This week's movie: BelowDirected by David Twohy
Written by Lucas Sussman, Darren Aronofsky and David Twohy
Starring Matthew Davis, Bruce Greenwood, Olivia Williams, Scott Foley
Below is a world war II submarine horror movie. That sounds like a recipe for disaster, but it actually works quite well. The pedigree of the makers are not bad: David Twohy also wrote the movie adaptation of The Fugitive and directed the decent horror sci-fi flick Pitch Black (and its spectacularly crappy sequel The Chronicles of Riddick). Co-writer Aronofsky is of course an indie movie favourite whose other movies include Pi and Requiem for a Dream. Leading man Bruce Greenwood is of course a personal acting favourite, having starred in several excellent, but tragically underappreciated, features.
Clearly someone involved in the movie pissed off someone at distributor Dimension, as the movie only got a severely limited theatrical release. The movie went on to make about two bucks in theaters. Which is a pity, because this movie deserved better.
The plot is relatively straight-forward: a US submarine rescues the crew of a sunken battleship. Strange events begin to unfold aboard the submarine. Unlike many horror movies these days, Below doesn't go for all out gore and sheer explicitness. In fact, there's really only one jump-out-of-your-seat moment in the entire movie. The rest of the movie is spent subtly building up a creepy, uneasy atmosphere, greatly enhanced by the claustrophobic setting of a submarine.
Overall a highly enjoyable and well made movie.
