Underwater

‘What did the rat say when it walked into a wall? Damn!’ Such is the banal dialogue in the new sci-fi blockbuster wannabe, Underwater.

The film is actually an ‘homage’ to Alien but without the tension, the drama or the three dimensional characters in conflict not only with, the creature, but with each other as well.

In short Underwater is set in a drilling station under the sea which is hit by a tidal wave following an earthquake on the surface. The characters must escape before everything goes into lockdown but their escape is thwarted by an underwater creature that looks like a cross between an Egyptian mummy and a huge slimy leech. Anyway like the creature in Alien it grows and grows until it’s way too big for anyone to handle. This is when Kristen Stewart and Jessica Henwick strip down to their underwear and save the one remaining male of the team. Why? Well that’s anyone’s guess.

Stewart is tough but, unfortunately, not tough enough to save this film, which also stars Vincent Cassel, whose considerable acting talents are completely wasted. As in all horror/disaster films the characters are not indespensable and wind up being knocked off one by one. It’s anyone’s guess who’ll be first. This was, however, easy to predict as there was very little substance, if any, to the supporting characters which meant their demise would not really make too many waves. Get it?

The screen writers Brian Duffield and Adam Cozad had attempted to create a strong bond between Stewart and her female co-star Henwick but this failed largely due to Henwick being given so little character development beyond poses and facial expressions better suited to an Instagram account. Duffield is actully a bit of a wunderkind in the world of screenwriting and this effort left much to be desired.

The only real horror in Underwater is the script.

★

Reviewed by Renee Lou Dallow