Below (film)
Encyclopedia
Below is a 2002 World War II
horror film
directed by David Twohy
. It was written by Lucas Sussman, Darren Aronofsky
and David Twohy
, and stars Bruce Greenwood
, Olivia Williams
, Matthew Davis
, Holt McCallany
, Scott Foley
, Zach Galifianakis
, Jason Flemyng
and Dexter Fletcher
.
It was filmed on location in Lake Michigan
(for exteriors, using the World War II-era U.S. Navy submarine, USS Silversides
) and at Pinewood Studios
.
on patrol in the Atlantic Ocean
in 1943. The submarine is ordered to pick up survivors spotted adrift by a British PBY Catalina patrol plane. At the wreck site, they retrieve three lone survivors — a British nurse and two sailors, one wounded — of a British hospital ship that was torpedoed several days earlier. As they pick up the survivors the Tiger Shark spots a German
warship bearing down on them. The submarine has several encounters with the German warship and suffers heavy damage from depth charges
in the process.
Immediately after the first attack the Commanding Officer of the Tiger Shark, Lieutenant Brice (Bruce Greenwood
), discovers that the wounded sailor is actually a German POW
, Luftwaffe
pilot and family man Ben Archerlift. Brice confronts him because he thinks the German is responsible for making strange noises to betray their position to the German warship and believes it was an act of sabotage and then shoots him dead when the German panicked and grabbed for a scalpel to protect himself. Meanwhile, eerie events begin to manifest themselves that seem to be related to the recent death of the previous captain, Lieutenant Commander Winters. Winters had been killed after the Tiger Shark torpedoed and sank a German ship. Winters had ordered the sub to surface and had then gone topside with his senior officers to make sure the ship had sunk and to see if there were any survivors. According to LT Brice, Winters had wanted a souvenir
from the wreck and had fallen and hit his head on the side of the sub while reaching for his souvenir, then fell into the ocean and drowned before he could be rescued.
However, as the eerie events mount — disembodied voices are heard, a series of mechanical problems keeps the submarine turning back towards the site of the sunken German ship, and crewmen are killed at an alarming rate from various problems — the British nurse and sailor, and Odell, one of the junior officers on the Tiger Shark, begin to suspect that more is going on than just mechanical problems. They also begin to question Brice's version of how and why Captain Winters died.
It is revealed that three senior officers, Brice, Loomis and Coors, were responsible for the death of Captain Winters and that the British hospital ship was mistaken for a German ship and was sunk by the Tiger Shark. The three officers could not afford this blot on their records and conspired to suppress the story, killing Captain Winters as he tried to save the wounded in the ocean to make up for his and his crew's drastic mistake. This is discovered after Coors is mysteriously killed while working on the exterior of the sub, and Loomis drowns after trying to escape the boat while submerged, in a craze after seeing Winters' ghost on board.
After numerous accidents that completely cripple the boat, only five on board are still alive: Brice, Odell, Claire, Stumbo, and eccentric crewman Weird Wally. After the sub finally surfaces, Brice and Claire face each other down on the surface deck of the disabled submarine. Claire has spotted another ship in the area and tries to get its attention, but Brice holds her at gunpoint. His remorse over the accident overcomes him, and he shoots himself in the head, falling dead into the ocean. The four survivors are picked up by ship spotted by Claire, which turns out to be British. The Tiger Shark sinks away from the surface, coming to rest on the ocean floor next to the British hospital ship.
-era based in Muskegon, Michigan, for exteriors of the "USS Tiger Shark." The sub was towed out into Lake Michigan.
Matthew Leitch
and Dexter Fletcher
appeared together in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers, where they were also under the command of an officer named Winters.
with 41 out of 65 reviews calling it fresh. Reviewers on Metacritic
gave a mixed response with a 55% approval rating based on 20 reviews. Below also gained mixed reviews in the press. Entertainment Weekly
gave the film a B+ rating, calling it a "handsome, haunting submarine thriller". Edward Guthmann from the San Francisco Chronicle
gave a mainly negative review stating that the dialogue was "heavy on sarcasm and puncturing insults, never captures the World War II period but sounds ridiculously anachronistic". Variety Magazine gave the movie a mixed review stating that "the strenuous seriousness the film applies to an idea that is finally silly at its core steadily increases the impression of overwrought artificiality as matters progress".
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
directed by David Twohy
David Twohy
David Neil Twohy is an American film director and screenwriter.-Life and career:Twohy was born in Los Angeles County, California...
. It was written by Lucas Sussman, Darren Aronofsky
Darren Aronofsky
Darren Aronofsky is an American film director, screenwriter and film producer. He attended Harvard University to study film theory and the American Film Institute to study both live-action and animation filmmaking...
and David Twohy
David Twohy
David Neil Twohy is an American film director and screenwriter.-Life and career:Twohy was born in Los Angeles County, California...
, and stars Bruce Greenwood
Bruce Greenwood
Bruce Greenwood is a Canadian actor and musician. He is generally known for his roles as U.S. presidents in Thirteen Days and National Treasure: Book of Secrets and for his role as Captain Christopher Pike in the 2009 Star Trek film...
, Olivia Williams
Olivia Williams
Olivia Haigh Williams is an English film, stage and television actress who has appeared in British and American films and television series.-Early life:Williams was born in Camden Town, London, England...
, Matthew Davis
Matthew Davis
Matthew W. Davis is an American actor.-Life and career:Davis was born in Salt Lake City. He attended Woods Cross High School, and the University of Utah....
, Holt McCallany
Holt McCallany
Holt McCallany is an Irish American actor, writer, and producer working primarily in film and television.-Early life:...
, Scott Foley
Scott Foley
Scott Kellerman Foley is an American actor. He is known for roles in television shows such as The Unit and Felicity, and in films such as Scream 3...
, Zach Galifianakis
Zach Galifianakis
Zachary Knight "Zach" Galifianakis is an American stand-up comedian and actor known for his numerous film and television appearances including his own Comedy Central Presents special...
, Jason Flemyng
Jason Flemyng
Jason Iain Flemyng is an English actor. He is known for his film work, which has included roles in British films such as Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch , both for Guy Ritchie, as well as Hollywood productions such as Rob Roy along with the Alan Moore comic book adaptations From...
and Dexter Fletcher
Dexter Fletcher
Dexter Fletcher is an English actor. He is best known for his role in Guy Ritchie film, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels as well as television roles in such shows as the dramedy Hotel Babylon, the critically acclaimed HBO series Band of Brothers and earlier in his career, the children's show...
.
It was filmed on location in Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America and the only one located entirely within the United States. It is the second largest of the Great Lakes by volume and the third largest by surface area, after Lake Superior and Lake Huron...
(for exteriors, using the World War II-era U.S. Navy submarine, USS Silversides
USS Silversides (SS-236)
USS Silversides is a Gato-class submarine, the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the silversides, a small fish marked with a silvery stripe along each side of its body....
) and at Pinewood Studios
Pinewood Studios
Pinewood Studios is a major British film studio situated in Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, approximately west of central London. The studios have played host to many productions over the years from huge blockbuster films to television shows to commercials to pop promos.The purchase of Shepperton...
.
Plot
The USS Tiger Shark is a submarineSubmarine
A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...
on patrol in the Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
in 1943. The submarine is ordered to pick up survivors spotted adrift by a British PBY Catalina patrol plane. At the wreck site, they retrieve three lone survivors — a British nurse and two sailors, one wounded — of a British hospital ship that was torpedoed several days earlier. As they pick up the survivors the Tiger Shark spots a German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
warship bearing down on them. The submarine has several encounters with the German warship and suffers heavy damage from depth charges
Depth charge
A depth charge is an anti-submarine warfare weapon intended to destroy or cripple a target submarine by the shock of exploding near it. Most use explosives and a fuze set to go off at a preselected depth in the ocean. Depth charges can be dropped by either surface ships, patrol aircraft, or from...
in the process.
Immediately after the first attack the Commanding Officer of the Tiger Shark, Lieutenant Brice (Bruce Greenwood
Bruce Greenwood
Bruce Greenwood is a Canadian actor and musician. He is generally known for his roles as U.S. presidents in Thirteen Days and National Treasure: Book of Secrets and for his role as Captain Christopher Pike in the 2009 Star Trek film...
), discovers that the wounded sailor is actually a German POW
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
, Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....
pilot and family man Ben Archerlift. Brice confronts him because he thinks the German is responsible for making strange noises to betray their position to the German warship and believes it was an act of sabotage and then shoots him dead when the German panicked and grabbed for a scalpel to protect himself. Meanwhile, eerie events begin to manifest themselves that seem to be related to the recent death of the previous captain, Lieutenant Commander Winters. Winters had been killed after the Tiger Shark torpedoed and sank a German ship. Winters had ordered the sub to surface and had then gone topside with his senior officers to make sure the ship had sunk and to see if there were any survivors. According to LT Brice, Winters had wanted a souvenir
Souvenir
A souvenir , memento, keepsake or token of remembrance is an object a person acquires for the memories the owner associates with it. The term souvenir brings to mind the mass-produced kitsch that is the main commodity of souvenir and gift shops in many tourist traps around the world...
from the wreck and had fallen and hit his head on the side of the sub while reaching for his souvenir, then fell into the ocean and drowned before he could be rescued.
However, as the eerie events mount — disembodied voices are heard, a series of mechanical problems keeps the submarine turning back towards the site of the sunken German ship, and crewmen are killed at an alarming rate from various problems — the British nurse and sailor, and Odell, one of the junior officers on the Tiger Shark, begin to suspect that more is going on than just mechanical problems. They also begin to question Brice's version of how and why Captain Winters died.
It is revealed that three senior officers, Brice, Loomis and Coors, were responsible for the death of Captain Winters and that the British hospital ship was mistaken for a German ship and was sunk by the Tiger Shark. The three officers could not afford this blot on their records and conspired to suppress the story, killing Captain Winters as he tried to save the wounded in the ocean to make up for his and his crew's drastic mistake. This is discovered after Coors is mysteriously killed while working on the exterior of the sub, and Loomis drowns after trying to escape the boat while submerged, in a craze after seeing Winters' ghost on board.
After numerous accidents that completely cripple the boat, only five on board are still alive: Brice, Odell, Claire, Stumbo, and eccentric crewman Weird Wally. After the sub finally surfaces, Brice and Claire face each other down on the surface deck of the disabled submarine. Claire has spotted another ship in the area and tries to get its attention, but Brice holds her at gunpoint. His remorse over the accident overcomes him, and he shoots himself in the head, falling dead into the ocean. The four survivors are picked up by ship spotted by Claire, which turns out to be British. The Tiger Shark sinks away from the surface, coming to rest on the ocean floor next to the British hospital ship.
Cast
- Bruce GreenwoodBruce GreenwoodBruce Greenwood is a Canadian actor and musician. He is generally known for his roles as U.S. presidents in Thirteen Days and National Treasure: Book of Secrets and for his role as Captain Christopher Pike in the 2009 Star Trek film...
as Lieutenant Brice - Matthew DavisMatthew DavisMatthew W. Davis is an American actor.-Life and career:Davis was born in Salt Lake City. He attended Woods Cross High School, and the University of Utah....
as Ensign Douglas Odell - Olivia WilliamsOlivia WilliamsOlivia Haigh Williams is an English film, stage and television actress who has appeared in British and American films and television series.-Early life:Williams was born in Camden Town, London, England...
as Claire Paige - Holt McCallanyHolt McCallanyHolt McCallany is an Irish American actor, writer, and producer working primarily in film and television.-Early life:...
as Lieutenant Paul Loomis - Scott FoleyScott FoleyScott Kellerman Foley is an American actor. He is known for roles in television shows such as The Unit and Felicity, and in films such as Scream 3...
as Lieutenant Steven Coors - Zach GalifianakisZach GalifianakisZachary Knight "Zach" Galifianakis is an American stand-up comedian and actor known for his numerous film and television appearances including his own Comedy Central Presents special...
as Weird Wally - Jason FlemyngJason FlemyngJason Iain Flemyng is an English actor. He is known for his film work, which has included roles in British films such as Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch , both for Guy Ritchie, as well as Hollywood productions such as Rob Roy along with the Alan Moore comic book adaptations From...
as Stumbo - Dexter FletcherDexter FletcherDexter Fletcher is an English actor. He is best known for his role in Guy Ritchie film, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels as well as television roles in such shows as the dramedy Hotel Babylon, the critically acclaimed HBO series Band of Brothers and earlier in his career, the children's show...
as Kingsley - Nick ChinlundNick ChinlundZareh Nicholas "Nick" Chinlund is an American actor.-Early life:Chinlund was born in New York City. He attended the Friends Seminary in Lower Manhattan, later moving to Albany, NY in order to participate in Albany High School's varsity basketball program...
as Chief - Andrew HowardAndrew Howard-Stage acting:On stage roles included Alex DeLarge in A Clockwork Orange, Peer Gyntin Peer Gynt, Orestes in Electra at theatres, including The Royal National Theatre and TheDonmar Warehouse .-Film acting:...
as Hoag - Christopher FairbankChristopher FairbankChristopher Fairbank is an English actor best known for his role as Albert Arthur Moxey in the hit comedy-drama series Auf Wiedersehen, Pet.-Career:...
as Pappy
Production
The producers used the , a World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
-era based in Muskegon, Michigan, for exteriors of the "USS Tiger Shark." The sub was towed out into Lake Michigan.
Matthew Leitch
Matthew Leitch
Matthew Leitch is a British actor perhaps best known for his portrayal of Floyd Talbert in the award winning HBO mini-series, Band of Brothers.-Biography:...
and Dexter Fletcher
Dexter Fletcher
Dexter Fletcher is an English actor. He is best known for his role in Guy Ritchie film, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels as well as television roles in such shows as the dramedy Hotel Babylon, the critically acclaimed HBO series Band of Brothers and earlier in his career, the children's show...
appeared together in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers, where they were also under the command of an officer named Winters.
Reception
The film gained an approval rating of 63% on Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
with 41 out of 65 reviews calling it fresh. Reviewers on Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
gave a mixed response with a 55% approval rating based on 20 reviews. Below also gained mixed reviews in the press. Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
gave the film a B+ rating, calling it a "handsome, haunting submarine thriller". Edward Guthmann from the San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
gave a mainly negative review stating that the dialogue was "heavy on sarcasm and puncturing insults, never captures the World War II period but sounds ridiculously anachronistic". Variety Magazine gave the movie a mixed review stating that "the strenuous seriousness the film applies to an idea that is finally silly at its core steadily increases the impression of overwrought artificiality as matters progress".
Films of similar theme
Some films that possess the same war/horror genre are listed below:- The KeepThe Keep (film)The Keep is a 1983 horror film directed by Michael Mann and starring Scott Glenn, Gabriel Byrne, Jürgen Prochnow, Alberta Watson and Ian McKellen. It was released by Paramount Pictures. The story is based on the F...
(1983) by Michael MannMichael Mann (film director)Michael Kenneth Mann is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. For his work, he has received nominations from international organizations and juries, including those at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, Cannes and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...
, about a group of German soldiers fighting a demon in World War II-era Romania. - The BunkerThe Bunker (2001 film)The Bunker is a 2001 horror film directed by Rob Green, written by Clive Dawson and starring Jason Flemyng.-Plot:In late 1944 the remnants of a platoon of German Panzergrenadiers from the Großdeutschland Division are caught in an Ambush by American troops. In their retreat, they find a bunker,...
(2001) by Rob GreenRob Green (film director)Rob Green is a film director, producer, editor and screenwriter.-Biography:He is most notable for The Bunker and the drama-horror-thriller House...
, about a group of German soldiers hiding in a bunker from the American enemy. - Deathwatch (2002) a British film set in World War I about a group of British soldiers who capture an abandoned German trench where supernatural forces start killing them.
- Dog Soldiers (2002) by Neil MarshallNeil MarshallNeil Marshall is an English film director, editor and screenwriter. Marshall began his career in editing and in 2002 directed his first feature film Dog Soldiers, which became a cult film. He followed up with the critically acclaimed horror film The Descent in 2005...
, about a group of soldiers ending up fighting werewolves during a routine exercise. - R-PointR-PointR-Point is a 2004 Korean horror film written and directed by Su-chang Kong and starring Gam Wu-seong and Son Byung-ho. It is set in 1972 Vietnam, during the Vietnam War. However, most of the movie was shot in Cambodia...
(2004) Korean horror film about a group of soldiers sent to investigate the disappearance of another unit. - The Hills Have Eyes 2The Hills Have Eyes 2The Hills Have Eyes 2 is the 2007 American horror film sequel to the 2006 film The Hills Have Eyes which was a remake of the 1977 horror film The Hills Have Eyes. The film follows several heroic, but troubled, U.S. National Guardsmen as they fight for survival against the mutant people living in a...
(2007) Directed by Martin Weisz, a group of National Guard soldiers in training get attacked by Mutants hiding in Mine Shafts on a Top Secret Military Base. - OutpostOutpost (film)-Plot:In a seedy bar in a town ravaged by war, scientist and businessman Hunt hires mercenary and former Royal Marine D.C. to assemble a crack team of ex-soldiers to protect him on a dangerous journey into no-man's land...
(2008) British horror film about a group of mercenaries in war torn Eastern Europe who find a World War II German bunker haunted by Nazi ghosts. - The Guard Post (2008) Korean horror film from the same director as R-Point about a group of soldiers sent to investigate a border post where the soldiers manning it have killed each other due to a mysterious virus.
- The ObjectiveThe ObjectiveThe Objective is a 2008 science fiction horror film, directed by Daniel Myrick who also directed The Blair Witch Project and Believers, starring Jonas Ball, Matthew R. Anderson, and Michael C. Williams...
(2008) Directed by Daniel Myrick, A CIA agent accompanied by U.S. Special Forces search for an Afghan Cleric encounter supernatural forces. - Red SandsRed SandsRed Sands is a 2009 horror film movie set in Afghanistan in 2002. The film is directed by Alex Turner, whose previous effort was Dead Birds, in 2004.-Plot:...
(2009) by Alex TurnerAlex Turner (director)Alex Turner is an American film director, producer and screenwriter, best known for his work in the horror film genre, including the cult classic Dead Birds....
, about a squad of U.S. soldiers on assignment in Afghanistan that gets isolated and the soldiers kill each other one by one while being haunted by a djinn.
External links
- Below review at RogerEbert.com