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