Below

Reviewed by:
Tony McMenamin

As with every submarine movie ever made, there isn’t exactly much you can do with the plot when you are limited to one large floating piece of tin occupied by a handful of crazed crewmen. But if you add in a bit of “hoodoo” and a feisty broad, then you’ve got something akin to The Hunt for Red October meets Resident Evil.

Set in the Atlantic Ocean during WWII, Below tells the story of American sailors trying to get home aboard a submarine. En route, they pick up three survivors of a wreck, which coincides with a series of eerie happenings. As things on board start to go hauntingly awry, it emerges that the reason these strange incidents are occurring is that the captain drowned not long ago and it seems his soul is haunting the ship. Apparitions, disturbing noises, and spontaneous accidents all start to give everyone the willies. Is the lack of oxygen playing with their minds? Are the newcomers concocting something? Is it the unsettling presence of a female? Or is there something aboard the ship that cannot find its way out? Soon, the inner chambers of your mind simulate those of the dark recesses of the doomed submarine, and once the bends start setting in, there is no straight way out. Consistently scary, this is not just more submarine spiel; sit through the film’s entirety and you will gain a unique insight into how it feels to be oh so many leagues under the sea.

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