Pitch: It’s a found-footage haunted house, but… UNDERWATER! Which... might actually have delivered a decent film, utilizing a relatively untouched setting for a horror movie. The main characters explain early the dangers and terror involved with diving, establishing their reasons, toys and tools involved in their ghost hunting agenda. There have been a ton of ‘influencer’ based plots in the last several years, and admittedly: it never fails to amuse when horrible things happen to them. The movie does a decent job of establishing baseline characterization for our main duo before an entirely not mysterious and sketchy stranger suggests a trip to a submerged locale, and its off to the tropes. Oh we got it all here. Jump scares (replacing traditional cats with fish), strange dolls, shadows behind curtains, discordant sounds, a wall of murder articles, strange occult symbols, hidden chambers, etc. Every traditional haunted house cliche is present, just soggier. There are a couple of well executed moments of creepy sights and sounds, but any action occurs in a ludicrous blur of bubbles that renders moot any notion of actually figuring out what’s occurring. The plot hinges upon dumb characters making dumb decisions, and everything plays out as predictably as one can expect if you’ve seen any non-submerged haunted house film. It is a shame, as the pitch is great, there’s some decent direction for the low budget, and if the filmmakers had made much of an effort beyond the pitch, this could be a worthy addition. As it stands, there are better films out there, even films taking place UNDERWATER.
The Deep House (2021)