Growing
up as a teen in the 1980’s with little parental supervision, I was fortunate
enough to live on a staple of horror and sci-fi movies that largely shaped my somewhat
geeky cinematic preference even today. Among
my favorite movies of that fondly remembered era are classics which combined
sci-fi and horror, films like James Cameron’s ‘The Terminator,’ John
McTiernan’s ‘Predator’ and, perhaps most notably of all, Ridley Scott’s seminal
masterpiece ‘Alien.’ ‘Alien,’ with its
“scary chitinous monster preying on soft fleshy humans in the dark and
claustrophobic confines of a spaceship” premise, spawned a slew of analogues set
underneath the sea including ‘Leviathan,’ ‘DeepStar Six’ and ‘The Rift.’ Needless to say, I enjoyed all of them.
‘Underwater,’
director William Eubank’s (‘The Signal’) homage and 21st century update of
these beloved movies from my youth, dispenses with the requisite pre-disaster
“character development” and thrusts us right into the chaotic mayhem, as young tomboyish
engineer Norah Price (Kristen Stewart or KStew) scrambles to survive deep (six
to seven miles) beneath the ocean as the state-of-the-art drilling facility she
works at collapses around her from an earthquake, which turned out to be something
else altogether. The movie follows her
and a handful of other would-be survivors as they trek across the deep ocean
floor and try to reach escape pods at a nearby station some distance away, while
being menaced by unspeakable horrors from the deep.
While
‘Underwater’ is derivative and liberally borrowed tropes from its predecessors,
it nonetheless manages to do the job remarkably well and is a highly effective thriller. The tightly focused, sometimes shifting and
close-up camerawork really captures the chaos and foreboding
sense of unseen peril reminiscent of ‘Cloverfield’ and ‘The Descent.’ And with her closely cropped haircut, KStew
resembles Ellen Ripley in ‘Alien 3’ in more than appearance alone, imparting
Norah with a dogged determination, quiet leadership, think-on-her-feet
resourcefulness and spunkiness that are obviously a nod to Sigourney Weaver’s famous
heroine. Like her co-star Robert
Pattinson, she had really come a long way since her moody, lower lip-biting ‘Twilight’
days and is becoming quite an actress.
Grade: A-
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