Underwater (2020)

 

**This post contains spoilers**

The Story- Norah (Kristen Stewart), a mechanical engineer at an underwater research and drilling facility, rushes to safety after a sudden disturbance causes severe damage, killing a number of her fellow crewmates. Led by Captain Lucien (Vincent Cassel), Norah, Rodrigo (Mamoudou Athie), Liam (John Gallagher Jr.), Emily (Jessica Henwick), and Paul (T.J. Miller) all struggle to survive with a limited number of escape pods and resources. Captain Lucien’s solution? Walk across the seafloor of the Mariana Trench to the Roebuck Station using special hi-tech suits.

The risky mission takes a bizarre turn, when the crew realizes they’re being hunted and picked off by deadly creatures. Pushing forward is the only option, as the crew carefully travels to Roebuck, and Norah is forced to make a difficult decision. 

My Thoughts- Kristen Stewart’s performance as Norah truly encapsulates how you would expect someone to react to an unprecedented situation, especially a situation that involves vicious monsters. The anxiety, torn emotions for making tough choices, and the emotional weight of realizing you might die, without a funeral or a proper burial. Norah is compassionate, selfless, and scrappy, the unlikely heroic character, who has to push through one brutal loss after another, when she realizes she can’t save everyone. 

Vincent Cassel delivers a solid performance as Captain Lucien. Lucien, the leader, who strongly prioritizes the safety of his crew over everything, including his own well-being, while constantly trying to reassure the crew that everyone will make it out alive. 

The rest of the crew? It’s a familiar set of characters you’ll notice from other similar horror films. T.J. Miller’s Paul is the jokester and the comic relief character, who’s obsessed with Alice In Wonderland (he also carries around a stuffed rabbit). Emily freaks out and panics at the first signs of danger. John Gallagher Jr. has a healthy sense of humor as Liam, just a step below Paul for laughs, as the guy, who lightens the mood after, or during the more serious moments throughout the movie.

Rodrigo, Lucien, and Paul are all dead. So what’s next? Cthulhu appears! Things go from bad to worse, when Norah spots Cthulhu at the Roebuck Station. Great execution, good timing, and a nice surprise for the Cthulhu reveal. The shot with Norah shooting the flare gun, leading to the flash that reveals Cthulhu’s monstrous figure really works as an awe-inspiring visual.

Norah sacrificing herself to save Emily and Liam? Not too shocking, because as soon as Norah noticed the damaged escape pod, you knew what was coming. Still, it’s a strong ending, and a thrilling emotional roller coaster. Emily pleading with Norah to reconsider her choice, the pods containing Liam and Emily racing to the top, while they’re chased by Cthulhu, and the other creatures, and that massive explosion. Norah, after Lucien’s death, filled the role of the leader, who had to make gut-wrenching decisions. 

I did get a kick of Kristen Stewart’s defiant and calm demeanor before she destroyed the Roebuck Station. Norah’s final words about being lost in the darkness, including the final “let’s light this s*** up” zinger right before the explosion engulfs Cthulhu and the creatures? That’s how you stick the landing for a fantastic ending!

Underwater is a strange case for me. The movie is set 2050, creepy and menacing creatures, and the BIG reveal towards the end for a legendary creature is a good jaw-dropper. But there’s just something missing in Underwater. Considering the material they had to work with, there’s a noticeable lack of oomph, or consistent sparks here. 

One problem for me is they relied on one too many jump scares. That, and outside of Norah and Lucien, the rest of the crew features too many thin characters. Also, I was hoping they would’ve explored the obvious coverup from the company, and the moral dilemma about drilling in the ocean, something Emily touched on earlier in the movie. 

But Underwater is still a solid and entertaining sci-fi horror film. Underwater quickly bursts out of the gate, because the chaos starts within the first ten minutes. There’s a good balance of running from and fighting off the creature’s attacks, and the crew sharing heart-to heart moments with each other, or joking around, allowing the story to breathe, when it needs to at certain points. 

Norah and Lucien’s relationship is one of the bigger highlights in the movie, with Lucien relying on, trusting, and pushing Norah to believe in herself. A strong sense of claustrophobia in tight spaces, some decent laughs, a good amount of genuinely tense scenes with the creatures, the attacks, and the main characters waiting for the right moment to make a move, fight back, or escape. The methods used for the deaths and the kills are kind of repetitive, but there’s still a lot of brutality for a PG-13 horror film, toeing the line for the necessary squirmy reactions, without needing graphic levels of gore and gruesome kills. 

And I can’t say enough about how much I loved the ending. Predictable with how everything played out? Yes, but the last stand still packs a strong enough punch to get the job done.

Rating- 7/10

Underwater (2020)(Minor Spoilers)

 **This post contains MINOR spoilers**

The Story- Norah (Kristen Stewart), a mechanical engineer at an underwater research and drilling facility, rushes to safety after a sudden disturbance causes severe damage, killing a number of her fellow crewmates. Led by Captain Lucien (Vincent Cassel), Norah, Rodrigo (Mamoudou Athie), Liam (John Gallagher Jr.), Emily (Jessica Henwick), and Paul (T.J. Miller) all struggle to survive with a limited number of escape pods and resources. Captain Lucien’s solution? Walk across the seafloor of the Mariana Trench to the Roebuck Station using special hi-tech suits.

The risky mission takes a bizarre turn, when the crew realizes they’re being hunted and picked off by deadly creatures. Pushing forward is the only option, as the crew carefully travels to Roebuck, and Norah is forced to make a difficult decision. 

My Thoughts- Kristen Stewart’s performance as Norah truly encapsulates how you would expect someone to react to an unprecedented situation, especially a situation that involves vicious monsters. The anxiety, torn emotions for making tough choices, and the emotional weight of realizing you might die, without a funeral or a proper burial. Norah is compassionate, selfless, and scrappy, the unlikely heroic character, who has to push through one brutal loss after another, when she realizes she can’t save everyone. 

Vincent Cassel delivers a solid performance as Captain Lucien. Lucien, the leader, who strongly prioritizes the safety of his crew over everything, including his own well-being, while constantly trying to reassure the crew that everyone will make it out alive. 

The rest of the crew? It’s a familiar set of characters you’ll notice from other similar horror films. T.J. Miller’s Paul is the jokester and the comic relief character, who’s obsessed with Alice In Wonderland (he also carries around a stuffed rabbit). Emily freaks out and panics at the first signs of danger. John Gallagher Jr. has a healthy sense of humor as Liam, just a step below Paul for laughs, as the guy, who lightens the mood after, or during the more serious moments throughout the movie.

Underwater is a strange case for me. The movie is set 2050, creepy and menacing creatures, and the BIG reveal towards the end for a legendary creature is a good jaw-dropper. But there’s just something missing in Underwater. Considering the material they had to work with, there’s a noticeable lack of oomph, or consistent sparks here. 

One problem for me is they relied on one too many jump scares. That, and outside of Norah and Lucien, the rest of the crew features too many thin characters. Also, I was hoping they would’ve explored the obvious coverup from the company, and the moral dilemma about drilling in the ocean, something Emily touched on earlier in the movie. 

But Underwater is still a solid and entertaining sci-fi horror film. Underwater quickly bursts out of the gate, because the chaos starts within the first ten minutes. There’s a good balance of running from and fighting off the creature’s attacks, and the crew sharing heart-to heart moments with each other, or joking around, allowing the story to breathe, when it needs to at certain points. 

Norah and Lucien’s relationship is one of the bigger highlights in the movie, with Lucien relying on, trusting, and pushing Norah to believe in herself. A strong sense of claustrophobia in tight spaces, some decent laughs, a good amount of genuinely tense scenes with the creatures, the attacks, and the main characters waiting for the right moment to make a move, fight back, or escape. The methods used for the deaths and the kills are kind of repetitive, but there’s still a lot of brutality for a PG-13 horror film, toeing the line for the necessary squirmy reactions, without needing graphic levels of gore and gruesome kills. 

And I can’t say enough about how much I loved the ending. Predictable with how everything played out? Yes, but the last stand still packs a strong enough punch to get the job done. 

Rating- 7/10

I.S.S. (2024)(Minor Spoilers Review)

 **This post contains MINOR spoilers**

The Story- Dr. Kira Foster (Ariana DeBose) arrives at the International Space Station, joining Commander Gordon Barrett (Chris Messina) and Christian Campbell (John Gallagher Jr.) to complete the team of NASA astronauts. Kira, Gordon, and Christian share the ISS with cosmonauts Alexey Pulov (Pilou Asbaek), Nicholai Pulov (Costa Ronin), and Weronika Vetrov (Masha Mashkova), while conducting experiments and trying to maintain a peaceful relationship.

But the harmony between both crews is disrupted, when a series of big explosions spreads throughout the United States. Russia uses nuclear weapons to attack the US, and Gordon receives an order to take control of the ISS by any means necessary. Assuming the cosmonauts received identical orders, Gordon, Christian, and Kira have tough decisions to make about how to handle their unprecedented dilemma.

My Thoughts- All of the performances in I.S.S. follow a similar pattern. Everyone is on edge, extremely stressed, and paranoid about trusting each other. It’s understandable, because there’s a strong possibility the crew just witnessed the beginning of WW III, and the decisions they’re forced to make could have a direct impact on the future of the world.

The performances are solid all around, with Ariana DeBose and Pilou Asbaek emerging as the two stars in the cast. Everything seems fine at first. Sure, there’s some tension between Gordon and Alexey, when Gordon makes a bad joke. But you get the feeling the cosmonauts and the astronauts are a happy family that learned to accept each other and their differences over time.

The entire cast did a fantastic job with intense and emotional performances and great facial expressions. It’s also worth pointing out that the astronauts and cosmonauts are not too thrilled about the possibility of having to murder each other. Alexey and Nicholai’s reactions to setting a trap for Gordon is a good example of the conflict they’re facing. No one on the ISS is a gleeful bloodthirsty killer. On both sides, their actions are motivated by loyalty to their respective countries, the bonds they have with each other, and of course the fear of certain death.

I.S.S. works as a claustrophobic and tense sci-fi thriller, fueled by the paranoia of being stranded in outer space, and not being able to fully trust the people around you. The only big problem for me is the ending. It’s flat, disappointing, and the ending just sucks the life right out of the movie. It’s the kind of ending, where I genuinely don’t understand why they would choose to go that route, if they didn’t firmly plan on making a sequel.

Rating-5/10

I.S.S. (2024)(Spoiler Review)

 **This post contains spoilers**

The Story- Dr. Kira Foster (Ariana DeBose) arrives at the International Space Station, joining Commander Gordon Barrett (Chris Messina) and Christian Campbell (John Gallagher Jr.) to complete the team of NASA astronauts. Kira, Gordon, and Christian share the ISS with cosmonauts Alexey Pulov (Pilou Asbaek), Nicholai Pulov (Costa Ronin), and Weronika Vetrov (Masha Mashkova), while conducting experiments and trying to maintain a peaceful relationship.

But the harmony between both crews is disrupted, when a series of big explosions spreads throughout the United States. Russia uses nuclear weapons to attack the US, and Gordon receives an order to take control of the ISS by any means necessary. Assuming the cosmonauts received identical orders, Gordon, Christian, and Kira have tough decisions to make about how to handle their unprecedented dilemma.

My Thoughts- All of the performances in I.S.S. follow a similar pattern. Everyone is on edge, extremely stressed, and paranoid about trusting each other. It’s understandable, because there’s a strong possibility the crew just witnessed the beginning of WW III, and the decisions they’re forced to make could have a direct impact on the future of the world.

The performances are solid all around, with Ariana DeBose and Pilou Asbaek emerging as the two stars in the cast. Everything seems fine at first. Sure, there’s some tension between Gordon and Alexey, when Gordon makes a bad joke. But you get the feeling the cosmonauts and the astronauts are a happy family that learned to accept each other and their differences over time.

The entire cast did a fantastic job with intense and emotional performances and great facial expressions. It’s also worth pointing out that the astronauts and cosmonauts are not too thrilled about the possibility of having to murder each other. Alexey and Nicholai’s reactions to setting a trap for Gordon is a good example of the conflict they’re facing. No one on the ISS is a gleeful bloodthirsty killer. On both sides, their actions are motivated by loyalty to their respective countries, the bonds they have with each other, and of course the fear of certain death.

Kira making it out alive as one of the survivors wasn’t a big shock. You can see it coming, because she’s the newbie with a good moral compass. Alexey joining her as a survivor was a bit of a surprise, but it’s not a complete shock. Alexey’s mindset changed after the attempt to get rid of Gordon, and his reaction to Nicholai making the decision to hunt down and kill Kira and Christian. Christian secretly planning to return to earth alone, while leaving Kira and Alexey stranded on the ISS? If you pay close attention, you can see Christian unraveling as the story develops. So the strong possibility for Christian taking the opportunity to look out for himself at some point was always there.

The ending? Oh, it’s something else. Weronika is dead after Christian killed her. Nicholai and Gordon killed each other in a fight, because Gordon miraculously returned and snapped after he learned about Weronika’s (Weronika and Gordon were in a relationship) death. Kira and Alexey teamed up to kill Christian, and they managed to escape the falling ISS together. The important tidbit for the finale is, Alexey and Kira are taking Alexey’s research for radiation poisoning back to earth, the same research Christian tried to steal. On top of that, it’s possible Alexey might’ve found the cure to radiation poisoning.

Alexey wants to know what’s next and where will they go after everything they’ve been through. Kira’s response? “I don’t know,” and the credits start to roll. Huh? A nuclear attack happened, and both sides failed to take control of the ISS. Alexey’s research is a golden ticket that could also be used as leverage against their governments, if  the US or Russia wants to respond with harsh punishments for the two survivors. And who knows what kind of planet they’re returning to? The nuclear devastation could’ve destroyed most of what they remember, turning earth into a post apocalyptic wasteland.

But this ending just didn’t work for me. Alexey or Kira could’ve dropped a hint or two about what they were planning, when they got back to earth. I can understand both characters just survived a traumatic ordeal. They need time to process everything, but they could’ve at least went with something more concrete over “I don’t know.” 

I.S.S. works as a claustrophobic and tense sci-fi thriller, fueled by the paranoia of being stranded in outer space, and not being able to fully trust the people around you. The only big problem for me is the ending. It’s flat, disappointing, and the ending just sucks the life right out of the movie. It’s the kind of ending, where I genuinely don’t understand why they would choose to go that route, if they didn’t firmly plan on making a sequel.

Rating-5/10

 

The Belko Experiment (2016)

 

**This post contains spoilers**

The Story- In Bogota, Colombia, the employees of Belko Industries normal work day is interrupted, when a mysterious voice over the intercom instructs them to play a game. The game? Two employees must be murdered within a strict time limit, or they will face severe consequences. 

Mike Milch (John Gallagher Jr.) immediately jumps to the worst possible conclusions, while the COO Barry Norris (Tony Goldwyn) dismisses the threat as a prank. But it’s quickly revealed the unknown voice was not joking around, when four employees are murdered.

Mike, his girlfriend, Leandra Florez (Adria Arjona), the Human Resources manager, Vince (Brent Sexton), the security guard, Evan (James Earl), and others join together to find a more peaceful resolution. But Barry, Wendell Dukes (John C. McGinley), Antonio ( Benjamin Byron Davis), and Terry Winters (Owian Yeoman) decide to take a more aggressive approach. 

My Thoughts- The Belko Experiment features a real solid cast from top to bottom. Gallagher Jr. does a terrific job of portraying the compassionate and levelheaded Mike Milch. Milch doesn’t even want to consider murder as an option, and he’s horrified at the thought of his fellow coworkers feeling the need to go down that road. Gallagher Jr. also shows believable emotion and panic, when Mike starts to realize the experiment won’t end with a peaceful resolution.

Tony Goldwyn absolutely nails Barry Norris. Norris is ruthless, when he decides there’s no choice to do what has to be done. Goldwyn is intense as Norris. The anger and frustration Goldwyn brings to Norris really ties everything together, and Norris becomes more serious and relentless as the game winds down.

John C. McGinley delivers a near show stealing performance as Wendell. Wendell Dukes is a violent lunatic, and he’s Barry’s trusted right hand man. But McGinley also brings an awkward goofiness to the character. Wendell’s whacky side is really not meant to bring out laughs. You’ll mostly see this side of Wendell in the scenes he has with Leandra, because Wendell is so delusional and aggressively creepy that he can’t comprehend the fact that Leandra has absolutely no interest in him for romantic reasons.

Sean Gunn and Abraham Benrubi provide a lot of the comic relief here. Gunn is this quirky stoner, with wild conspiracy theories, and Benrubi basically plays the part of his loyal sidekick. They’re a hilarious duo, and they both deliver some of the best comedic moments throughout the movie.

A lot of the kills and deaths in this one are brutal, but I honestly don’t think anything tops the explosives planted in the heads of all Belko employees. Early on in the movie, Belko employees are lead to believe the bombs in their skulls were tracers. A safety precaution for possible kidnappings, but they’re actually tiny bombs that explode with a simple flick of a switch from The Voice (Gregg Henry). The deaths from the explosives are instant. No time for goodbyes or any last words, just an abrupt and random ending with no chance to brace yourself. That is truly terrifying, when you stop and think about it.

Things get serious, when the Belko employees basically split into two groups. Barry leads Wendell and others, while Mike is still searching for a peaceful solution. The split raises a lot of thought provoking questions and issues. True, Barry, Wendell, and Antonio are ruthless with their methods. There’s the big execution scene in the lobby, where Barry has plans to kill thirty people to avoid The Voice killing sixty as a penalty. Also, Barry and Wendell were military guys. “Special forces trained to kill” to be exact, so that’s a big advantage over everyone else.

If you’re just focusing on Barry, you can see the conflict in him, while he’s carrying out the executions. Samantha (Luna Baxter) tells him he’s going to “rot in hell” for the killings, but is Barry really a bad person? He’s a man with a family, who’s stuck in an impossible situation, locked inside a building with no way out. Sure, he probably likes his employees, and he doesn’t want to murder anyone, but he’s also not willing to die or sacrifice himself for the people he works with. That is a reasonable mindset to have, and Goldwyn does a great job of showing Barry’s internal struggle, because you can clearly see it’s tearing him apart to do the killings in the execution scene.

Terry is another good example of seeing how the tough decision to kill his fellow coworkers affects the cast of characters. You get the feeling Terry reluctantly joined Barry’s group. He’s a jittery and blubbering mess, when things get serious, and he’s put into a position where he might have to kill Mike, who’s also his best friend. Still, similar to Barry, you can understand Terry’s need to do what needs to be done, because he simply doesn’t want to die and leave his family behind. 

Wendell and Antonio are really the only two characters who enjoy the large amounts of blood shed. Wendell is just completely nuts, and Antonio had a brig grin on his face, when Barry was handing out the guns from the armory.

On the other side, sure you can say Mike is being a naive fool about all this. Mike was literally willing to take a bullet to hang the SOS banners as a last resort to avoid killing. But Leandra makes a great point, when she sternly tells Mike people are out for themselves, especially when their lives are on the line. You can try and cling to morality and doing the right thing all you want, but when people are scared for their lives, their primal survival instincts will kick in. Just look at what happened with Vince. He really tried to stay on the peaceful side, but when Vince realized the situation was nearing the point of no return, he picked up a gun and was hurling Molotov cocktails, because his life depended on it. 

The gore and violence is something else here. The scene where Leandra hacks into Wendell’s face with an axe, and the close up shot of Barry examining the back of a Belko employee’s head that’s been blown wide open are just a few highlights. The gore ties in with the desperation of almost everyone at Belko being forced to do horrible things, so it really works. 

The final fight coming down to Barry and Mike wasn’t a huge surprise. You could tell the story was going in that direction, the big final showdown between the leader of peace vs the leader of violence. It took Barry killing Leandra to make Mike finally snap, gain the upper hand in the fight, and viciously beat Barry to death. Leandra bleeding out and telling Mike she loves him for her final words takes the top spot for emotional moments. It’s really the only scene here, where someone had the chance to say goodbye, and it’s easy to see why Mike lost it. 

There’s a surprise, when Mike finally meets The Voice at the end. Mike is the sole survivor and he’s declared the winner, but he delivers the final blow, when he secretly stashes a handful of bombs on The Voice and his armed henchmen. Mike detonates the explosives and kills The Voice and the rest of his research team.

There’s a lot of questions packed into the finale with an intriguing cliffhanger. It’s revealed that other Belko games are being played, and Mike is just one of many sole survivors. The Voice told Mike about his team and their research and why these kinds of experiments need to be conducted with no restrictions or outside interference. Was the local government actually involved? Is it possible The Voice played the same game in the past, and he made it out alive as the sole survivor? The Voice has some noticeable scarring on one side of his face, so it is a possibility to consider. 

Can we really believe The Voice legitimately selected random Belko employees to kill? If The Voice’s choices to set off the bombs were truly random, then why didn’t Mike, Leandra, Wendell, or Barry die early in the movie? I simply think about it this way, The Voice kind of looked at the things like a twisted reality show. He wanted to keep all the compelling characters and storylines alive for as long as possible, while eliminating the more ordinary or boring people.

With the cliffhanger, it’s announced stage two of the game is about to begin for all the survivors. For a long time I wanted a sequel to The Belko Experiment for more answers, and to see how this cliffhanger would play out. But now I go in the direction of just leaving things alone. I don’t think a sequel is necessary. The Belko Experiment’s many questions make you think, and that’s a good thing. Just enough was revealed here, this was a good film, and I do believe it’s better to protect that mystery behind Belko, and who’s behind the curtain and why. 

The Belko Experiment also features a few entertaining side storylines. The newbie Dany (Melonie Diaz) is resourceful and well, she has a lot of luck throughout the movie. She escapes one close call after another, and you start to think maybe there’s a chance she’ll escape as the winner or the final girl. But after taking so many careful precautions, she lets her guard down coming out of the elevator, giving Barry an easy chance to shoot and kill her.

You also have the story of the two maintenance guys. Bud (Michael Rooker) plays the role of a big brother for Lonny (David Dastamalchian), but things go south, when an already panicky and paranoid Lonny accidentally kills Bud. That visual of Bud’s head with a big indentation from the wrench sure is a nasty one.

The subject matter in The Belko Experiment is heavy, but the movie never takes itself too seriously. The chaos constantly escalates, but there’s a good balance of dark humor and brutal violence here. The execution scene in the lobby features a Spanish version of California Dreamin.’ It’s impossible not to see the irony of such a happy go lucky song being played, while innocent people are being murdered. 

There’s also a hilarious moment with Roberto’s (David Del Rio) reaction to finding out the sweet and likable Dany actually killed someone. And when Mike is bashing Barry’s head in with a tape dispenser, there’s an over the top and triumphant score playing in the background. The score sounds like something you’d hear in a comedy film, when one of the goofy main characters has a victorious moment, or it would fit with someone running a victory lap.

The Belko Experiment is truly an entertaining and energetic horror film, that makes you really think about the character’s thought processes and motivations. Director Greg McLean brings brutal violence and bloody gore to this one. The scene where Barry breaks Lorena’s (Cindy Better) neck is definitely capable of making you squirm. The pacing is good here, because The Belko Experiment never drags or feels dull. When The Voice makes his announcement and the carnage starts, it’s an unrelenting push to the big finish, and it’s one shocking moment after another to see how far the employees of Belko are willing to go to stay alive.

Rating- 8/10