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…
It’s a show don’t tell type of world building, yes. Not strictly what you want to watch when you’re overly tired, otherwise you’ll miss everything.