Gary K’s review published on Letterboxd:
Film 9/31 - Film from this year
I’m a sucker for a deep sea/space haunted house story. Abyss, Deep Star Six, Leviathan, Alien gimme some!!!
Kristen Stewart is a surprisingly effective lead here as the film skips any pretense of setup and within minutes jumps into the action with the deep sea drill complex beginning to be destroyed placing her and soon other characters on a impossible quest within the first reel.
From there the tension amps up as the film unfolds. Keeping the deep sea creatures hidden for long enough to deploy the less is more monster strategy to good effect. While the characters are two dimensional - at best - and it’s a bit jarring to see TJ Miller - they serve their purpose and the wooden acting isn’t too distracting.
Offering only the slightest expositional explanation of where the monsters are coming from was also a welcome choice. The final reveal of the Kaiju-esque big bad was incredibly effective as well. At times, despite streaming this in HDR 4K, the picture was muddy and it was tough to follow the action but it was still fun. The opening and closing montage of headlines showing the coverup, etc. doesn’t really amount to much and I can’t imagine it’s their to setup a sequel, but whatever I like a good conspiracy. Bonus points for pulling no punches with the ending.
