“Underwater” is a relatively small-budget sci-fi/horror movie currently making very little money at the box office. Which is a little sad, because it’s actually *reasonably* good. It’s not a really innovative story… there’s a drilling rig on the bottom of the ocean (in this case in the Mariana Trench, seven miles down), things start going wrong, sea monsters cause a ruckus, plucky survivors need to make their way to escape capsules, etc. It has been summarized as “Alien under the ocean,” and that’s kinda fair.
The main character is played by Kristin Stewart, who turns in a performance typical of her usual charisma-free persona. Also starring is T.J. Miller as comic relief, a casting choice I found remarkable since he has been “cancelled” by Hollywood for Me Too violations and a subsequent Smollett-level bit of bomb threat nuttiness. But it turns out that this movie has had a rather lengthy production, and it was shot before his career imploded.
It’s a serviceable monster movie, like a bajillion before it. That said, there’s one thing that the director threw in that wasn’t in the script that makes this movie a bigger deal for folks like me than it otherwise woulda been. It’s rather a big spoiler, so it’s after the break and in white text (if’n ya gotta read the spoiler, just highlight the blank area). But even sans spoiler, it was a good time at the theater and I recommend it if you like this sort of thing.
It turned out to be a “shadow Cthulhu” movie… i.e., it was not advertised as such, but the Great Old One Cthulhu turns in an important performance. And according to this interview with the director, it’s not something *like* Cthulhu, but *actually* Cthulhu.
And consequently, I really want a sequel to this.