Below

Tags

2000's, Below, Bruce Greenwood, David Twohy, Dexter Fletcher, Holt McCallany, Horror, Jason Flemyng, Matthew Davis, Olivia Williams, Scott Foley, Supernatural Horror, Zach Galifianakis

Film Title

Below

Director

David Twohy

Starring

• Bruce Greenwood as Lieutenant Brice
• Matthew Davis as Ensign Douglas Odell
• Olivia Williams as Claire Paige
• Holt McCallany as Lieutenant Paul Loomis
• Scott Foley as Lieutenant Steven Coors
• Zach Galifianakis as Wally
• Jason Flemyng as Stumbo
• Dexter Fletcher as Kingsley

Although it offers nothing really new to the supernatural horror genre, Below is a tense and claustrophobic film that at least makes an impact due to atmosphere and cast and doesn’t promise to be anything bigger than it is.

It is August 1943, during World War II. The US Tiger Shark is a Navy submarine on patrol in the Atlantic Ocean. The ship gets orders to rescue any possible survivors from a sunken British ship. The crew rescue three survivors, two injured men and a female medical doctor named Claire Paige. Her arrival makes the crew uneasy due to the belief that a woman on board is bad luck and the fact that they haven’t seen a women for so long. The officer in charge Lieutenant Brice calms the situation the best he can, but then spots a German warship which they flee from by going underwater. Once underwater is when strange events begin to unfold. In the close and confined space, secrets that link to the mysterious Brice and his right hand man Loomis lurk. The opinionated and far from submissive Claire becomes the one most curious as to what transpired before her arrival. Yet there is another bigger set of problems that begin to come into fruition as seemingly supernatural events begin to take hold, including visions people can’t deny. Soon enough, the ship is haunted by an unseen force. With paranoia rising and the submarine depleted from attack, who will make it out alive? What is plaguing the ship with all these chilling events and why? And is the ship really haunted or is there something more foul at play within the submarine?

Director David Twohy displays confident enough direction that induces chills and a claustrophobic impact as the ship becomes littered with death and deception. He could have gone a bit deeper into some aspects, but this is a minor thing as he shows flair for the material and creates many spine-tingling moments of horror. A dark visual style of muted blues is excellent at crafting the underwater atmosphere and sense of no escape in Below as the ship continues to move down and the horror begins to awaken. One main flaw with Below would have to be the script. While it is far from shambolic, it could have benefited from a fixer upper in terms of some character development. Some of the characters, mainly in the supporting category seem to appear and disappear without any real explanation. The supporting characters that are defined are very good, but the ones that aren’t just don’t cut it. At least the main set of characters are decent enough in their own ways. There is a nice sound design to Below that highlights the fact that the crew may not be alone on the ship and a superb score brims with claustrophobic tension and sudden jolts of terror.

Despite the often repetitive and B-movie style dialogue found within Below, the cast contributes great work that makes the characters more interesting than they could have been. Bruce Greenwood is suitably mysterious as the man in charge, who clearly isn’t cut out for the job yet listens to no one. He gives the role a slimy aura that is unmistakable. Matthew Davis plays the role of the curious and suspicious Odell, who knows something is going on but seems to be admonished when he tries to unearth it. As the sole woman in the film, Olivia Williams makes a mark as the no-nonsense nurse who won’t be spoken down to just because of her gender. In the hands of another actress the part would be nothing much, but in the capable hands of Williams, it gets a lot of credibility. The muscled authority and strength of Holt McCallany is on show in his performance as the right hand man to the acting officer. Some good support comes courtesy of Scott Foley, Zach Galifianakis, Jason Flemyng and Dexter Fletcher as other members of the crew and a wounded survivor respectably.

Below is not the best supernatural horror out there nor does it pretend to be, instead it is a very chilling and atmospheric movie that makes great use of the setting and tensions that begin to build.

Scream 3

Tags

2000's, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Deon Richmond, Emily Mortimer, Horror, Jenny McCarthy, Lance Henriksen, Liev Schreiber, Matt Keeslar, Neve Campbell, Parker Posey, Patrick Dempsey, Scott Foley, Scream 3, Wes Craven

Film Title

Scream 3

Director

Wes Craven

Starring

• Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott
• Courteney Cox as Gale Weathers
• David Arquette as Dewey Riley
• Parker Posey as Jennifer Jolie
• Scott Foley as Roman Bridger
• Patrick Dempsey as Mark Kincaid
• Lance Henriksen as John Milton
• Matt Keeslar as Tom Prinze
• Jenny McCarthy as Sarah Darling
• Emily Mortimer as Angelina Tyler
• Deon Richmond as Tyson Fox
• Liev Schreiber as Cotton Weary

The third entry into the original Scream Trilogy, Scream 3 doesn’t meet the standards set by the first Scream and second film. Yet it does wrap the series up with some witty humour and genuine scares. Scream 3 may be the weakest of the bunch as it falls into the trap of many horror clichés that the other films so greatly lampooned, but it does have some merits that make it enjoyable including the acting and suspense.

In the opening scenes, we see Cotton Weary has now become a major celebrity with his own talk show. As he is driving home one night after filming a cameo in the latest ‘Stab’ movie, he is contacted by none other than Ghostface who proceeds to kill his girlfriend. When Cotton arrives, he is beaten by Ghostface, who asks where Sidney Prescott is. Refusing to answer, Cotton is stabbed to death. Sidney, since the events of Scream 2 has isolated herself in the Californian mountains under tight security, hoping to escape the nightmares of her past encounters with Ghostface. Meanwhile, reporter Gale Weathers is drawn into the investigation of Cotton’s death after a photograph of Sidney’s mother is found near his body. It seems the killer has his own agenda by targeting the stars of the latest ‘Stab’ movie in the order in which the die in the script and an interest in drawing Sidney out of her cocoon with some revelations about her late mother. Reuniting with Dewey, Gale begins to investigate the relevance of Maureen Prescott’s pictures with the added help of Jennifer Jolie, the flighty actress playing Gale Weathers in the ‘Stab’ flick. As the body count begins to pile up, Sidney realises she must break out of her isolation and once more face off with Ghostface in order to rid herself of the pain he has caused her. Yet as we are told via Randy’s video message, with this being a trilogy all bets are off and the usual rules of the horror movie have now been turned upside down.

As I previously mentioned, Scream 3 does not match the heights of the film before it. Part of this is due to the script, which for the first time isn’t written by Kevin Williamson. Whereas he managed to balance the horror and the humour, this one features too much comedy in it and the film suffers as a result. The descent into horror conventions is also a downside as the characters in the past two movies where self-aware of these and mocked them. At least we have Wes Craven’s direction which helps to create many suspenseful moments including a haunting scene in which the isolated Sidney dreams of her mother dressed in ghostly white, who warns that everything she touches dies. Adding to the suspense of the picture is once again the gothic score of morose chanting and slithering drums.

For all of its flaws, at least we have the talented principal cast to fall back on. Neve Campbell once again brings strength and underlying vulnerability to the role of Sidney, who realises that to exorcise her nightmares she must do battle with Ghostface. We see the growth of Sidney in this film and how she can now capably defend herself when threatened with her mind as well as her fists. Courteney Cox shows how Gale has softened but still can’t resist getting her hands on the latest news scoop. She has excellent chemistry with David Arquette as Dewey as the two quietly resume their romance whilst overcoming obstacles. Out of the newer cast, Parker Posey steals the show as Jennifer Jolie, who believes she is better than the real Gale Weathers and has interesting ways of getting into character. She is funny and fawning with her over the top remarks and highly strung personality that really give the film a jolt of much-needed humour. The rest of the supporting cast, which includes Patrick Dempsey, Jenny McCarthy and Emily Mortimer are unfortunately lumbered with uninteresting roles and are purely there to be the victims of Ghostface. Even Liev Schreiber who played Cotton so well in Scream 2 is murdered within 10 minutes of the film starting.

So all in all, Scream 3 doesn’t make as much of an impact as the first two movies. But saying that it does have some effective scares and performances that manage to wrap up the trilogy in a good but not great way.