Many modern Lovecraftian movies like to unveil their cosmic horror slowly. William Eubank’s 2020 Underwater takes this technique to the next level. What first comes off as a thriller, Underwater ultimately has all the markers for a classic eldritch nightmare. The claustrophobia serves as an existential dread and Cthulhu himself makes an appearance. Kristen Stewart stars as Norah Price, an underwater engineer working at a mysterious drilling compound. When the compound suffers catastrophic failure from an unseen force, Norah gathers the survivors and embarks on a mission to find escape pods. Underwater slipped under the radar, but for a film that makes several bold twists on classic Lovecraftian staples, it deserves more attention for innovation at the very least.

Claustrophobia Is the Scariest Part of ‘Underwater

Cosmic horror loves to focus on dread from the huge and unfathomable nature of the ocean or the galaxy. Underwater favors a unique approach, compressing both its characters and the audience into a series of back-to-back claustrophobic scenes. There are moments where Underwater feels more akin to the likes of The Descent rather than Call of Cthulhu. First, there is the harrowing sequence where Norah has to navigate the destroyed tunnels of the compound to find the escape pods. As she squeezes and crawls through rubble-ridden and wire-sparking tunnels, the viewer holds their breath along with her. The low lighting of these moments subtly conveys just how restrictive Norah’s situation is. Just as she cannot move freely, the audience cannot see clearly. While Eubank cannot press his audience into a tight space, he can recreate the sensation through other senses.

The whole film tonally plays with claustrophobia, as well. By setting Underwater at a deep-sea compound, there is a lingering sense of existential pressure. When things quickly go wrong, there is nowhere for the characters to run. This tension increases as the alarm bell robotically calls out each deck’s failure and containment. Stewart plays her reaction to each time a deck gets sealed off so well. Her face tightens, her eyes twitching and her mouth hardening into a line. As Norah scrambles to find an escape pod, Eubank shrinks his lighting and lens angle to emphasize just how trapped she is.

‘Underwater’ Goes Full Lovecraft in Its Final Act

For most of the Underwater viewing experience, viewers would be forgiven for thinking they are watching an aquatic Alien. The introduction of the strange creature the team finds that biologist Emily Hvaersham (Jessica Henwick) mistakenly believes to be a new species is evocative of the xenomorph. Their baby pink coloring, gliding movements, and quick tentacles make these creatures look like the aquatic version of face-huggers. Their character design is intended to unnerve the audience. One character remarks that the creature they found looks like a baby. When the origin of these creatures is revealed, their design is even more unsettling to the audience.

It’s not until the film’s final act that Underwater commits to its Lovecraftian influences. Underwater is one of the few films to depict Cthulhu as a whole. The character design is such a nightmare to attempt to show on screen that movies often opt to show other staples of Lovecraft that suggest Cthulhu, like the Old One’s death cults or glimpses of the Necronomicon. Though there are suggestions of Norah’s company having sinister intentions, Underwater’s incorporation of Cthulhu works as the film’s critique of environmentally hostile practices. Earlier in the film, biologist Emily Haversham whispers to herself that they should never have been drilling into the ocean floor to begin with. Now, her anxious words ring true on two levels. One, the damage to the environment, and two, the drilling has woken up Cthulhu.

Stewart turns in a restrained performance as Norah, fighting through Underwater’s mix of incomprehensible terrors and more mundane horrors. The film is one of the few to show all of Cthulhu on screen, setting a high bar for itself. The gritty, realistic-looking design of all the creatures grounds the movie, doing what Lovecraft’s work often sought to do. There is a lingering feeling that all these creatures could be burrowed away on the ocean floor, quiet unless disturbed.

-Credit: Collider

Kristen Stewart is set to team up with Oscar Isaac for the new vampire thriller Flesh of the Gods.

Stewart, 34, made her name in the wildy-popular vampire romance Twilight and its sequels, which she starred in from 2008 to 2012.

Isaac, 45, is known for playing Poe Dameron in the Star Wars sequel trilogy (2015-2019), Moon Knight in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Llewyn Davis in Inside Llewyn Davis.

The new film, from Italian-Canadian director Panos Cosmatos, is said to follow a married couple, Raoul (Isaac) and Alex (Stewart), who descend each evening from their luxury skyscraper condo and head into an electric nighttime realm of 1980s Los Angeles.

Eventually they cross paths with a mysterious and enigmatic woman and her hard-partying cabal, and Raoul and Alex find themselves seduced into a glamorous, surrealistic world of hedonism, thrills, and violence.

Cosmatos is best known for his 2018 film Mandy, a hallucinatory horror starring Nicolas Cage. In a three-star review,The Independent’s Geoffrey McNab described the film as “a primal revenge drama that’s inventive, funny and very macabre” and wrote: “This isn’t a story that builds up into an orgy of violence and bloodletting. It starts in a frenzy, continues in a frenzy and ends in one too.”

In a statement, the director said of his new project: “Like Los Angeles itself Flesh of the Gods inhabits the liminal realm between fantasy and nightmare. Both propulsive and hypnotic, Flesh will take you on a hot rod joy ride deep into the glittering heart of hell.”

The screenplay was written by Andrew Kevin Walker, best known for David Fincher’s 1995 crime thriller Se7en.

Don’t Look Up director Adam McKay is among the film’s producers, and he added in a statement: “We think it’s wildly commercial and wildly artful. Our ambitions are to make a movie that ripples through popular culture, fashion, music, and film.”

Shooting is expected to begin later this year.

Stewart’s most recent film, Love Lies Bleeding, arrives in cinemas this week.

In a four-star review, The Independent’s chief film critic Clarisse Loughrey wrote: “The feeling that permeates it all is desperate frustration – specifically, a woman’s yearning for the kind of power that could finally even the odds.

“Stewart is brilliant here, in a way that adds Love Lies Bleeding to her own, expanding catalogue of desire on screen, from her wholesome romcom Happiest Season to the giddy perversions of David Cronenberg’s Crimes of the Future.”

Credit: Independent

Karim Aïnouz’s “Rosebushpruning,” his second English-language project, has lost two key actors: Kristen Stewart and Josh O’Connor. They’ve been replaced by Riley Keough and Callum Turner. Downgrade? Elle Fanning, Jamie Bell, Pamela Anderson and Tracy Letts remain on board in the cast.

The casting changes are believed to be caused with Stewart’s busy schedule as she’s currently immersed in post-production work on her long-gestating passion project “The Chronology of Water,” which will in all likelihood premiere at Sundance 2025.

Meanwhile, O’Connor is set to start shooting Kelly Reichardt’s “The Mastermind” in October and he’s rumored to always be involved in Steven Spielberg’s next film, “The Dish,” set to begin principal photography in February 2025.

The film has started filming in Spain. It’s obviously eyeing a Cannes 2025 selection, especially with Aïnouz having turned into a mainstay at the festival. He did lose some brownie points with the festival by premiering two consecutive competition duds: 2023’s “Firebrand” and 2024’s “Motel Destino.”

“Rosebushpruning,” an adaptation of Marco Bellochio’s classic “Fists in the Pocket,” was announced by The Match Factory and MUBI during Cannes 2022. Here is the official synopsis, via Production Weekly.

In the claustrophobic confines of a rural estate, a family struggles with their tangled web of hereditary diseases. Among them is Alessandro, a young man with epilepsy and paranoid tendencies. [..] Alessandro’s obsessive nature takes a dark turn when a series of dreadful accidents and murders is set into motion.

“Rosebushpruning” is set to be Aïnouz’s ninth feature, In 2019 he directed Un Certain Regard winner “The Invisible Life.” His other credits include “The Silver Cliff” and “Futuro Beach.”

Credit: World of Reel

After talking for years about her strong wish to direct a movie adaptation of Portland-based author Lidia Yuknavitch’s memoir, “The Chronology of Water,” a first image of actress Kristen Stewart on set of the movie has been published by Variety, and other entertainment news sites.

In the photo, Stewart, wearing headphones, is seen next to the film’s star, Imogen Poots. Known for her roles in such varied projects as “Twilight,” “Love Lies Bleeding,” “Spencer” and “Happiest Season,” Stewart makes her debut as a feature film director with “The Chronology of Water.” She also co-wrote the screenplay with Andy Mingo, who is married to Yuknavitch.

The cast includes Poots, Thora Birch, Earl Cave, Michael Epp, Susannah Flood, Kim Gordon and Jim Belushi, who has appeared in another project with an Oregon connection, “Growing Belushi,” a TV series about the actor’s southern Oregon cannabis business.

The official synopsis for “The Chronology of Water,” as Variety says, reflects that it’s a story “about turning trauma into art,” as it follows Yuknavitch “from her earliest childhood memories in the Pacific Northwest, through explosive misfires and mistakes, children that almost-were, toxic relationships, art heroes, wins and losses.”

The synopsis also says of the story that it “drifts in the water of Lidia’s memories on her journey to become a professional writer, repossessing her own story by writing one she can live with,” adding that “‘The Chronology of Water’ is an in-depth exploration of sexuality, of creativity, an unflinching stare at all the gory details of having a female body and a sensitive depiction of the emotional vocabulary of youth.”

The Variety article also notes that in a cover story for the publication in January, Stewart announced “that she would refuse to make another movie until ‘The Chronology of Water’ was finished.”

“The Chronology of Water” wrapped in July after filming for six weeks in Latvia and Malta, according to Variety. There’s no word yet on when it will open in theaters.

-Source: Oregon Live

Kristen Stewart just released the first official photo for her directorial debut, The Chronology of Water, and it has been the talk on social media from both avid fans and critics alike. It follows Imogen Poots playing the lead as author Lidia Yuknavitch in an adaption of her memoir screen.

This is an unusual career choice as this timeout, Stewart is stepping behind the camera by co-writing the screenplay with Andy Mingo. The film takes on some of the heaviest topics. But, it shows that even from the darkest times in life, beauty and art can still be produced.

Filming for Stewart’s feature film, which has been in the works since 2018, was completed this July. The shooting took place in Latvia and Malta, according to Variety.

The teaser suggests a raw, personal cinematic tone that seems to imply just how much Stewart is invested in this film. She referred to the memoir as “radical in a million ways” in an interview with Rolling Stone and showed she’s loyal to the original material.

Stewart plunges into the Chronology of Water, coming far away from the shorts she used to make, like Come Swim and Crickets. And evidently, shooting in Latvia and not presisiting with Hollywood does say a lot about creative freedom.

In an interview with Net-a-Porter, she explained:

“I needed a sort of radical detachment. I am not a director yet. I need to make a student film. I can’t do that here.”

That separation gave Stewart the leeway to create at real and believable world for Yuknavitch’s story. The film borders on Yuknavitch’s tough journey from a troubled childhood to her success as a writer, showing how she had changed her trauma into something beautiful.

The story is about Yuknavitch’s life in the Pacific Northwest, from the ups and downs of being a woman to the roller coaster of growing up. As Stewart mentioned to Rolling Stone, it took a while to secure funding for this project, because it tackled heavy themes: sexual abuse as a child. queer love, and addiction.

The cast for Stewart’s adaptation of the The Chronology of Water is an ensemble. It stars Imogen Poots a Lidia Yuknavitch. In supporting roles, you’ll see Thora Birtch, Earl Cave, Michael Epp, and Jim Belushi. Musician Kim Gordon makes an appearance, leading more to the films Vertie.

Stewart partnered with some international production companies to bring the film to life, such as Scott Free Productions and CG Cinema International, according to Variety. The memoir is an account of change, morphing painful experiences into creative output, with raw intensity.

Stewart emphasized how much The Chronology of Water means to her when she told Variety in January 2024:

“I won’t make another movie until I make this one.”

Les Films du Losange is releasing the film worldwide, while WME Independent will handle sales in North America. For what it’s worth, with buzz continuing to build, it looks like Stewar’ts debut will make a splace is the critical scene and pop culture.

-Sorce: soapcentral.com