In his famous story, “The Call of Cthulhu,” Lovecraft claimed, “Mankind was not absolutely alone among the conscious things of earth, for shapes come out of the dark to visit the faithful few.”
The film “Underwater” is based on H. P. Lovecraft’s story “The Call of Cthulhu,” which was first published in the Weird Tales in 1928. “Underwater” appears to be a cross between “Leviathan,” “Deep Star 6,” and “Abyss,” as well as a subaquatic “Alien” rip-off at a first impression. We were confident of anything unusual in the novel only when the plot went 11000 meters beneath the sea, into the murky depths of the Mariana Trench, and presented us face to face with a nasty Lovecraftian creature.
Brian Duffield wrote the screenplay and William Eubank directed the 2020 sci-fi action horror thriller. The film was shot in 2017, but due to Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox, the release was postponed. The video follows a deep-sea drilling operation that ends in calamity, with the thin wall separating them from the seawater pressure being crushed. The group was then attacked by hostile monsters, putting their lives in jeopardy.
Kristen Stewart plays Norah Price, the Kepler 822’s mechanical engineer; Vincent Cassel plays Captain Lucien; Jessica Henwick plays Emily Haversham, the biologist; and others star in the film. “Underwater” is a half-disaster, half-monster picture featuring incredibly effective in-the-moment performances that keep the audience on the edge of their seats. With a budget of $50 to $80 million, the film grossed $41 million worldwide. So, join us as we dive to a depth of 11000 meters and discover the universe of Kepler 822.
7 Miles Below the Ocean Surface Something Has Awakened – Underwater Released in 2020
The film commenced with the explanation of the underwater project of Tian Industries, intending to drill seven miles inside the Mariana Trench for acquiring resources. The slow, engaging camera movements introduced us to Kepler 22, just like Ridley Scott and Cameron introduced us to ‘Nostromo’ and ‘Sulaco’ in the alien series. We are then introduced to Norah and her thoughts, revealing that working at such depths for many months had taken a toll on her mental health. She remembered her late fiancée, who was an optimistic person, unlike her pessimistic nature. Norah had just completed brushing her teeth when water started to leak from the ceiling.
A massive earthquake hit the station as it began to crumble. Price tried to awaken everyone, but ultimately, she and another worker Rodrigo managed to escape and close the area to prevent further damage. They found another survivor, Paul, under the rubble. When the three of them reached the escape pod bay, to their horror, they discovered that all the escape pods had been deployed. They also found another survivor- Captain Lucien. Captain Lucien refused to leave the Kepler 22 partly due to the maritime tradition that the captain should not abandon his station. Secondly, he felt guilty as he was partly responsible for the situation. Before he was posted on the Kepler as a captain, he worked as an officer in the previous station ‘Shepard’, which faced the same catastrophic situation as Kepler 22.
The surviving crew managed to reach the control base and met biologist Emily Haversham and engineer Liam Smith, who were in relation. Due to internal explosions that destroyed the structural integrity of Kepler 22, the thermonuclear rig was also completely destroyed, with all forms of communication lost.
When they failed to contact the surface, Captain Lucien suggested that they should walk for a mile and reach the control base ‘Roebuck 641’ and try to get to the surface from there. As they put on their pressure suits and descended in the freight elevator, Rodrigo’s faulty helmet cracked due to pressure and killed him instantly. These airtight pressure suits weighed almost 100 lbs. The actors indeed had difficulty wearing the suits for a long time. The remaining crew noticed a distress signal from one of the escape pods.
As Smith and Paul investigated, they found a body in the rubble. Suddenly, a creature emerged and attacked them. When Smith killed the creature, the biologist examined it only to discover that it was an unknown species. While they debated whether the species was an adult or an infant, they heard loud thumps from outside confirming that the murdered species was indeed an infant.
As they continued their journey across the ocean floor, the Kepler exploded and almost buried them in debris, which hit Smith. Though Price and Lucien managed to save him, his oxygen source was severely damaged. They somehow managed to reach the deep bore access tunnel, but Paul was attacked by a creature and killed. The remaining crew realized that Smith would have to breathe toxic fumes from the explosion. So, Price, Lucien, and Haversham decided to help him walk across the ocean floor as the creatures surveyed them from a distance, ready to pounce on them to avenge the death of their infant.
Suddenly they were attacked by another creature that dragged Smith along with it. Lucien pulled Smith out of the creature’s clutches, but he fell into the creature’s grip as it started grabbing Lucien away from his crew. Price tried to save Lucien, but he finally sacrificed himself so that Price could escape from the change in pressure. Price reached the abandoned Sheppard Station and found that Lucien had also worked in the previous project and knew about the creatures and their involvement in the drilling operations.
Price then wore a new pressurized suit and continued walking towards the Roebuck Station. She reunited with Haversham, who was dragging Smith towards Roebuck Station. As they entered the station, they found it to be a den of creatures hanging from the ceiling, hibernating. The trio decided to sneak by without disturbing the monsters, but to their bad luck, Haversham’s pressure suit which was low on oxygen started beeping, and one of the creatures was awakened.
Price was swallowed to some extent, but she saved herself as she fired a flare gun inside the body of the creature and slaughtered it. When she fired the second flare, to her horror, she encountered the horrendous, mighty Cthulhu, the master of the aquatic world who had been hunting the crew all this while. But we will discuss Cthulhu in the next section. The three survivors reached the escape pods, but to her dismay, Price realized that only two escape pods were operative. Injured Smith was put in one pod while Price insisted that Haversham take the last escape pod.
In the meantime, the Cthulhu attacked the Roebuck station, and the smaller creatures followed the two escape pods of Smith and Haversham. To protect the world from the wrath of the Cthulhu, (who?) initiated the overload of Roebuck’s nuclear power, creating a massive thermal meltdown, killing Norah, Cthulhu, and the other aquatic monsters. The two escape pods with Smith and Haversham reached the surface safely. Tian industries, just as before, refused any co-operation with the investigation of the events and quoted that they would soon resume their drilling process right from where they left.
Starting from the direction, everything about the film like acting, set designs, the underwater costumes, cinematography, and musical score was perfect, generating the claustrophobic aquatic environment required for the film. Eubank was incredibly proud of the shot where Norah flipped through the water and landed on a large platform, which was a real shot. Apart from the CGI, there’s a lot of hard, physical work from the actors and the stunt team. Even though it’s not original, the movie continues with its nail-biting excitement and suspense throughout the running time.
In fact, the film’s running time should have been more as we hardly had any time to explore the characters even slightly. Even the legendary Lovecraftian monster was introduced towards the end. Here, Cthulhu was portrayed as a mere aquatic monster, an alpha creature to underwater spawns that are not named. But on the whole, the competent presentation of under the ocean pitch- darkness and the eerie, reflecting eyes of the monstrous creatures keep the audience engaged for 90 minutes.
Cthulhu Underwater Monster Explained
Let us first explore the fictional entity Cthulhu which was created by the fantasy horror legend, H.P. Lovecraft, published in Weird Tales magazine in 1928. Lovecraft had described the creature as ” a monster of vaguely anthropoid outline, but with an octopus-like head whose face was a mass of feelers, a scaly rubbery-looking body, prodigious claws on hind and forefeet and long narrow wings behind.”
It is said to be so monstrous and terrible in appearance that people who see it lose their sanity. According to Lovecraft, the Cthulhu was supposed to be the priest or leader of the Old Ones. The Old Ones were a species that had arrived on earth from the stars long before human beings existed on the planet. But the Old Ones were known to have become dormant while their city went beneath the Pacific Ocean.
They had been using telepathy to communicate with human beings, while Cthulhu was worshipped by uncivilized people in places hidden from the normal world. It was believed, Cthulhu would rise and rule the world when the right time came. Afterward, Lovecraft wrote other stories on the Cthulhu universe like “The nameless city” and “The Whisperer in the Darkness.” After his death, many authors like Robert Bloch, Stephen King, and others began to write stories in the Cthulhu mythos.
Unfortunately, in the film “Underwater,” Cthulhu has been represented as an enormous aquatic monstrous creature without any supernatural power, wisdom, or extra-terrestrial origin. No one became insane at the sight of Cthulhu, which is one of the unique features of this mighty leader of the Old Ones. At the beginning of the film, we see that an earthquake started the massive destruction of the Kepler 22 station.
At first, it was thought that the instability in the ocean crust had caused the tremors. But in reality, the earthquake was due to the waking up of Cthulhu from his hibernation, the rumbling noise and giant footsteps of which can be heard moments before the explosion if listened to very carefully. The prophecy of the awakening of Cthulhu was coming true in front of Norah’s eyes. In the story “The Call of the Cthulhu,” the mighty Cthulhu was accidentally released by a band of sailors stepping on a portal leading to his home.
“Underwater” alters the plot slightly, and it is understood that Norah and her crew had awakened and released the Cthulhu from his slumber by their deep-sea mining. In “The Call of the Cthulhu,” the sailor had lost most of his crew to the Cthulhu and finally managed to enter his ship inside the monster’s head, causing enough damage to the mighty aquatic lord. He managed to get away with his life. But despite the damage caused to Cthulhu, the mighty monster started to regenerate itself.
According to Lovecraft,” Cthulhu still lives, too, I suppose, again in that chasm of stone which has shielded him since the sun was young. His accursed city is sunken once more. He must have been trapped by the sinking whilst within his black abyss, or else the world would by now be screaming with fright and frenzy. Who knows the end? What has risen may sink, and what has sunk may rise.” So, if we follow the story, we may conclude that God is still alive, waiting patiently for the next group of miners to arrive and be devastated by his wrath.
Is There Going to be Underwater 2
As Tian Industries decided to not cooperate with the investigation and continue with the deep-sea mining for resources in the Mariana Trench, aren’t we right to guess that there might be a chance for a sequel, “Underwater 2”. The film has been appreciated mainly by horror fans than mainstream audiences.
Though nothing of a sequel has been heard so far, I guess the producers will decide after assessing the response of the audience from the home video release. If there is a sequel, there is likely another set of mining crew in the Mariana Trench proceeding with their work. Once again, the Cthulhu will be awakened and ready to wreak havoc. But I do hope that in the sequel, the authentic features of the Cthulhu are featured, and some quality time is provided to the monster because in “Underwater,” the creature neither looks nor behaves like the true Cthulhu elaborated by Lovecraft. Considering the complicated visual effects of “Underwater,” it probably cannot be released before 2024.
Let us cross our fingers and hope that the sequel would be a much closer adaptation to the Cthulhu mythos and doesn’t compel us to believe that any gigantic monstrous aquatic creature is Cthulhu, the Lord of Old Ones.