Review: Underwater – “Taut, tight & tense”

I had read that Underwater was a decent little film that, in the States especially, had slipped through the radar.

Now, I make no bones about it, that’s my kind of film. So much so, that I was pleasantly surprised to see it playing in my local cinema.

So, of course, I went…

Taut, tight, tense and all from the get-go. The film starts and never lets up. I loved all 90 of its rattling minutes. It sets itself up with a brilliant 360 pan of the structure we’re in and then introduces us to Kristen Stewart, voice-over & all.

She’s excellent in this. I’ve been on a crusade ever since to remind people the boy and girl in The Twilight Saga turned out okay. My favourite bit here? A combo of her line delivery when she’s reflecting on the past and when she brutally punched someone in the face to get them where she wants them to be. Excellent. Another glimpse of bucking the trend with so many of the tropes we’ve seen with “this kind of thing.”

Vincent Cassel, who my autocorrect wants to correct to Casserole, is fantastic too. To the point where I question why these films been buried.

It’s claustrophobic in a way that echos the very best of The Descent (part I!) and there’s enough going on that the old school lot still hung up on ‘Alien’ or even… ‘Leviathan’ (!)… will get something out of it.

Me? I can’t wait to own it. I hope that comes with an extended cut, as I don’t believe anyone would be this efficient to make it this lean & mean from the beginning. My double bill of choice? Life. Which, now we’re over the disappointment of it not being a Venom prequel (although I still watch it as such), shares much in common.

Don’t sleep on this. As much as I enjoyed Birds Of Prey, this is arguably a better time at the cinema.

I’m off to check out director William Eubank’s Love and The Signal, which I fully expect to be told, I should’ve watched years ago. Add it to the list, mate.

I liked the title cards appearing in order, too, by the way. Meaning ‘Underwater’ appears right at the very bottom. Little bits of invention throughout make you appreciate, at the very least, they’re trying to do something different.