success. Technically, I still can’t believe how surprised I am. I just wish that it had a little bit of more characterization, so I could recommend it even more. As it stands, do watch it at the highest quality when you get the chance.
