Below (2002) a neglected gem

[trekgeezer]

Below [2002] - In 1943 the USS Tiger Shark is dispatched to save the survivors of a torpedoed British medical ship. They bring aboard three survivors, a nurse named Claire, a badly burnt guy, and a guy who says he saw the U-boat that sank them.

As soon as they pick these three, strange things start happening. A German ship shows up just as they pick up the survivors, so they have to dive immediately to the bottom. While they are trying to hide quietly on the ocean floor, a record player suddenly starts playing a Benny Goodman tune at max volume all by itself giving them away. This is just the start of the strangeness as the crew and their new passengers start a wild ride full of bad luck, talking corpses, conspiracies, and ghoulish visions.

This is a very good movie which seems to have been given very poor handling by Dimension films. David Twohy (Pitch Black, The Arrival) directed it and co-wrote it with Darren Aronofsky(Requiem for a Dream, Pi), who was also one of the producers, and Lucas Sussman, who helped write Requiem for a Dream. According to IMDB Aronofsky had originally intended to direct the movie himself 1999, but went with Requiem for a Dream instead.

Bruce Greenwood, Holt Mchallany, Matt Davis, and Scott Foley play the officers on the boat.

The special effects and cinematography are fantastic throughout. My one gripe is that the sub sets were way too roomy.

I can't believe this never got a wider release. In my research, I found out that it only made $469,000 at the box office. One of the reasons given for the poor performance was that it was released at the same time as Ghost Ship, which sank at the Box Office. I still say the Weinstein brothers screwed it over.

If you get a chance to rent it, I recommend you do. It's good use of an hour and 45 minutes, especially if like ghost stories and mysteries.  

By the way I caught it channel surfing on IFC, which will be showing it again on May 28 at 9:45pm E, and May 29 at 3:45am E.

[Neville]

I saw it not long ago and though it had the distribution it deserved. You can expect much better things than this from Twohy and Aronofsky. I found the movie had its possiblities, but it was dull as hell.

[Mr_Vindictive]

I'm with Trek on this one.  Below is fantastic.  I rented it when it was originally released after hearing quite a few good things.  At first I thought it was dull and boring, but upon a second viewing things just got better and better.  It is a fantastic film, but not the sort of thing I had expected from Aronofsky.  It just didn't seem as "out there" as most of his films.

Below was only one of the films that the Weinsteins and Dimension film screwed that year.  The other film was the amazing Equilibrium which suffered the same type of extremely limited release as Below did.  The Weinsteins just don't understand what they have sometimes and squander away some of the best films of the last decade.

[Fearless Freep]

I have Below on my NetFlix queue...just bumped it up thanks to this thread...had heard good things abot it (and like Twohy's stuff)

[Gerry]

BELOW is awesome!  I would take it over 99% of Hollywood's output in the last 10 years.  EQUILIBRIUM was another good one.

My favorite scene is probably the one where a couple of crew members go inside the hull to make a repair and get more than they bargained for.  I liked every single one of the performances.  Great WWII tension with a supernatural twist.  It reminded me a bit of the first half of THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT in that regard, only with a ghost that shows up instead of dinosaurs.

[Just Plain Horse]

I think I caught the last 20 minutes of this one time... the photography/cinimatography was pretty chilling, what with passageways leading into total darkness. Very creepy, but I suppose I've seen too many Hollywood fright flicks and I felt a little bit let down when nothing horrendous lunged out of the darkness... but then again, I think I missed the ghosts altogether. I'm sure if I'd have caught just a half hour's worth, I would've been even more impressed...

[Fearless Freep]

I watched it last night.  Very effective.  I'm impressed with what Twohy does with some simple ideas well exected.