By Shane ContoWelcome to January! This month has been synonymous with “Movie Dumping Ground”. What types of films do you expect to see in January? You will usually get a few “comedies” that are super lazy and unfunny. Another common one would probably be a big budget film that in someone’s mind was a summer blockbuster but now is being hidden to die a painful death at the box office (here’s looking at you Dolittle). But what is the most common January faire? Horror movies of course! If you are lucky (or not so lucky), you might get a new horror film every weekend in January. Now I would be lying if I said that I did not believe Underwater to be yet another trashy horror flick to skip this month. What seemed to be an Alien type premise at the bottom of the ocean plus a January release date made this one seem dead in the water. But I am here to tell you there is some enjoyment to be had with this film. I am not saying this is indeed the next Alien but it is surely something to admire in some ways.
The real stars of this film are the technical aspects ranging from the direction to the cinematography to the score. William Eubank delivers here with inspired direction that does an impressive job building some tension…and a little bit of heart. The way the scenes are staged and the characters are presented in the space lends itself to some fine scare and tense moments throughout this modest runtime. I can also attest that I did feel a bit for some of these characters which is far from the disposal lumps of other January horror films such as The Bye Bye Man. Long tracking shots, engaging POV shots, and a wide variety of different kinds of cameras creating an engrossing environment for the audience to get lost in. The score from Marco Beltrami and Brandon Roberts is nerve racking at times as well as emotive at others. The atmospheric nature of the music creates some great tension on top of Eubanks inspired direction. One lacking piece here from a technical standpoint is the mediocre CGI creatures that really benefit from the dark and obscured environment that they inhabit.
The characters are not the most complex but they have enough meat on their bones to keep the audience connected to them at least. Some of them have little quirks and others have emotional anchors that make the audience care at least a little bit. The bare minimum is met to at least care if they live or die (which cannot be said for the regular cannon fodder of January’s “best”). The performances are also solid as well such as the strong central performance that Kristen Stewart delivers. At times she is extremely vulnerable and wears that on her sleeve. At other times she is anxiety riddened from being trapped on the bottom of the sea with crazy creatures behind ever shadow (who wouldn’t be?). Jessica Henwick is the other clear standout as she is relatable and charming. Her character has something to fight for and the audience can feel that so well. Vincent Cassel and John Gallagher Jr. give solid performances and it is strange to see T.J. Miller popping up in a movie. His material is not the best to work with but he does his best to deliver on his comic relief.
Where this film really falters is the story. Have you seen this film before? As I mentioned before, Alien can be seen all over this. And honestly a little Cloverfield as well. I was honestly at one point waiting for a twist at the credits to reveal the real title as Cloverfield…Underwater! The tension does not hit its true heights because you can honestly see most of the film coming a mile away. And the emotional beats feel the same. The dialogue is not the most original or inspired dialogue either. Cliché comments like “We shouldn’t be here” really don’t feel helpful when that is so obvious. Cliché bogs down what could have been a truly great horror/thriller/creature feature but you have to settle for a solid outing with Underwater.