Rating: 1.5/5
I went in blind and was hoping for more existential horror — the facilities looked an awful lot like the space station in Solaris — the disaster hits, and the survival horror emerges
The story is reminiscent — perhaps too much so — of the video game Dead Space (at least according to my friend Kyle), except instead of drilling on an alien planet, they’re mining in the all too alien Mariana Trench
The movie leans on TJ Miller for comedic relief way too often — once every 2-3 lines — and so his death (spoiler alert, this is a horror movie) is a relief. However, left to only focus on the film itself, it becomes clear just how out of focus the whole thing is
The movie gives us the survival mission in the first act — get to the [maguffin] — and draws out the path on a map. But once on the trip, the action is so disoriented, so sloppy, that all the tension is lost as we ask, “Wait, what just happened? How did this person die? Where are they now? Who is that?”
We get an “oh my god” reveal, and I cannot tell what it is. The filmmakers have zero confidence in their special effects
everyone mumbles too much — I had the movie deafeningly loud to try and make out the dialogue — this is in scenes with no action, those lulls between the action
Kristin Stewart commits to the role, and it’s the movie’s one saving grace. Without her performance, there’s no movie
stray thoughts
- The beat with the spider at the beginning is meaningless
- the title card is not subtle about the Alien nod
- “the buddy system works — working alone is against company policy.”