Underwater (2020)

What a year 2020 is shaping up to be for movies inspired by the works of the father of modern horror, HP Lovecraft.

First we had Richard Stanley's incredible Color Out Of Space, directly based on one of Lovecraft's stories, and now we have the undersea action-horror Underworld, which - although not based on any particular story - certainly has a very strong connection to his broad oeuvre of cosmic nightmares.

An unexpected earthquake disrupts the integrity of the world's deepest mining operation, almost seven miles below the Pacific Ocean, in the Mariana Trench, causing the structure to start collapsing.

The few surviving crew members - including Captain Lucien (Westworld's Vincent Cassel), engineer Norah (Kristen Stewart), Emily Haversham (Iron Fist's Jessica Henwick), Laim Smith (The Newsroom's John Gallagher Jr), and Paul Abel (Deadpool's T.J. Miller) - have to find a way to safety.

With the escape pods lost, the survivors realise the only way out is to go down to the sea bed and walk to the drill head, where there are additional escape pods.

Only, they soon discover that there is "something else" in the water, something from deep below the ocean floor, that has been disturbed by their drilling.

Released this week via the Sky Store, Underwater is a phenomenal action horror flick, with an all-star cast and a genuinely terrifying scenario.

Directed by William Eubank, who brought us 2014's brilliant The Signal, from a script by Adam Cozad and Brian Duffield, there's an old fashioned quality about the movie, in that it doesn't hang around before getting to the inciting incident.

In fact, it came so fast and without warning that at first I thought Norah was dreaming, but then I suddenly realised this was real, shit was going down.

I know Kristen Stewart can be a controversial figure in some quarters, but she is magnificent in Underwater, selling her role completely and making us really care about her fate.

If you only know her from the flaccid Twilight flicks, put your prejudices aside and enjoy her cracking lead performance here.

There's no avoiding the fact that Underwater presents its horror DNA loud and proud, with obvious nods to the Alien franchise (the control room some of the characters are first encountered in looks very Nostromo-esque), The Abyss (of course), and Pacific Rim, but also films like The Descent and even 1970s disaster movies.

However, what elevates it above all - and makes it my current contender for the "film of the year" - is the monstrous Lovecraftian aspects sown into the final third of the movie.

Nothing is stated outright - it would make no internal sense to do so - but if you're a fan of HP Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos you'll know what's going on.

There are few better set-ups to a Lovecraftian tale than man poking his nose where it doesn't belong.

And even if you're not a Cthulhu aficionado, it's still one hell of a monster movie.

I can imagine Underwater will be a somewhat acquired taste, though, as the intense horror is heightened by the fact that for extended periods of time we - the audience - can't tell what exactly is happening, echoing the state of confusion and disorientation of the characters.

We just have to surrender ourselves, and accept that William Eubank knows what he's doing and will get us where he needs us to be to grasp the full-extent of the story.

The director is superb at maintaining the internal reality, the verisimilitude, of the dreadful situation the underwater scientists find themselves in.

And this obfuscation and vaguery only accentuates the Lovecraftian influences on this tale, with the protagonists stumbling upon indescribable entities whose motivations are wholly alien to them.

In my books, Underwater definitely demands repeat viewings and should be regarded as an instant monster movie classic