The haunted house movie is dragged to the bottom of a lake in order to refresh the genre and mostly succeeds. This underwater horror joint from French Director team Bustillo and Maury (creators of French Extremity ripper Inside and this years Kandisha), forgoes narrative and character work for claustrophobic terror but excels in crafting a tense slice of nerve jangling fun that is best experienced on the big screen if possible.
YouTubers Ben & Tina journey to the bottom of a remote French lake to explore a submerged house and uncover the secrets hidden within. And that’s the extent of the plot, but when you have a house filled with hidden rooms, satanic symbols & some other lurking surprises, sometimes a simple setup is all you need for a good spooky time.
Once they reach the house, the final hour of the film is entirely underwater and makes for an extremely effective scare machine that manages to mostly overcome the problems, mainly thin characters and a pretty bad performance from the actor playing Ben who sounds like Bear Grylls—although I wonder if that might have been deliberate. He’s also a bit of a prick, not only dragging the less keen Tina into a spooky ass submerged house but also constantly playing pranks on her.
But that house and the shit that unfolds in there really works with its mix of go pro & drone footage and the traditional cinematography aiding the tension. I had a blast but it probably doesn’t have a lot of rewatch value and would lose a lot of impact watching at home—this is a big screen experience through & through.
4 underwater Satan houses out of 5.
Watched at @terrorfifest
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