Below (2002)

Did you people see the same film I saw?

A Masterpiece!

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Thrilling film about mysterious events happen into a submarine and carried out by a supernatural force ; being compellingly directed by nice filmmaker David Twohy . This fantastic movie packs thrills , chills , violence , horror , suspense with creepy and ghastly underwater scenarios . As six hundred feet beneath the surface terror runs deep . The submarine U.S.S. Tiger Shark commanded by officer Brice (Bruce Greenwood) along with crew (Dexter Fletcher ,Nick Chinlund , Scott Foley , Jason Flemyng ,Christopher Fairbank , Sebastian Knapp..) prowls on what should be a routine rescue mission , as they save a little group from a shipwreck , among them appears a woman (Olivia Williams) . But then strange happenings occur on the WW II submarine , as crew suffer runaway fear , astonishing deeds , sensory delusions and scary happenings . As a song was supposed to be mysteriously playing on the record player (the song results to be 'Benny Goodman''s "Sing Sing Sing , With a Swing") and a vengeful ghost haunting the crew . There shows up an evil that lurks just below the surface of the ocean and deep inside the human psyche causing panic , mental deceptions and terror . This is a terror/thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat , though some moments turns out to be confusing and slow-moving . Exciting film packs intrigue , intense scenes , grisly killings and amazing suspense . This is a creepy flick in which ¨U-571¨ meets ¨Poltergeist¨. The star-studded cast is well headed by Bruce Greenwood , Olivia Williams , Matthew Davis and excellent plethora of secondaries as Holt McCallany , Dexter Fletcher , Nick Chinlund , Andrew Howard and Scott Foley . Some filming for this movie took place on an actual WW2 submarine . The USS Silversides -which is available for tours- located in Muskegon Michigan was towed out into the middle of Lake Michigan where scenes with Bruce Greenwood were filmed . The rest of the sets and models used in this movie were all based on the look and layout of the Silversides . Appropriate and suspenseful musical score by Graeme Revell . Atmospheric and colorful cinematography by Ian Wilson . The motion picture was well written and directed by David Twohy , though Darren Aronofsky, who co-wrote the screenplay, was originally going to direct the film in 1999 but instead made Requiem for a dream (2000). David is an expert writer and director of splendid Sci-Fi movies . As his first picture was the acceptable ¨Timescape¨ and subsequently made ¨The arrival¨ with Charlie Sheen . He also wrote ¨Warlock¨, ¨Waterworld ¨, a script for ¨Alien 3¨ in 1988, but it was rejected . Back in May of 2000, Fox Studios once inquired for his availability to write and direct "AVP: Alien vs. Predator" , but turned down the offer due to scheduling conflicts . David subsequently directed this ¨Below¨, the successful ¨Pich Black¨ as well as its sequels ¨ The chronicles of Riddick¨ and his last movie ¨Riddick¨(2013) .

So, should you give up a couple of hours and watch this film. If you're one of those people that are happy to chat with everyone around you while watching films or laugh at parts that are meant to be touching or scary, then no. (Okay, don't get me started on that.) If not, you'll enjoy this film, you'll enjoy the acting and you'll enjoy the atmosphere and the tension. I think the 6.? score is to be honest down to people who'd rather watch a documentary on WW II. Yes the submarine seems a bit roomy at times but that doesn't spoil the drama for me. As for the plot, without giving anything away, the sin at the heart of the story grows larger and darker. I won't say any more, just that you'll see some good actors here that have popped up and become more famous 10 years after this film.

I was handed a copy of this by a mate and told "Just watch it.", so I did. I knew nothing about this film prior to watching it aside from the title on a nondescript DVD surface.The plot is handed to us swiftly, within a few minutes you get the set up, a WWII plane spots signs of life in the water and as they are low on fuel radios a submarine, the USS Tiger Shark to investigate,Now that I know it is a Submarine flick (Duh, "Below") I immediately wonder how long it will take to hear "Dive! Dive". The Submarine picks up 3 survivors hastily with an enemy ship bearing down on them, the rescuees are apparently British from a hospital ship, 2 patients and a female nurse. Cut to a fairly clumsy scene where that fact is spread throughout the boat Chinese Whispers style, only with each new guy a different euphemism "a woman", "a female", "a skirt", "a bleeder", and more I can't remember. Yes sailors can be an informal bunch with colourful colloquialisms, no need to belabour the point.Curiously enough, the rest of the movie only has sporadic use of profanity. I know it's a movie but realism is realism. By this point it is clear that we have already met most of the cast, the woman is familiar, I recognize a couple others from "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" and others appear vaguely familiar from random films. (I finally realized that the lead actress played Bruce Willis' wife in "The Sixth Sense".)Within hours it comes to light that the enemy ship is still searching for the sub, leading to a scene in which a tense "All Silence" order is broken by the inexplicable blaring of a record playing loudly despite no-one turning it on. The ship drops depth charges on the submarine, leading to a formal order to "Shake the set and fall over a lot".The crew initially blame the female Nurse Page for their uncovering, and restrict her to quarters, leading to her randomly walking through the ship for the first hour, don't they have a brig or a room that can be locked?It turns out that the real Captain of the boat is no longer aboard, having died earlier in the voyage, all the other officers all seem to want to take charge, and so inevitably that leads to jealousy and one-upmanship between them.From here on in I guess without spoilers you could say with some accuracy that we are dealing with a spooky suspenseful tale, with thankfully not too many cheap scares, although at various times you are left wondering what is real and what is imagined or a vision. As with all "ghosty" type movies there is a lot of stuff appearing from darkness, things open and shut of their own volition and people turn slowly to see things they don't wanna see or glimpse things that they shouldn't see. There are definite parallels between this and "Event Horizon", they are in a confined space with no-means of rescue, haunted by an unknown something, and should you leave the ship you can't breathe.I did get tired of the lights turning off at inopportune moments, which happened at least 3 or 4 times, (once maybe but come on), also too perhaps too many "hand reaching out to pull back a curtain" bits. There is a mirror scare that I can't decide was really good or cheesy, regardless it was the one bit that gave me chills.The finale is held on the prow (?) of the boat, obviously now afloat and in the middle of a storm. Perhaps not the ideal spot for a tiff, but the claustrophobic interiors of the boat were becoming a little stale and the change of location was beneficial.The justification for the events when it comes to light is plausible and is actually enhanced by tidbits of information brought to light earlier in the film, but I would query if a logical explanation was really needed when a simple "spooky shtuff happens" might suffice.All I can say is that initially I thought this would be a tale about beasties, a giant squid or similar, or even a fantasy creature. I don't get a major hard-on for spookfests but this one was well handled and a pleasant surprise. For everyone who says "like that could happen" I might point out it's a ghost story, not a WWII drama.When the credits rolled I recognized the director as the same guy who made "Pitch Black", another low key yet quality film, and the co-writer made "Pi" and "Requiem for a Dream", both interesting films. Final Rating – 7.5 / 10. There are a million crappy ghost stories, here is a pretty good one.If you liked this (or even if you didn't) try oneguyrambling.com

Below is directed by David Twohy and C0-written by Lucas Sussman, Twohy and Darren Aronofsky. It stars Bruce Greenwood, Olivia Williams, Matthew Davis, Holt McCallany, Scott Foley, Zach Galifianakis, Jason Flemyng, Nick Chinlund & Dexter Fletcher.1943 and The USS Tiger Shark submarine is patrolling the Atlantic Ocean. After taking on board three survivors of a wreckage and a battle with a German warship, mysterious things start to happen on board the sub....It wouldn't be the first or last time that they did it, but Dimension Films failed to support a rather good horror film in their care. Coming a few months after Harrison Ford submarine thriller K-19: The Widowmaker sank without grace, Below was barely given a release or publicity junket to give it a chance. Which considering that $40 million was given to produce it comes off as mighty strange. More so when one looks at the credentials on offer. A cast featuring fine character actors from Britain & America, directed by the man who was hot from the popular Pitch Black and a certain Darren Aronofsky involved in the writing. OK, so admittedly a haunted submarine premise on the surface doesn't sound too demanding on the cerebral front, but this is much more than an underwater spooker.Below gets all the key ingredients right for such a genre production. It's intensively tight in claustrophobic atmosphere, creepy in narrative, adroit with the kill dispatches and crucially pays off with the big reveal. It also has some great underwater sequences to sample as the cast do justice to the smart script. True it's a little derivative of similar themed film's like The Keep, The Bunker et all, but what it lacks in freshness it more than makes up for in slick story telling. Also of note is that Twohy and his co-writers are aware enough to know that their story has to be a bit more than just another Rod Serlingesque tale. At the hour mark the characters even bring this into play with a wonderful discussion that richly subverts our expectations of where we are going with this movie.With its metallic blue tints (Ian Wilson on cinematography) aiding the feel of submarine life, we the audience are thrust into the confines of sub life as well. This really is a film that asks us to turn off the lights, switch the phone off and invest your very being into the story. Be part of this crew and the rewards are there to be had for the ghostly movie seeker. Cast wise Greenwood is classy as usual, and Williams refuses to let her character be the token it could have been. In support it's always good to see Chinlund & Flemyng performing, while Galifianakis delivers the goods in the colourful part.With visual smarts and a knowing sense of dread, Twohy's film is on the money. It may not be breaking new ground in the genre it sits in, but it's certainly one of the better told, and produced, of said genre stories. 7.5/10