Below

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Rating 3


Directed by David Twohy

Written by Lucas Sussman, Darren Aronofsky and David Twohy

Starring Matthew Davis, Olivia Williams, Bruce Greenwood, Holt McCallany, Nick Chinlund, Zach Galifianakis, Jason Flemyng and Dexter Fletcher


A World War II American submarine receives a message ordering it to pick up survivors seen adrift in the ocean by a British recognisance aircraft. They retrieve three survivors from a torpedoed British hospital ship – a merchant seaman, a badly injured patient and a female nurse.

Strange things begin to happen following the arrival of the three strangers. An enemy ship constantly menaces the submarine and the crew becomes increasingly disgruntled, with murmurs that the sub is either cursed or haunted. Slowly but surely the terrible truth begins to unravel.

While it is not all that difficult to guess where the film is headed, this is a well made horror film with a little-known but tremendous cast, including Zach Galifianakis from the television series ‘Tru Calling’ and the excellent Nick Chinlund, who was so memorable in ‘The X Files’ playing the creepy Donnie Pfaster. Good use is made of the claustrophobic setting and the film maintains a decent level of suspense right up to its slightly disappointing conclusion.

So long as you don’t consider the horror genre to be a boil on the backside of cinema, and provided your horror does not need to be served up with gratuitous torture and lashings of offal and special effects, this creepy, low-key film is well worth your while.

The film was generally well received by critics, although it only managed a gross of a little over $605,000 at the box office.



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