Supeerdeep

The slow burn is a tricky thing in horror. Rush it and you kill the suspense. Drag it out and the movie feels languid and stuck in place. The Superdeep, a bio-horror movie, wants to use the slow burn to tell its tale of an infectious parasite found in a facility in Russia 12,000 meters down. But the movie is too long by a bit, full of glacially paced scenes that don’t are meant to ratchet up tension, but are really letting air out of the tires. You never feel this more than in the final fifteen minutes (of a two hour movie), which feels twice that, and you’re just looking at your watch. It’s a decent, if bizarre, story, involving a dormant biological parasite that seems to have some level of sentience, or at least a hive mind kind of control. Rather than use it’s contagiousness as the source of tension, it’s the setting, which works well in creating a hopeless claustrophobia. Anna, the heroine, is a smart, tough, caring lead, a bit like Ellen Ripley. I quite enjoyed her. And the practical effects are amazing, some of the best body horror practical effects I’ve seen in a long time. They’re Cronenberg good. Really. But the big reveal of a monster evolved from this biohazard is goofy as hell, which I don’t think they were going for. And at two hours, it’s 20-30 minutes too long. There is so much wasted time; easily the prologue and dinner with friends at the beginning could be cut without effect, and some brisk editing in places would help give the movie a pulse. As is, it’s acceptable, but while it’s content to go at its own pace, you’ll find yourself looking at your phone. It’s not a bad movie, but it’s flaws drag it away from great to merely good.