underwater 2020 movie review

“Underwater” is the kind of no-nonsense B-movie with an A-list cast that Hollywood used to make more often. It’s a lean and mean film that gets you into its action instantly and then doesn’t release the pressure until the ending credits. In an era of increasingly long blockbusters with pretensions of greatness, it’s refreshing to see a tight movie that knows exactly what it needs to do and sets about doing it. Anchored by another impressive performance from Kristen Stewart and really effective cinematography from Bojan Bazelli , “Underwater” absolutely bullies you into liking it. There’s no time not to. Some of the midsection succumbs to incoherent effects in which the murky setting overwhelms the ability to actually be able to tell what the heck is going on, but the flaws of the film never linger long enough to, sorry, sink “Underwater.”

Stewart plays Norah, a worker on an underwater research site that’s literally miles below the surface. An annoying opening narration that feels tacked on by a producer during the film’s delayed post-production details how time starts to lose all meaning when you’re that far underwater. There’s no light and you sometimes can’t even tell if you’re awake or dreaming. Just about then, while you’re still trying to find your seat in the theater, all hell breaks loose. The hull of the rig starts to crack and explode. Norah runs to safety, eventually finding other survivors that include characters played by Vincent Cassel , Mamoudou Athie , John Gallagher Jr., Jessica Henwick , and T.J. Miller. That’s it. It’s six people trying to survive a catastrophe that has killed the hundreds of other people aboard the site. No shots of emergency crews on the surface. No flashbacks. The escape pods have either been used or destroyed. Their only hope is to literally walk a mile along the ocean floor to another site and hope there are pods that work there. Then they discover they’re not alone.

Yes, “Underwater” is half disaster movie and half monster movie, combining two B-movie genres that I’ve always loved. As “Underwater” shifts from something more akin to “ The Poseidon Adventure ” to a submerged riff on “ Alien ,” the transition doesn’t always work but director William Eubank directs his cast to incredibly strong in-the-moment performances that hold it together. We need to believe Norah’s plight, and Stewart sells the immediacy of her waking nightmare, well-assisted by Henwick and Cassel in particular. (On the other hand, Miller’s schtick gets old fast, but that’s the only weak link). The writers tack on a few too many manipulative back stories to try to heighten the emotional stakes, but that’s commonplace in both genres on which “Underwater” is riffing.

It also helps that the producers of “Underwater” tapped the eye of the great Bojan Bazelli to shoot the film. The cinematographer behind “ A Cure for Wellness ” and “ The Ring ” knows how to build tension with a combination of extreme close-ups that put us inside Norah’s helmet while never losing the geography of where these people are fighting against incredible odds. When the movie becomes a full-out monster flick, Bazelli and Eubank could have dialed down the underwater murk a few degrees, but it’s still an effective film visually, the value of which cannot be understated. Most bad B-movies like “Underwater” rely on a steady diet of jump scares and shaky camerawork to disguise their low budgets and lack of visual acuity. What sets this apart is that there’s an artistry to the visuals and captivating sound design. The film is filled with flashing lights of broken or breaking equipment and the din of metal creaking under the pressure of water. It’s all necessary to enhance the tension.

What I think I responded to the most in “Underwater” is its relentlessness. It’s almost real time for at the least first chunk of the movie, and the immediacy of the filmmaking gives it power. “Underwater” discards all that on-the-surface nonsense that worse movies would have forced viewers through, in which we meet the characters and foreshadow weird happenings underwater. There’s no time for that. Don’t show up late. It’s a film that’s about panic, and how unexpected heroes can be made through instinctual response to adversity. That, and underwater monsters.

The final act of “Underwater” will likely divide some people, but I’m a fan of when a B-movie really goes for it, and there are a few beats in this one’s final scenes that are impressively ambitious. My kids are at an age where they’re fascinated by the idea that there could be species so far below the ocean’s surface that we have yet to identify them. When they’re old enough, I’ll show them “Underwater.” Maybe they’ll like B-movies too. 

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

• Kristen Stewart as Norah Price
• T. J. Miller as Paul
• Vincent Cassel as Le capitaine
• Jessica Henwick as Emily
• Brian Duffield
• William Eubank

Cinematography

• Bojan Bazelli

Original Music Composer

• Brandon Roberts
• Marco Beltrami
• Brian Berdan
• Todd E. Miller

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Underwater Reviews

[The monsters are] revealed a bit too early; the impact of the finale is somewhat lessened by the fact that we know what the monsters look like well before the final showdown.

Full Review | Jul 10, 2024

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.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Jul 24, 2023

And, amid all the oceanic dread is a fundamental shred of optimism that lances the dark ending—for the sake of others, we have to be less thoughtless.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 20, 2023

It might not reinvent the wheel but unlike the drilling that initiates the accident, it is neither deep nor boring. Underwater is a B movie as slick as oil and is a gem hidden in the busy waters of February’s cinematic releases like a rare pearl.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 11, 2022

It’s not all that original and it has some character issues. At the same time, it’s a fun deep-sea survival romp that essentially delivers on its promises.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 21, 2022

Though Underwater barely makes time for character development, the purely situational nature of the movie and distinct actors, Stewart above all, keep us engaged for 90 minutes of B-movie pleasure.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Feb 22, 2022

Taut, immediate thrills and a great desperate performance from Stewart are undercut but long, murky non-visible sequences of attacking underwater whatevers.

Full Review | Sep 13, 2021

For the type of movies, particularly of the horror genre, that movie studios usually dump into theaters in January- this is a surprisingly solid one.

Full Review | Original Score: 3 / 5 | Jun 25, 2021

This film is basically a knock off underwater version of "Alien". Its completely derivative script offers nothing new or worth watching.

Full Review | Original Score: D- | Jun 24, 2021

To its credit, perhaps, Underwater doesn't hang around long enough to become boring.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Feb 28, 2021

Halfway decent January junk food, benefiting mightily from the presence of Kristen Stewart in a de facto Sigourney Weaver role.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Feb 5, 2021

Underwater is an ocean floor, people in peril flick, with loads of wet, claustrophobic atmosphere but little in the way of actual thrills.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jan 30, 2021

For true fans of the genre, Underwater isn't going to cut it. It's a rushed adventure that hopes the audience doesn't want to get too technical and will give it some leeway, sacrificing quality for a quick fix.

Full Review | Jan 28, 2021

Builds to an insane climax that you wish went on for just a few minutes longer.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 30, 2020

Underwater is certainly derivative and falls back on clichés at regular turns - from the slow-motion pauses at moments of heightened action to the familiar swipes at corporate greed and hubris.

Full Review | Dec 21, 2020

The movie is relentlessly OK, nothing more, nothing less.

Full Review | Nov 23, 2020

A chilling atmosphere and gorgeous creature design make this a fun and worthwhile affair.

Full Review | Original Score: 8.25/10 | Oct 21, 2020

Settles into a rather dull rhythm of characters looking at each other with frightened faces while they wander about in the dark.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 16, 2020

Mainlining an 'Alien, but with big fish' vibe, what Underwater lacks in originality it makes up for in lean, mean menace.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 15, 2020

Yes we've seen this story before, but when it's re-told this damn well, you can sign me up every time.

Full Review | Aug 7, 2020

‘Underwater’: Film Review

Kristen Stewart battles an alien of the deep in a waterlogged thriller that can't come up with one original variation on the movies it's ripping off.

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

Chief Film Critic

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Before technology took over the movies, a cruddy sci-fi action thriller often looked just as bad as it played. No longer. “ Underwater ,” a deep-sea knockoff of “Alien” set on a corporate research rig seven miles beneath the surface of the ocean, has been made with the kind of lavish atmospheric precision that, 30 years ago, you’d have been hard-pressed to find outside a movie directed by James Cameron. Now, though, even a dregs-of-January throwaway will get slathered in the kind of grand-scale murk and logistical explosiveness that’s meant to excite us, even if the story it’s telling is rudderless junk.

Well, guess what? It doesn’t excite us. “Underwater” is a stupefying entertainment in which every claustrophobic space and apocalyptic crash of water registers as a slick visual trigger, yet it’s all built on top of a dramatic void. It’s boredom in Sensurround.

The film opens with its grabbiest visual effect, which is Kristen Stewart ’s hair. It’s been dyed a whiter shade of blonde and cropped so prison-camp short that it’s beyond anything that pretends to look fetching; but that’s what’s supposed to make it cool. Stewart plays Norah, a mechanical engineer who is one of a team of researchers living in an undersea station that consists of long modular passageways that appear as flimsy as an oversize doll’s house. Early on, when water starts crashing through the walls in the wave equivalent of bullet-time, turning the place into a science-lab Titanic that’s already sunk, we experience every jolt and surge, the joints of the structure creaking with a pressure so intense it sounds otherworldly (and, in fact, is). The scale of destruction is undeniably impressive, yet the film already feels waterlogged.

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Norah, teaming up with Rodrigo (Mamoudou Athie), escapes the deluge, and they join forces with half a dozen coworkers from the collapsing facility, all under the leadership of the mission’s captain, played by the Picasso-eyed French character actor Vincent Cassel , who like everyone else in the film has a barely written role, so that even his surly charisma is wasted. The captain comes up with a Hail Mary plan: They will walk along the bottom of the ocean to reach the project’s Roebuck drill station, where they can take shelter and get to the surface. The plan, as laid out, holds very little water, dramatically or as a plausible survival option — it’s just an excuse to get everyone to put on deep-sea diving suits as chunky as refrigerators, and to kill time until the monsters show up.

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The days when acting in a film like “Underwater” could dim your star belong to the past. Yet watching it, you still think: What’s an actress as classy as Kristen Stewart doing in a potboiler like this? Yes, it’s important to demonstrate you’ve got the right commercial attitude, but when you take on the lead in a movie so listlessly derivative, it tends to be a lose-lose situation, creatively and at the box office. In “Underwater,” Stewart locks herself in terse anxiety mode and never deviates from it. She’s an actress who needs a good script to tap her verbal sharpness, but it’s clear that someone convinced her that “Underwater” would give her the chance to be “just like” Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley (right down to the anti-movie-star coif). But when you’re “just like” a character who’s that iconic, you’re really nowhere at all.

A scene with a darting pink undersea alien fetus is truly unfortunate. Does the film really want to be this much of a carbon copy of “Alien,” given that it’s a thousand times less scary? At the same time, the director, William Eubank, seems to be taking cues from “The Meg,” going for the “size matters” school of monster-jawed menace. The main creature in “Underwater” suggests a jellyfish the size of a Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon, with rows of teeth that are like something out of “The Nun.” It’s a beast that looks like it could eat an entire underwater station in one bite, even as it’s taking nibbles out of a talented actress’s career.

Reviewed at Park Avenue Screening Room, New York, Jan. 6, 2020. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 95 MIN.

• Production: A 20th Century Fox release of a TSG Entertainment, Chernin Entertainment production. Producers: Peter Chernin, Tonia Davis, Jenno Topping. Executive producer: Kevin Halloran.  
• Crew: Director: William Eubank. Screenplay: Brian Duffield, Adam Cozad. Camera (color, widescreen): Bojan Bazelli. Editors: Brian Berdan, Willliam Hoy, Todd E. Miller. Music: Marco Beltrami, Brandon Roberts.
• With: Kristen Stewart, Vincent Cassel, T.J. Miller, Jessica Henwick, John Gallagher Jr., Mamoudou Athie, Gunner Wright.

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‘underwater’: film review.

Kristen Stewart and Vincent Cassel play survivors of an endangered deep-sea drilling crew in William Eubank's monster movie 'Underwater.'

By John DeFore

John DeFore

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Following up on his 2014 brainteaser The Signal , William Eubank’s Underwater lets viewers know what they’re in for from the start: If its title treatment’s faint echo of Alien doesn’t tip you off (with letters materializing onscreen out of order against a ghostly expanse), a credits sequence heavy on newspaper-headline exposition may remind you of recent Godzilla reboots, in which humanity’s hubris awakened terrible creatures from the deep. Sure, our working-class heroes — survivors of a deep-sea drilling disaster — are fighting against terrifying odds just to get to a structure that won’t crumple under unfathomable water pressure before their oxygen runs out. But this is a creature feature, whose gory jump-scares and icktastic critter design are the reason you’re here. An ensemble led by Kristen Stewart brings credible camaraderie to the scenario without quite matching the vivid chemistry of Alien and its best descendants; with such a tightly packed survival tale ahead of them, though, few viewers will be calling out for more character development.

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Stewart plays Norah, a mechanical engineer working more than six miles beneath the ocean’s surface on the deepest drilling operation in history. Alone at the film’s beginning, she speaks to us in a surprisingly pensive voiceover, making elliptical references to a former boyfriend and declarations — “there’s a comfort to cynicism; there’s a lot less to lose” — that don’t sync up with anything to come in the film. No matter: Norah’s about to be jolted from her reverie by a breach in her station’s hull. After a panicked race to find a structurally sound airlock, she realizes hundreds of her crewmates have been killed by the explosive flood.

Release date: Jan 10, 2020

As she and the one other survivor from this part of the station (Mamoudou Athie’s Rodrigo) crawl through rubble searching for others, the film mercilessly amplifies the setting’s inherently claustrophobia-triggering qualities. Gathering soon with their captain ( Vincent Cassel ) and three other survivors ( T.J. Miller , Jessica Henwick and John Gallagher Jr. ), they realize their only option is to get in spacesuit-like deep sea gear, descend further to the ocean floor, and walk out to the main drilling station. As they figure things out, they get their first looks at what’s responsible for weird noises they’re hearing outside — an unknown species originating from suboceanic thermal vents, perhaps, forced out by a drilling-triggered seismic event. Here’s hoping that event didn’t wreck the drilling site as it did this command center.

As they prepare to make the trip, Norah instructs Emily (Henwick), the only other woman in the group, to take off her pants, as they won’t fit in the undersea suit. Presumably, the line was slipped into the script to justify the fact that, later in the film, Stewart will spend multiple scenes running around in just her underwear. But it might draw attention to this contrivance instead: Those exoskeleton-like suits clearly weren’t tailored to fit individual crewmembers, and Miller’s character Paul (the cast’s comic relief, naturally) just reminded us what a big fella he is. How can a suit accommodate his girth, with room left for the stuffed animal he inexplicably carries around, while the much smaller Emily and Norah have to strip down? Grounded in reality or not, a skimpier version of Ellen Ripley’s underwear-action-hero look is one Alien reference this movie could’ve done without.

Eubank maximizes the cold-sweat factor once his characters are on the ocean floor — totally exposed to the monsters they’re hearing, but unable to see them in the sediment-clouded murk. He puts his camera into Norah’s helmet, but films her from the side, emphasizing how trapped she is within; several violent scenes remind us all how horrible it would be if that transparent shell were to crack. Or be cracked.

Eubank rations out the pic’s monsters with skill — lots and lots of “what’s that sound?!” at first, followed by quite effective partial or fleeting glances. But even after we’ve seen the fluidly-moving things in full and at length, the film nicely balances their menace with that of the depths.

In fact, Underwater hints at one point that the ocean is the only thing truly worth fearing here. In a fleeting echo of man-plays-God sci-fi parables of yore, a character describes the monsters as Mother Earth’s vengeance on those who would never stop looking for ways to extract her resources: “We took too much — and now she’s taking back.” Whether on Earth or on ore-rich moons far out in the galaxy, it seems the ones chanting “Drill, baby drill” the loudest are never around when the mine collapses, the rig explodes or a monster shows up to punish their greed.

Production company: Chernin Entertainment Distributor: Twentieth Century Fox Cast: Kristen Stewart, T.J. Miller, Jessica Henwick, Vincent Cassel, John Gallagher Jr., Mamoudou Athie Director: William Eubank Screenwriters: Brian Duffield, Adam Cozad Producers: Peter Chernin, Tonia Davis, Jenno Topping Executive producer: Kevin Halloran Director of photography: Bojan Bazelli Production designer: Naaman Marshall Costume designer: Dorotka Sapinska Editors: Brian Berdan, William Hoy, Todd E. Miller Composers: Marco Beltrami, Brandon Roberts Casting director: Angela Demo

Rated PG-13, 94 minutes

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Underwater (2020)

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‘Underwater’ Review: Wobbly Sea Legs

Kristen Stewart is lean, intense and taciturn in this aquatic “Alien” attempt. But the movie is more boring than horrific.

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By Glenn Kenny

Early on in this mercifully short horror picture, a crew member — one of a handful trapped nearly seven miles beneath the ocean in a collapsing futuristic oil rig — wrests from the sea an aggressive, super-gnarly-looking creature, which he brings to show the gang. “Oh no,” a viewer might think, “you never bring the gnarly-looking thing back on the ship. Has no one in this movie seen ‘Alien?’” Maybe, maybe not, but it doesn’t matter, as the thing doesn’t get to do much in that moment.

Welcome to the world of “Underwater,” a movie whose own sea legs are so wobbly, you’re never quite sure whether that weak fake-out was even deliberate. Directed by William Eubank from a script by Brian Duffield and Adam Cozad, it tries to establish some “Alien”-of-the-deep bona fides with its lead, Kristen Stewart, being lean, taciturn and intense in the opening scene. Stewart may well be as consequential a screen actress as Sigourney Weaver, but dreck like this isn’t going to build a comparable filmography.

The crew member who finds the gnarly thing is played by T.J. Miller. The film wrapped before his brush with the law . While this may have contributed to the movie’s long shelving, Miller’s hardly the only problem here.

It’s a challenge to keep action coherent and build suspense in the submerged environment simulated in “Underwater,” but Eubank doesn’t meet it, instead falling back on stale shocks that are not credibly buttressed by swelling bass effects on the soundtrack. And the final form of the menacing sea creature is in its way as laughable as the carpet monster in the 1964 cinematic mishap “The Creeping Terror.”

Rated PG-13 for gnarly looking things and bass-boosted shock scares. Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes.

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Underwater Is a Relentlessly Entertaining Deep-sea Catastrophe

Sometimes, character development is overrated. Underwater begins with a quiet scene — the film’s only quiet scene — of Kristen Stewart’s engineer Norah spotting a spider creeping along the sink in a bathroom of the massive undersea drilling operation where she works. They’re somewhere in the Mariana Trench, the deepest point of the world’s oceans, and Norah spares the spider, presumably because she feels for this poor arachnid soul stuck here at the bottom of the Earth with her. That’s all I have to know; I like Norah already.

And then, suddenly, all hell breaks loose, and keeps breaking for the rest of the movie. The big underwater station we’re on shakes violently, Norah starts running, and walls and ceilings and all sorts of other things start to collapse. Is it a breach, a malfunction, an earthquake, a monster? Why not all those things? The primary pleasure of Underwater is the spectacle of everything going wrong, all at once, as Norah and a small group of survivors — including their captain, played by Vincent Cassel — struggle to find safety. They decide that their only hope is to exit this structure, wearing some huge, newfangled diving outfits that will allow them to survive six miles deep, and slowly walk their way across the ocean floor to another, distant rig. Oh, and it’s pitch-black outside. Oh, and they’re running out of oxygen. Oh, and they’re going mad from the pressure. Oh, and there’s also, like, a thing out there. Maybe more than one. It’s all your fears — of the deep, of tight spaces, of the dark, of giant-creepy-crawly-squishy things — rolled into one.

Underwater might look on its surface like an Alien retread, but it doesn’t dole out the scares in artful, tensely conceived little pieces like that film does. Instead, it smothers you in them. It’s relentless, and voracious, with a kind of kitchen-sink bravado when it comes to jump scares. Even the monster, a genuinely Lovecraftian tentacular nightmare, keeps going: First it seems like it’s one thing, then another, then another, and then it turns out to be all the things, like it’s been pieced together from everything you ever found unthinkably gross or unthinkably unthinkable.

You could call Underwater the Mad Max: Fury Road of deep-sea catastrophe flicks, but it’s a far blunter instrument; it lacks that latter film’s shards of humanism or its operatic extravagance. Director William Eubank even steps on his own picture’s brief, half-hearted stabs at emotional texture: Occasional bits of dialogue are mostly drowned out by all the screeching, crashing metal; I think two of these people were supposed to be lovers, but I could be wrong. There are other character details, but they’re meager: One guy carries a small, stuffed plush bunny around with him. After another character dies ( spoiler alert: someone dies ), we see a photo of their long-departed daughter. At one point, Norah talks about an old ex who … Krraanng! Crgggunch! Kphoooom! 

Underwater has been sitting on a shelf for some years, it seems, and it has some rough edges that suggest it’s been revised over that period. The film was shot in 2017, and reports from the time suggest that it was supposed to be about some underwater scientists, though I have no real idea if that’s just poor reporting or evidence of rewrites and/or reshoots. Regardless, the resulting movie is entertaining in its own insistent little way. It’s been scrubbed clean of anything resembling subtlety, or complexity, but it makes up for that with a hard-charging, ruthless desire to terrify us into submission. It doesn’t ask us to suspend our disbelief so much as it stomps on our disbelief, then bludgeons it. And it all kind of works. Anything seems possible down there.

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Screen Rant

Underwater (2020) review: a missable, mediocre sci-fi thriller.

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Ever since the deal for Disney to acquire Fox's movie and TV assets closed last year, the Mouse House has taken over releasing Fox movies that were completed before the deal finalized. One such movie is Underwater , a deep-sea action horror movie that seems like it would've been far more at home on Netflix (or some other streaming service) than as a theatrical release. The fast-paced, sci-fi thriller clocks in at an uncompromising 95-minute runtime, which allows director William Eubank ( Love ) to deliver a quick, if hollow movie. Eubank is working from a script by Brian Duffield ( The Babysitter ) and Adam Cozad ( The Legend of Tarzan ), and a story by Duffield. Underwater is a tense and relentless thrill ride at the bottom of the ocean, but lacks any substance, delivering a shallow and boring sci-fi movie.

The film begins with a credits sequence that's meant to set the stage - with news articles about a deep sea drilling accident and mysterious anomalies - but goes by much too quickly for the viewer to fully understand the world in which they're about to be immersed. This credits sequence has the mentality of a true crime docuseries and from this introduction, it's clear Underwater is a movie that takes itself seriously, and not seriously enough at the same time. Underwater is decidedly not a B-movie creature feature, even though it too often leans on tropes and cliches of the genre. Instead, the movie puts the most focus on the characters' attempts to survive amid an impossible situation, with it being clear they aren't truly aware of what the situation really is. There's some science in this sci-fi thriller, but Underwater seems more preoccupied with delivering a thrilling experience than on anything like story, science or world-building beyond the bare minimum.

Related:  2020 Movie Release Date Calendar

While that would seemingly set the stage for a compelling character piece, Underwater sacrifices character development for action and thrills. The cast of Underwater is led by Kristen Stewart as mechanical engineer Norah, who saves herself and Rodrigo (Mamoudou Athie) from the initial effects of the "earthquake" that hits their underwater drilling station. They meet up with fellow survivors, Captain Lucien (Vincent Cassel), Emily (Jessica Henwick), Smith (John Gallagher Jr.) and Paul (T.J. Miller). This group is where Underwater treads most into fun creature feature territory, with both Miller and Gallagher Jr. delivering some comedic relief to break the tension. But these moments don't balance the tension very well, and are mostly at odds with the overly serious scenes of the crew trying to survive. With no escape pods left, the Captain determines they should walk across the ocean floor to another drilling station and try to reach the surface from there.

Stewart is a fine enough lead for what Underwater is going for, which is to put normal people in an incredibly abnormal situation, and Stewart plays a compelling everywoman. Much of the story tension comes from whether Norah and the rest of the surviving crew have the abilities and the determination to do what they need to survive against incredible odds. While that's premise enough for what could be an entertaining survival thriller, Underwater throws in the sci-fi element of deep-sea creatures, though the film still tries to maintain a believability - until it doesn't. But the script for Underwater doesn't give Stewart or her co-stars (who are serviceable enough) much to work with aside from the action scenes as Eubank focuses more on creating the experience with closeups on Stewart's face, and tight camerawork, especially in the underwater scenes. However, some of these scenes border on being unwatchable when the camera is too tight on a character and it's unclear what's happening;  Underwater  uses this too often to employ jump-scare horror. Still, Eubank does deliver on the visceral, suffocating feeling of being trapped at the bottom of the ocean.

Altogether Underwater is a middling movie that spans multiple genres, from sci-fi and thriller to action and horror, and can't seem to focus on any specific one. It's a fine enough theater experience, tense and immersive at its best, frustratingly muddy and confusing at its worst. But while the 95-minute runtime ensures a blisteringly quick adventure, Underwater is still drowning in cliches - including one especially egregious horror cliche that shouldn't still be around in 2020 (even if the writers try to put a new spin on it). The lack of meaningful character development is only highlighted further when Underwater attempts to flesh out its characters, giving them all one-note backstories - if they're given backstories at all. Ultimately, Underwater is too shallow to deliver a meaningful experience.

As a result, even fans of deep-sea horror or thriller movies may want to wait to check this one out when it hits home release - and those not interested could miss it entirely. Underwater plays out like a Netflix original movie, in that it may have had a higher chance of success if it had been released on a streaming service with a lower barrier of entry than the price of a movie theater ticket. It's entertaining enough as something to watch at home alone or with friends, but doesn't provide the level of entertainment expected from a theatrical experience. Underwater isn't a fun popcorn creature feature, but neither is it a compelling character drama. All in all, Underwater sinks - in more ways than one.

Next: Underwater Official Trailer

Underwater  is now playing in U.S. theaters. It is 95 minutes long and rated PG-13 for sci-fi action and terror, and brief strong language.

Let us know what you thought of the film in the comments section!

Key Release Dates

• Movie Reviews
• 2 star movies

Underwater (2020) – Film Review

Under Pressure

The dictionary describes deja vu as “a feeling of having already experienced the present situation” and that perfectly describes the feeling you’ll have watching Underwater. The film, in essence, is about a ragtag group of survivors banding together to try and survive the elements and the threat of a monster looming in the shadows ready to pick them off one by one. Alien, of course, perfected this genre back in the 70s and since then there’s been plenty of films that have followed suit and tried to rekindle Ridley Scott’s magical, claustrophobic horror.

The most recent pretender that tried and failed is probably 2017’s Life. It’s important to remember that too because Underwater takes a lot of inspiration from that film and meshes it in with elements of Alien and several other influences without ever expanding or doing anything original with those concepts.

To be fair to Underwater, the plot wastes absolutely no time getting right to the heart of the issue. Deep underwater a group of aquatic researchers are thrust into a nightmarish situation as their underwater base is rocked by a monstrous earthquake. At the heart of this drama lies Norah, a confident woman that finds herself leading a group on a perilous journey to safety. From here, the rest of the film take a pretty formulaic approach, with an unfortunate lack of actual terror in favour of more action-driven sequences and jump scares.

With a lot of the film set underwater, the sound design of the film is suitably muffled for much of the run-time and there’s a few nicely implemented segments late on that use this perfectly. While the actual set pieces feel pretty run-of-the-mill, the audio in this film makes the most of the water and this only heightens the tension that grips large parts of the middle act. On the same topic however, the end-credits song feels completely ill-placed and tonally jarring, almost undermining the final moments of the film that do well to shine light on a bigger social commentary that’s thankfully kept to the backseat for much of the run-time.

The aesthetic of Underwater is suitably muted for a lot of the film too, thanks in part to the murky depths of the sea-bed. Underwater isn’t shy about its influences to Alien either, with plenty of computers, escape pods and torch-lit exterior shots that feel very reminisce of that film. To be fair to the film, during the third act there are some nice shots that take full advantage of the lighting but personally I actually feel the second act is where this one is at its strongest.

Underwater isn’t a bad film and if you’re looking for a fun, predictable thriller you can’t really go wrong with this one. The film understandably leaves little to the imagination and aside from a surprisingly fast-paced opening, this action-horror quickly reveals its empty ocean of originality to a void of rehashed ideas and concepts that do little to stand out. This isn’t the worst film of the year but it’s not a particularly great one either. It’s simply a very average, forgettable thriller that’s fun for 90 minutes but unlikely to be one you’ll return to again anytime soon.

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• Verdict - 5/10 5/10

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• DVD & Streaming
• Action/Adventure , Drama , Horror , Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Content Caution

In Theaters

• January 10, 2020
• Kristen Stewart as Norah; T.J. Miller as Paul; Vincent Cassel as Captain; Jessica Henwick as Emily; Mamoudou Athie as Rodrigo; John Gallagher Jr. as Smith

Home Release Date

• April 14, 2020
• William Eubank

Distributor

• 20th Century Fox

Positive Elements   |   Spiritual Elements   |   Sexual & Romantic Content   |   Violent Content   |   Crude or Profane Language   |   Drug & Alcohol Content   |   Other Noteworthy Elements   | Conclusion

Movie Review

“There’s a comfort to cynicism: There’s a lot less to lose,” we hear twentysomething Norah thinking to herself as she stares into a large community bathroom mirror and brushes her teeth.

Norah’s a solitary figure, a mechanical engineer on a deep-sea research project and drilling station. She’s obviously left something (someone?) behind. And her short, dour inner monologue is the only clue we have about how she ended up blankly staring at herself in a mirror, in an underwater compound some seven miles deep in the Mariana Trench.

That, however, is all there’s time for when it comes to Norah’s inner life.

The young engineer suddenly senses some shift, some sound, some change in the air of this sprawling facility of passageways and workrooms and labs. She steps to the bathroom entry door and raises her hand: Is that a splash of water falling from the passageway’s ceiling?

That’s impossible. That would mean …

That’s when the first thunderous thump hits the long passageway made up of tons of steel, concrete and wood. The passageway lurches and then begins to buckle and burst as thousands of pounds of pressurized water begin breaching the walls and flooding in Norah’s direction.

Dressed in nothing but sweatpants and a sports bra, her typical sleepwear, Norah runs screaming down an opposing hallway trying to alert any and all occupants that they need to get out. NOW . She tumbles, bounces off impossibly twisting walls, gashing her face, legs and feet as she scrabbles over rent metal and debris that shouldn’t be in the direct path of her escape.

Escape! That’s it!

Norah heads toward the nearest escape pods. But first she must close off this gushing passageway with an emergency door—the only thing that can hold back the flood of water.

Was it an earthquake? Or something … else? They are drilling down into the Earth’s substructure with the massive Roebuck drill. Whatever that thumping, crunching force is, it’s dangerous. And at this depth, the water all around them means certain death.

Norah, closes the passageway, then runs and crawls on.

She has to find a way, a way out before the out comes flooding in.

Positive Elements

Norah soon locates a handful of other survivors. But when they make their way to the escape pod room, they find that no pods remain. So, the survivors rally together, comfort each other and devise a plan to reach the Roebuck drilling station and another possible means of escape.

Norah, in particular, risks her life in desperate efforts to battle the forces around her and to help the wounded and frightened. She and another female survivor, Emily, struggle to drag a fallen male comrade across a wide-and-deadly stretch of ocean floor.

As the survivors implement their dangerous plan, they repeatedly make self-sacrificial choices to help their companions survive. Several people even choose to make the ultimate sacrifice and freely give up their lives for the sake of others.

Spiritual Elements

Sexual & romantic content.

Norah and Emily must strip down to skimpy underwear to fit into protective deep-water suits. We see both in those revealing and sometimes water-soaked undergarments. One of the male survivors, when stripping down, is shown shirtless and in tattered undershorts.

A character named Paul tends to relive tense moments with bursts of verbal humor—many of which can be crude or bawdy. For instance, when Norah saves him from being trapped under fallen debris, he comedically gushes his thanks, saying, “You sweet, flat-chested elven creature!”

Violent Content

The movie’s story is scripted as a fast-running actioner. It’s filled with explosions, collapsing underwater structures and people dying in a variety of ways. And every surviving human in the tale sports either broken bones, slashed skin or bloodied extremities—sometimes all three. The thumping, slashing and exploding violence isn’t as gory as it could have been, but it’s still wince-worthy in many cases.

We see crushing, flooding moments in the various underwater structures as well as the slashing, bloody impact that the destruction has on shoeless, barely dressed Norah and others. Norah is forced to close a safety door, trapping fellow victims in the onrushing flood. We also learn that the thermal heat and pressure are building in the drill section of the underwater facility, lending a ticking clock of destruction to the survivors’ struggle.

The pressure of the water itself causes an underwater suit to implode, crushing its occupant into bloody chunks. Another suit actually explodes as it’s dragged quickly upward toward the surface, obliterating its occupant in an explosive detonation. (Destructive explosions occur pretty much throughout the film.) But explosive decompression isn’t the only threat here. Falling station debris also threatens the humans trying to get to safety.

[ Spoiler Warning ] Then there are the sea creatures. Our first encounter is with a two-foot-long, slug-like monstrosity that’s seen latched onto and eating a human corpse. Other sharp-clawed beasties soon appear in more human sizes, and they attempt and succeed at swallowing one human survivor whole. The creatures also swim up and drag away several victims in the black, deep-sea waters. We also encounter a gigantic version of the undersea monsters, one big enough to crush the entire underwater station. Humans die repeatedly at the monster’s tentacled hands—including one unfortunate who is attacked from within his own underwater suit, blood gushing up in his clear helmet. A large chunk of debris barely misses crushing someone and it incapacitates another.

Crude or Profane Language

Two f-words and a dozen or so s-words join a couple uses each of “h—,” “d–n” and “a–.” God’s and Jesus’ name are misused five times total (with the former combined with “d–n” twice).

Drug & Alcohol Content

One survivor finds a discarded packet of supplies and is disgruntled that an alcohol bottle has already been emptied.

Other Noteworthy Elements

There have been many deep-sea horror movies made over the years, featuring everything from ancient sea creatures to fallen aliens. Underwater rises from the cinematic depths and takes its place in their midst with all the pitch-black, murky-chum moments you might expect from this genre.

But this pic adds a new contemporary twist to the typical formula. Or rather, it takes something away. Whereas past films took time to introduce us to the underwater crew we would soon see die in drowning gasps of slow dread, Underwater skips exposition altogether and leaps with videogame-like glee into its deadly, high-pressure destruction.

Kristen Stewart works hard to make her character someone we can identify with, giving Norah a balanced mixture of steely-eyed, hard-driving strength and shivering-from-shock-and-cold vulnerability. And we definitely witness self-sacrificial action in this adventure, too.

But those are difficult virtues to fully appreciate in a film that plunges viewers into a breathless, 90-minute sprint, one that’s full of coarse lingo and bloody jump scares.

The result? Underwater is a deep-sea pic … with no depth.

After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.

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Common Sense Media Review

Kristen Stewart sci-fi survival thriller has scares, swears.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Underwater is a sci-fi thriller about a team of researchers who face unknown peril at the bottom of the ocean. This is a monster movie that's meant to scare you -- and it definitely does. But while you can expect deaths (including people imploding inside deep sea suits), near…

Why Age 14+?

Sci-fi violence includes frightening life-threatening explosions, discovery of d

Strong language includes "ass," "damn," "goddamned," "hell," and multiple uses o

When changing in and out of diving suits, male and female characters strip down

Any Positive Content?

Women and men in work environment demonstrate teamwork, each bringing different

When life gets scary and you feel powerless, stop feeling and start doing. Teamw

Violence & Scariness

Sci-fi violence includes frightening life-threatening explosions, discovery of dead bodies. Humans implode inside deep sea suits and battle terrifying monsters. Characters are in intense peril.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Strong language includes "ass," "damn," "goddamned," "hell," and multiple uses of "s--t" and "f--k."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

When changing in and out of diving suits, male and female characters strip down to non-revealing underwear; this eventually leads to two female characters spending several scenes running around in only their skivvies. Two characters are dating but don't engage in PDA.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Role Models

Women and men in work environment demonstrate teamwork, each bringing different skills, abilities to keep others calm in stressful situations. Norah is a smart, capable, brave, resourceful, quick-thinking computer engineer -- in keeping her head and thinking of others, she becomes a hero. Male members of the crew aren't hypermasculine stereotypes.

Positive Messages

When life gets scary and you feel powerless, stop feeling and start doing. Teamwork can help you overcome extreme challenges.

Parents need to know that Underwater is a sci-fi thriller about a team of researchers who face unknown peril at the bottom of the ocean. This is a monster movie that's meant to scare you -- and it definitely does. But while you can expect deaths (including people imploding inside deep sea suits), near-constant peril, and lots of tense moments, nothing is especially graphic. It's basically an oceanic Alien , down to centering on a tough woman, Norah ( Kristen Stewart ), who has to figure out how to outsmart a terrifying creature. She makes a fantastic role model as a modern-day Ellen Ripley -- although, just like Ripley, she ends up taking care of some of her tasks in her underwear. The male members of the crew aren't hypermasculine stereotypes (one even carries a stuffed animal), and the group demonstrates both courage and excellent teamwork. Strong language ("s--t," "f--k," etc.) is used but isn't constant. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Parent and Kid Reviews

• Parents say (9)
• Kids say (18)

Based on 9 parent reviews

Watched it with my 10yo movie lover

Fantastic, loved it, what's the story.

In UNDERWATER, Norah ( Kristen Stewart ) and her team of researchers are investigating the ocean depths when some kind of earthquake damages their lab beyond repair. With their oxygen running out, their only hope of survival is to put on diving suits and walk across the ocean floor to reach another station. But as they set out on their journey, they realize that a dangerous unknown creature is lurking in the dark waters.

Is It Any Good?

Yes, this is an Alien knockoff, but that doesn't mean it's not enthralling -- and it's modernized in a way that may appeal more to older teens. To that end, director William Eubank includes a couple of great lines in Underwater that will connect directly to Gen Z, tapping into a message of how to deal with feeling helpless in an out-of-control world. It's a little pat, but it's still empowering (and if the film winds up resonating with teens, the lines could end up on memes).

That message is a nice cap on a film that, while thoroughly entertaining, feels made to trigger anxiety attacks. You never know what monster will jump out or which character will die next (unfortunately, the film does stick with the scary movie cliché of the type of character who always dies first). Stewart's trademark acting style -- nervous and uncomfortable -- works well here; her character doesn't know what the next second holds, but she just keeps moving forward, one foot in front of the other. Norah is the embodiment of the airplane emergency instructions: She puts on her own oxygen mask first by summoning her own survival skills and then helps the others put their masks on -- in some cases, dragging them along behind her. Norah is so far from Stewart's weak-willed Twilight character Bella that, by movie's end, we've seen a total transformation of not only Norah but Stewart herself.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about how Underwater compares to other monster movies. Why do you think audiences enjoy watching humans battle made-up creatures? How does it make you feel when the movie's over?

How did the film present counter-stereotypes in terms of gender roles? How does that compare with other movies you've seen, particularly older ones?

What parts of the movie did you find scary ? How did the filmmakers prompt that emotion? Would the scenes have felt the same with different music? Lighting? Do movies have to be violent to be scary?

How does the crew demonstrate teamwork ? Much of the teamwork we see also takes courage . What actions did you see that count as courage rather than just a survival instinct?

What did you think about Norah's statement that feelings of powerlessness are just feelings -- that you should stop feeling and start doing? Is that a message you can apply to real life?

Movie Details

• In theaters : January 10, 2020
• On DVD or streaming : April 14, 2020
• Cast : Kristen Stewart , T.J. Miller , Jessica Henwick
• Director : William Eubank
• Inclusion Information : Female actors, Gay actors, Asian actors
• Studios : Twentieth Century Fox , Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
• Genre : Science Fiction
• Topics : Great Girl Role Models , Monsters, Ghosts, and Vampires , Ocean Creatures , Science and Nature
• Character Strengths : Courage , Teamwork
• Run time : 95 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : sci-fi action and terror, and brief strong language
• Last updated : August 23, 2024

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Underwater (2020) Review

A SUSPENSEFUL, YET SHALLOW

And forgettable thriller.

What lurks within the ocean’s darkest depth? It’s question that’s been posed many times; adding a layer of mystery, intrigue, and a bit of fearfulness into what menacing sea creatures that dwell within the darkest depths of underwater realm. What’s even more scarier to imagine is actually venturing down into the murky and bleak water labyrinths and getting ensnared by one of its most fiercest sea predators or even encountering something unknown to man. Hollywood has certainly taken the notion to heart; carving out plenty of suspenseful (almost horror-like) features that display the unexpected thrills and nightmare-ish of what lies in the deep, including the more sci-fi / fantastical endeavors such as 1989’s The Abyss and 1998’s Sphere , the cheesy B-rated flicks like 2017’s 47 Meters Down and 2018’s The Meg , to shark infested predators like 1975’s Jaws and 1999’s Deep Blue Sea , and even monster creature features like 1989’s DeepStar Six and 1998’s Deep Rising . Now, 20 th Century Fox and director William Eurbank present the latest offering of this deep-sea suspenseful thrillers with the movie Underwater . Does the film find its “scares” in the oceans depths or is it a flat-out boring endeavor?

In the depths of the Mariana Trench, a big-time drilling company is pushing their way into the undersea world, constructing several massive structures home to technicians and rig works, including Norah (Kristin Stewart), an electrical engineer. As everything seems to be a routine day, an earthquake strikes the site, with most of the underwater complex is crippled and coming apart, forcing Norah to scramble to safe and begin to search for survivors; eventually coming across Emily (Jessica Henwick), Liam (John Gallagher Jr.), Paul (T.J. Miller), and Captain Lucien (Vincent Cassel). With the site damaged beyond repair and with few options for survival, the team pulls on diving suits and tries to find their way to a livable area, aiming to go deeper with hopes to trigger some type of rescue to the world above. Unfortunately, while they struggle against stretches of wreckage, flooding, and conserving the oxygen reserves six miles below the surface of the ocean, something lurks in the depths as unknown creatures (unseeing by humanity) tracks the crew’s movement into their sojourn into the dark abyss.

THE GOOD / THE BAD

Ugh….I hate to think about that question that I posed in my opening paragraph. I know it sounds stupid, but I do have a fear of underwater sea creatures. Not like fish, crabs, of jellyfish or anything of that variety, but rather the deep “bottom of the sea” ones; beings that have that nightmare-ish look about them. Plus, predator like creatures like Sharks definitely give the creeps. So, the fear of being stranded in open water (whether on the ocean’s surface or deep below the surface) gives a shudder fear to just think about that, especially when encountering a creature from the sea. As I mentioned above, cinematic storytelling of this variety has certainly been numerous from a plethora of motion pictures; displaying survival / suspenseful thrillers of predators, creatures from the deep, and sci-fi aliens. I wouldn’t say that these are my particular favorite type of films (again, a fear of being attacked in open water), but…from a movie critic…I still say that 1975’s Jaws was pretty damn good in this category.

This, of course, brings me back around to talking about Underwater , a 2020 suspense thriller / horror endeavor from this stock of underwater sea terrors. This particular film was pretty much unknown to me for quite some time as I really didn’t hear much about until I saw the movie trailer for the feature when I saw 2019’s Charlie Angels (probably because Kristen Stewart starred in both projects). At first glance, I wasn’t really that much impressed with this movie. Yes, it surely had plenty of suspenseful moments that were showcased in the trailer, but it wasn’t something that completely enticed me to say “Wow….I have to go see this when it comes out”. After that, I saw the trailer a few more times when I went out for my weekly movie outing and my initial thoughts on Underwater were the same. So, when the film finally came out, I decided to check out the movie when I did a “double feature” viewing (this movie and Like a Boss ), with my expectations set a little low. I decided to complete a few other 2020 movie reviews before I decided to write one up for Underwater . Now, I finally have the time to share my opinion on the movie. And what were they? Well, both good and bad. Despite the movie having some decent suspense thrills along the way, Underwater is just a shallow and generic movie that forgoes a potentially claustrophobic thriller for flat acting and cheap “jump scares” tactic. As one reviewer ( Society Reviews ) that I follow says: “It’s Dead Space but underwater and not as good”. And that sums it up perfectly!

Underwater is directed by William Eurbank, whose previous directorial works includes such projects like Love and The Signal . Given his background of those two movies, Eurbank makes Underwater his most ambitious “Hollywood-ish” endeavor and certainly succeeds on that front; crafting (and shaping) the motion picture with a sense of suspense and almost horror-like elements into the feature’s narration and cinematic undertaking. To be sure, the movie does have its fair share of problems, but where the movie does excel at is in tense and suspenseful moments that Eurbank stages throughout the feature. Yes, some are a bit cliché and bit ridiculous (with a sense of redundancy on occasion), but Eurbank plays to the cheesy playfulness of a suspense thriller and weaves the horror classic nuances of “creature features” into Underwater ; allowing the submerged movie world a cinematic playground have a sort of frenzy and sometimes claustrophobic atmosphere. Additionally, Eurbank keeps the movie steadily moving at a solid pace by keeping the narrative briskly moving from one beat to the next. Thus, with a runtime of 95 minutes, Underwater does movie nicely along from start to finish, without any unnecessary side stories.

On a technical achievement (of which where the movie does shine a bit), Underwater is a solid undertaking; creating an undersea world that’s both frightening as well as majestic at the same time. Naturally, the film’s setting is set primarily in the dark reaches of the Mariana Trench; creating an almost alien undersea world of where the movie’s main character traverse across. All of this is rendered in a good way, though it does get a bit confusing a few times (more on that below). Suffice to say that the film’s background setting does feel appropriate for the feature’ story. In addition, the visual design (and conceptual designs) of all the underground stations and equipment (i.e. gear, suits, weapons, etc.) all look quite impressive….in a sort of sci-fi take. Given his background cinematography, Eurbank certainly plays around with this underwater world; a mixture of science fiction future tech and creature feature (that good look kind of neat in the movie). Thus, the film’s “behind the scenes” team, including Naaman Marshall (production designs), Karen Frick (set decorations), Bojan Bazelli (cinematography) and the entire art direction team should be commended for the work. Lastly, the film’s score, which was composed by Marco Beltrami and Brandon Roberts, deliver a respectable musical composition to Underwater ; utilizing the film’s suspenseful nature to help elevate the sequences tense-filled moments.

Unfortunately, Underwater is quite the “gripping” suspense thriller that it wants to be; struggling to find a narrative, which is problematic from the get-go and marred by not just underwater sea creatures, but by lazy predictably. What do I mean? Well, the movie is your standard / straightforward thriller that, while staging some good suspenseful / tense moments throughout the film, never quite stands out from the generic platform that it muddles around in. In truth, despite its very simplistic plot, the movie tries to be more than that and ends up convoluting its own narrative, with plenty of mystery and plot fragments that are left unanswered by the end credits. In doing this, Eurbank’s feature gets reduced to a bland and often generic flavor that does little to spark imagination or even entertainment in its plot; resulting in a careless and mundane cinematic story that can’t carry its own weight. This, of course, goes back to the script for Underwater , which was penned by Brian Duffield and Adam Cozad, makes for a generic story progression that’s quite formulaic to the touch. Of course, given the story’s nature of survival, it’s quite clear where Underwater’s narrative is gonna go and, while it maybe a bit of cheesy “B-rated” creature feature fun for some, what’s presented its that really good and wholesome; becoming increasingly problematic as the movie advances. In my opinion, nothing about Underwater doesn’t seem remarkable or stands upon its own merits as this type of storytelling has been done and redone in similar and better projects. Thus, Underwater is predictable in nature and just comes off as quite generic to the touch with nothing really standing out…. plain and simple.

Even the framework of the feature’s story seems a bit wonky, with the script trying to setup a potential sequel installment and adding some mystery behind the underwater creatures and the conspiracy of the drilling company. Again, it’s trying to a sense of scale to Underwater’s narration, but it just comes up as half-baked ideas, with the potential for a half-baked sequel planning. Hope this idea doesn’t materialize as Underwater , despite its many flaws, works best as a sort of “one and done” endeavor and not as a franchise starter concoction.

Additionally, the film’s scares are a bit “tedious” at best; displaying some cheap “jump” scares throughout the feature. Of course, some of them scare tactics do work in the narrative, but most of them are just the “same old, same old” in today’s horror standards. Speaking of which, the visual designs of the undersea creatures that terrorize Norah and company throughout the movie are good, but the overall murkiness that Eurbank paints in the underwater world (where the movie’s setting takes place) is quite bland. Of course, this is part of the feature’s tactics of trying to project the dark depths of the seas to be a dark, dank, and dismal place, but it sort of backfires and ends up “masking” what’s on-screen for quite a lot of the feature’s runtime. Also, Eurbank, along with the film’ script, decides to make the movie more suspenseful (almost like a thrill ride), which (again) ends up backfiring on them by sacrificing character development (more on that below), which renders a lot of the character drama a moot point right from the get-go. Also, let’s not forget that the film’s script tries to attempt to make the movie have comedic levity, which feels quite forced anytime it presents itself….even if it’s trying to be cheeky within its “B-rated” cheese premise.

The cast in Underwater is kept quite small, which does sound good on paper, but fails to leave an impression mark on their respective characters. Of course, a survival movie doesn’t really have much time for “character growth”, but even what’s presented in the movie fails to us (the viewers) to even remotely care about these individuals and their journey that they undertake in the movie. Some of it does tend to be on the actors’ side (creating bland performances), but majority stems from the film’s script, which gives very little to no depth to these characters. Headlining the movie is actress Kristen Stewart, who plays the role of central protagonist Norah Price. Stewart, known for her roles in The Twilight saga features as well as Charlie’s Angels and Still Alice , has been getting the most work of her Twilight cast and has certainly been making a name for herself in Hollywood features, despite the fact that her acting talents can be a “iffy” at times. Looking beyond that, Stewart does make for a compelling character in Norah, which is taking an incredibly dangerous situation out of a seemingly ordinary-ish person in a sort of “everyman” (or more appropriately “everywoman) persona. So, she gets the character down in that regard. However, the character is pretty much paper thin and really doesn’t have much to offer. Even Stewart seems to struggle (at various points) in understanding Norah. There are some character background elements that are mentioned about her, but those are sparse and left dangling by the time the film reaches its end. Sure, I do understand that the movie is about the “journey” (i.e. in the moment) and not so much about character building backstory, but it’s kind of hard to get behind a character (and root for them) if you know very little about them. This tactic has worked before in similar survival films, but not so much in Underwater . Thus, Stewart’s Norah in the movie is simply there; going along with everything and acting and reacting to the film’s events….and nothing more.

Behind Stewart, actor Vincent Cassel is probably the most recognizable as the “seasoned / veteran” acting talent on the project by playing the character of Captain Lucien. While there isn’t much to the character beyond his initial setup as the somewhat “seasoned leader” of the group, but Cassel, known for his roles in Ocean’s 12 , Elizabeth , and Jason Bourne , certainly pulls it off with enough grit and gravitas to make the character of Captain Lucien stand out as the most memorable one of the entire cast. If Cassel’s Captain Lucien fares the best in the movie, then actor T.J. Miller fares the worst in the movie as character Paul Abel. Miller, known for his roles in Deadpool , She’s Out of Your League , and Office Christmas Party , has always been the so-called “comic” relief in feature films; offering up levity in certain situations and has such being labelled as that particular character stereotype in his roles. However, the problem with that doesn’t translate well in Underwater , with Miller’s Paul being a goofy character that doesn’t quite fit the “mold” of a suspense thriller and pretty much sticks out as a sore thumb for his part in the feature’s narrative. I like Miller and do laugh at his performance in other movies, but his character of Paul in Underwater is tonally wrong, unneeded humor, and just downright miscast in this deep-sea suspense thriller; leaving a lot of the film’s jokes forced and shoehorned unnecessarily in (as mentioned above).

The rest of the cast, including actor John Gallagher Jr. ( The Newsroom and 10 Cloverfield Lane ) as Liam Smith, actress Jessica Henwick ( Game of Thrones and Iron Fist ) as Emily Haversham, and actor Mamoudou Athie ( The Circle and The Get Down ) as Rodrigo Nagenda, make up the rest of both the main / supporting cast (again, the cast in the film is relatively small). While these acting talents are fine in their respective past works, their involvement in Underwater feels cheap and uninteresting. Sure, they all can act, but it feels quite like their talents are being wasted on this project, with most (as expected) to be a somewhat of the classic “cannon fodder” variety….and you know how that plays out. Plus, all these characters are pretty much the stereotypical clichés of sorts, which comes off as paper thin characters to a shallow motion picture thriller.

FINAL THOUGHTS

What lurks in the deep….is the main fundamental question asked by Norah and her surviving crew members face as they make their way to safety (seven miles below the sea level) in the movie Underwater. Director William Eurbank’s latest film takes the suspense thriller route and channels that cinematic storytelling to the deepest part of the undersea world; mixing in thrill and horror-like moments to make the film’s narrative “pop”. Unfortunately, despite a good visual / atmospheric environment and a few suspenseful moments (staging and execution), majority of the film is rendered in a generic state with a bland story, a formulaic predictability, lazy writing, uninteresting characters, and a waste of acting talents. Personally, I didn’t particularly care for this movie, but it had its moments. Even though my expectations were low and some of the suspenseful sequences did grip me a bit, the movie is just a “meh” type of endeavor that has little to offer beyond a few “jump scares”. However, I can see why some people might like this movie, but I couldn’t see it. That being said, my recommendation for this movie is both an “iffy choice” as well as “skip it” as it just depends on your taste for suspense cinematic flavor. I just couldn’t see it and choose the latter choice rather than the former. In the end, whether you love the movie or not, Underwater is a shallow (and quite generic) attempt of a suspense thriller that will mostly be forgotten in the 2020 releases. It’s an admirable attempt that just doesn’t “rise” to the occasion.

2.4 Out of 5 (Iffy Choice / Skip it)

Released on: january 10th, 2020, reviewed on: january 27th, 2020.

Underwater  is 95 minutes long and is rated PG-13 for sci-fi action and terror, and brief strong language

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