Underwater is a lesser-known film to have come out of 2020 before the pandemic. Underwater was released on January 10th, 2020. Since the month of January is known for releasing the biggest throw-away horror films around, I was hesitant to watch this movie. That and I’ve never been the biggest fan of Kristen Stewart. I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised by this movie.  And by Kristen Stewart. The film follows a group of people trying to escape a drilling rig at the bottom of the ocean as it is falling apart with some fun twists and turns along the way.

The Good

As I said before I have never been the biggest fan of Kristen Stewart. However, in this film she absolutely kills it! The film also stars TJ Miller from Deadpool and Vincent Cassel from Black Swan. All in all a pretty good cast.

This movie comes out with a bang. Within the first few minutes, you are thrown into the thick of it and they do a masterful job at developing the characters as the story goes along. I was also pleasantly surprised that there weren’t any “dumb” characters. No throwaway people. So often in horror movies, you have the idiot going off on their own and people making terrible decisions. But in this movie every action is sensible. Every character and their decisions and how they present themselves makes perfect sense. Honestly, I expected a different turnout from this movie.

This movie is intense. As stated, it doesn’t pull any punches. As soon as it starts until the very end it is heart-pounding intensity, with very few cheap thrills. Everything they did felt earned. Plus the Lovecraftian elements were a welcome touch!

The Bad

There is one thing in particular in this movie that has become an overused and cliche trope. I’ve never understood why someone using nuclear power would put in an option to self-destruct. Oh, sure they always play it off by disabling a fail-safe and yada yada. Come on. As a software developer, I would never put anything of the sort in my code. No one would! Like, just in case, here’s something in here in case you need to kill yourself and bury your company. Seriously? Can we stop doing this???

The only other thing I could have hoped for would have been a little more from the Lovecraftian elements. There is one moment in particular where I damn near shit my pants out of excitement, and then it kind of just fizzled out.

Underwater Score

Outside of those critiques I really enjoyed this movie. This is certainly not a perfect movie. By no means is this a polished gem. It is a surprisingly good, masterfully crafted, intense thrill ride from start to finish. I’m going to give his movie a 6 out of 10. Had they not used that stupid trope I might have honestly bumped it up to an 8. And yeah I know it has an understandable and enjoyable payoff. But still, do better Hollywood!

Have you seen this movie? What are your thoughts? Let us know!

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