DENIZENS OF THE DEEP

RELAX, IT’S NOT ANOTHER SHARK FILM – BUT IT’S STILL GOT TEETH! AS KRISTEN STEWART MAKES A SPLASH IN UNDERWATER WE TAKE THE PLUNGE WITH DIRECTOR WILLIAM EUBANK

- JAMIE TABBERER

GIVEN THAT 71% OF THE EARTH’S surface is water-covered – and, as you’ve doubtless heard, that figure is rising – it seems inconceivable that 80% of the ocean is “unmapped, unobserved, and unexplored”, according to the National Ocean Service.

It’s an oft-repeated fact that we know more about the surface of the Moon and Mars than the deep seafloor. Marine biologist Paul Snelgrove, University Research Professor at the Department of Ocean Sciences and Biology Department of Memorial University of Newfoundland, tells SFX: “The joy of deep-sea exploration is not the possibility of new weird and wonderful species, but the certainty of it. It represents Earth’s largest frontier for discovery.”

So what fantastical creatures reside there? What we know of the truth – in the case of the giant spider crab, the pacific viperfish and the vampire squid, at least – is quite literally stranger than fiction…

Cue Underwater: a new blockbuster starring Kristen Stewart that could prove the missing link between her shallow popcorn fare (Charlie’s Angels, the Twilight franchise) and deeper, more daring left field work (Personal Shopper is the best supernatural psychological thriller you’ve probably never heard of).

With an estimated budget of $65 million, Underwater is the third film from director William Eubank – a “survival thriller mixed with a bit of horror” is how he puts it – after smaller-scale sci-fiindies Love (2011) and The Signal (2014).

“There’s nothing more exciting than thinking, what could be out there?” he tells SFX (on his birthday!) from Hollywood over a crackly phone line, conjuring images of him holed up in a dark research station some 5,000 miles from land, seven miles below the ocean’s surface, just like the characters in the film.