“Underwater” is a science fiction horror film directed by William Eubank, who also directed 2014’s “The Signal” and stars Kristen Stewart, Vincent Cassel, Jessica Henwick, John Gallagher Jr., Mamoudou Athie & T.J. Miller. This film was made & completed back in 2017 but unfortunately got lost in the shuffle after Disney made the purchase of 20th Century Fox. It was the last film released under the name Fox before Disney eventually changed the name from Fox to 20th Century Studios. The film was made by Chernin Entertainment who have producing other films since 2011 including the new “Planet of the Apes” trilogy, “Ford V. Ferrari”, “The Heat”, “Hidden Figures” & “The Greatest Showman”.

Tian Industries have been drilling in the Mariana Trench 7 miles underwater. After an earthquake severely damages the Kepler 822 Station, the small crew must band together to escape. A mechanical engineer, Nora (Stewart), the new kid, Rodrigo (Athie), crewman Paul (Miller), the intern, Emily (Henwick), the pilot, Liam (Gallagher Jr.) and Captain Lucien (Cassel) must walk across the ocean floor in complete darkness and with very few resources. With time & oxygen running out, the crew have one shot to escape. However, what they didn’t expect that the earthquake may have done more than just damage the drill station as a mysterious creatures begin attacking the crew. Not only was this an escape to safety but after these encounters, it becomes more about survival.

My initial reaction was almost immediately negative cause January is called the dumping ground of movies cause January is usually where the studios dump their movies they know won’t turn a profit or be torn to shreds by the critics. Movies like “Legion”, “Jupiter Ascending”, “Movie 43”, “The Green Hornet”, The Devil Inside” & “Texas Chainsaw 3D” among others are prime examples other the dump while they are those diamonds in the rough. “Whiplash”, “Ex-Machina”, “The Witch”, “Split” & “Taken” were great that came out in January. While “Underwater” has a bunch of cliches and call backs to other movies, it was very entertaining. Not as good as the mentioned “diamonds” but pretty entertaining for a January horror film. This film has call back to other similar horror films like “The Descent”, “Alien” & “Deep Blue Sea”. Even movies like “The Abyss” & “Pacific Rim” have small similarities.

Overall, the movie was entertaining. The plot and cast are very cliche to a horror thriller type film but in the end it worked out great for everyone. While similarities are there, they don’t come across as ripoffs but rather tributes. January is known as the dump for movies but some can actually enjoyable like this one here.