Any movie that released in 2020 will forevermore have an asterisk placed next to its box office performance, but the fact director William Eubank’s high concept sci-fi horror Underwater released in January unfortunately means that it’s destined to be remembered as a bomb, regardless of the industry being brought to its knees just a couple of months later.
It came as a surprise that the intense B-tier thriller smothered in A-list production values failed so spectacularly, though, given that anything that even remotely promises nerve-shredding terror and sweaty-palmed anxiety among audiences has always tended to draw in a crowd. In the end, Underwater could only rustle up $41 million from theaters on a budget rumored to be anywhere as high as $80 million, but it hasn’t taken long for the under-the-radar feature to start stating a case for cult classic status.
A 48 percent Rotten Tomatoes score is about as middling as it gets, but a recent Reddit thread celebrating the unsung favorite has been gaining a lot of traction, and the outpouring of support from all corners indicates that Underwater is a lot more popular and held in higher regard than its critical and commercial performance would lead you to believe.
Anchored by a fantastic Kristen Stewart performance, the nightmarish narrative finds an undersea drilling station six miles beneath the surface suffering heavy damage, forcing the crew on a perilous journey on foot across the ocean floor. However, oxygen is running low, the pressure is building in more ways than one, and there’s a creature lurking in the depths picking them off one-by-one.
The bottom of the ocean is perhaps the most terrifying place on the planet, and when you throw a Lovecraftian element into the mix, you can understand why the dread-inducing Underwater keeps on finding new fans.
Published: Oct 22, 2022 04:27 am