Review of Underwater (2020) by Tryasummersault — 14 Jan 2020

I must say I expected something solid form the trailer, but was honestly surprised at how effective this film turned out. I enjoyed director William Eubank's ambitious eye for futuristic sci/fi in his other films; LOVE and The Signal, but he upped the ante to gargantuan heights in this film.

Eubanks should be a director to watch for the Sci/fi thriller genre as he is absolutely brilliant with his keen eye for detail and intense visuals. Apparently this film was shot in 2017 but Fox studios waited on it.

There is definitely influence throughout from films such as Alien, Leviathan, The Abyss, Sphere, and even Cloverfield, but it utilizes those inherent aspects perfectly to still have its own incredibly vicious identity.

The film starts with insane intensity and never lets up with action and thrills in its massively detailed set pieces and terrific deigned brutal creatures. The cast is uncanny but surprisingly charming, intriguing, and funny at times.

I think part of this film's unfortunate partial sabotage ratings/bad box office (15Mworld on 80M budget) comes from people misjudging Kristen Stewart for this particular role. She doesn't deserve the hate she gets and is actually phenomenal in this story with a great deal of emotion and perseverance.

TJ Miller is the comedy relief and hilarious as always. Vincent Cassel is his solid standard self, and the others are solid as well. As things progress in depths things get viscerally chaotic with some of the coolest creatures I've seen and I've seen them all as a big sci/fi guy.

The creature designs are impeccable, and I give the visual effects team great respect for conjuring up such ballistically sinister deep sea monsters. After so many films it has to be difficult to keep coming up with unique concepts for these creatures but they had huge imagination with these.

Trust me when I say the final act is GARGANTUAN in itself. Overall this film is a visual feast for the eyes and ears (soundtrack/sound fx amazing as well) of most Sci/fi/thriller/action/horror fans especially creature/monster fans.

I think this will go down as one of the better deep sea horror's when people finally see it. Don't let the misleading low ratings fool you, as this is a fantastic film.