Below (4K UHD Review)

Reviewed by: Stephen Bjork
Review Date: Mar 11, 2025
Format: 4K Ultra HD

Director

David Twohy

Release Date(s)

2002 (December 17, 2024)

Studio(s)

Dimension Films/Protozoa Pictures/Miramax Films (Kino Lorber Studio Classics)

Film/Program Grade: B
Video Grade: B+
Audio Grade: A-
Extras Grade: B+

Review

Screenwriter David Twohy didn’t make much of a splash with his overlooked feature film directorial debut The Arrival in 1996—and his arguable real debut, the criminally neglected Grand Tour: Disaster in Time had gone straight to video four years before that, so his career behind the camera didn’t get off to a particularly strong start, at least in terms of box office. That all changed four years later with the modestly budgeted Pitch Black, which became a sleeper hit that put Twohy on the map and helped make a star out of Vin Diesel in the process. That granted him the cachet to raise much more money in order to make the sequel The Chronicles of Riddick in 2004, but in between those two points, he made another stab at a big-budget filmmaking that sadly slipped beneath the waves without leaving so much as a ripple: Below.

Below actually took a complicated course in order to reach the screen, well before Twohy finally came on board. It started out when Darren Aronofsky signed a pay-or-play deal with Dimension Films back in 1998, shortly after the success of his own debut feature Pi at the Sundance Film Festival. (Aronofsky signed another deal with New Line a month later to direct an adaptation of Frank Miller’s Ronin, so it was just the beginning of his long history of unrealized projects.) The script that had drawn Dimension’s attention was called Proteus, co-written by Aronofsky and Lucas Sussman, which was a science fiction story involving a WWII submarine that eludes German destroyers from above while it deals with an alien menace down below. Yet two years later, Aronofsky left to direct Requiem for a Dream instead, and Dimension/Mirimax had just inked a three-picture deal with David Twohy based on his own success with Pitch Black. The first (and last, as it turned out) film that Twohy directed for Dimension was a reworked version of Proteus, now titled Below.

Twohy’s revised script for Below stripped away the science fiction elements, turning the horrors faced by the crew of the U.S.S. Tiger Shark into something of terrestrial origin instead. The basic setting remained the same, with the Tiger Shark being ordered to pick up the three survivors of a recently sunk British hospital ship—and much to the consternation of the crew, one of them is a woman (Olivia Williams). The skipper (Bruce Greenwood) is reluctant to go back to that part of the Atlantic, but he follows his orders, and quickly discovers that the British survivors are harboring a potentially deadly secret. Yet some members of the crew of the Tiger Shark are harboring an even deadlier secret of their own, leading to the submarine being hunted by German destroyers from above while facing something far more menacing from below—or perhaps it would be more accurate to say from within. Below also stars Matthew Davis, Holt McCallany, Scott Foley, Zach Galifianakis, Jason Flemyng, Dexter Fletcher, Nick Chinlund, and Christopher Fairbank.

While it’s often difficult to spoil a film that’s already over two decades old, Below may be unfamiliar enough to most viewers that it’s best to leave its secrets left unexplained—the colder that you go into watching it, the better. Suffice it to say that Below is a blend of genres, mixing the basic cat-and-mouse game of classic submarine thrillers like Run Silent, Run Deep with something else entirely. Yet all of it falls well within Twohy’s purview, even without any overt science fiction elements. Twohy has always excelled at world-building, especially in his Riddick films, but even his scripts for others like Waterworld have displayed the same attention to detail. Below may take place on an American submarine during WWII, but Twohy lavished the same attention onto the interiors of the sub, replicating the claustrophobic feel of Das Boot by constructing enclosed, contiguous sets—they’re actually slightly enlarged in this case in order to facilitate filming, but the effect is the same. It all seems real enough, and more importantly, it really sells the idea that everything is taking place deep beneath the ocean waves. All of that helps to ground the story before things become completely unmoored later on.

Twohy does push his luck at a few points by incorporating details of questionable historicity, like when the German ship uses grapnels to try to drag for the sub. That’s something that didn’t happen in the Atlantic, although there were reports of Japanese ships doing something similar in the Pacific. There’s also a free diving sequence involving Momsen lungs that’s quite unlike anything that actually occurred during WWII (they were purely an escape device, and there’s only one recorded instance of them being used for that purpose during the entire war). Yet Twohy’s real genius at world-building lies in the fact that he understands that details like these don’t actually have to be authentic in order to feel authentic. The various planets seen in the Riddick films aren’t necessarily scientifically accurate, and yet they still look and feel like real, living worlds. Below works as well as it does because it feels like a real submarine deep underwater, and with the benefit of that careful grounding, the story can take the flight of fancy that Twohy devised to replace Aronofsky’s extraterrestrial menace.

Unfortunately, Below failed to find an audience in 2002, although that wasn’t due to any failure on Twohy’s part—at least not directly, anyway. Supposedly, Dimension was upset that he refused to re-edit the film to achieve a PG-13 rating, so they dumped it into a handful of theatres with minimal advertising. That may or may not be entirely true, but while it might seem odd for a studio to write off a $40 million investment simply out of pique, we’re talking about Harvey “My Way or the Highway” Weinstein here. He had an established history of vindictiveness, and he was more than willing to spend money (or lose it, as the case may be) in order to enact his revenge. Either way, it was the end of Twohy’s three-picture deal with the studio, so it’s clear that there was bad blood involved, and Below was scuttled before it ever had a chance. Yet it arguably works just as well in the confines of a home theatre, which enhances the claustrophobic feel of the film. So turn down the lights, turn up the sound, and let David Twohy transport you to another time and another place—just before he seduces you into entering a different world altogether.

Cinematographer Ian Wilson shot Below on 35mm film using Panavision cameras with spherical lenses, framed at 1.85:1 for its theatrical release. This version is based on a 4K scan of the original camera negative, cleaned up and graded for High Dynamic Range in Dolby Vision and HDR10, but there’s no other information available about the master that was used. The interesting thing about it is that while it’s unquestionably an improvement when compared to the previous Blu-ray, it still retains some qualities that could best be described as the “Dimension look.” Dimension/Mirimax Blu-rays and DVDs tended to look processed and artificial, with visible sharpening and ringing. In this case, the sharpness and increased level of fine detail is quite real, and yet it still looks a little processed. It’s arguably just a bit too sharp now, marred by a whiff of that “Dimension look” that gives it a slightly artificial appearance. The same thing is true of the HDR grade, which strengthens the contrast range and deepens the blacks, and yet it seems just a tad too exaggerated, mostly in terms of the highlights running a little hot. To be clear, Below still looks very good in 4K; someone just tried to gild the lily when it wasn’t necessary. Note that depending on the size of your display and your viewing distance, the processing may not even be visible, so your own mileage may vary.

Audio is offered in English 5.1 and 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio, with optional English subtitles. As any U-571 fan can attest, submarine movies are a natural for multichannel audio, and while this mix falls a bit short of that legendary demo material, it’s still quite good. It doesn’t quite have the same level of punch during the depth charge sequence, but it still has excellent immersive qualities. The sounds of depth charges and hooks dragging along the hull are particularly effective, but there’s also plenty of subtle creaks, groans, and pings to make it feel like everything is really taking place underwater. Graeme Revell’s score is equally effective in creating a creepy atmosphere for the film.

Kino Lorber’s 4K Ultra HD release of Below is a two-disc set that includes a Blu-ray with a 1080p copy of the film, as well as a slipcover that duplicates the theatrical poster artwork on the insert. The following extras are included:

DISC ONE: UHD

Audio Commentary by David Twohy, Matt Davis, Bruce Greenwood, Holt McCallany, Zach Galifianakis, and Nick Chinlund

DISC TWO: BD

Audio Commentary by David Twohy, Matt Davis, Bruce Greenwood, Holt McCallany, Zach Galifianakis, and Nick Chinlund
The Process (SD – 12:24)
Deleted Scenes:
- Creepy Comic (SD – 1:36)
- Hot Fish (SD – 3:39)
- Red Flare Ending (SD – 3:03)
Trailer (SD – 2:27)
Deepstar Six Trailer (HD – 1:57)
Bug Trailer (HD – 1:22)
Suspect Zero Trailer (Upscaled SD – 2:14)
Thirst Trailer (HD – :43)

Aside from the trailers, the extras were all originally produced for the 2003 DVD release of Below, and they’ve been carried forward on every subsequent release since that time. The group commentary pairs Twohy with most of the lead cast (Olivia Williams was also invited, but she was off in Australia shooting Peter Pan for director P.J. Hogan). Group commentaries usually have their pluses and their minuses, but this one is consistently entertaining and informative. Twohy can sound a little dry when he’s left to his own devices, but he has great chemistry with this group—and they have great chemistry with each other as well, with even Greenwood coming off much livelier than the dour characters that he tends to play onscreen. There’s a lot of laughing and joking around, and yet they don’t talk over each other, so everything that they’re saying is perfectly clear. Jocularity aside, they do provide plenty of interesting information about Below, like the subtle use of reverse printing in a few shots to give them an otherworldly look. It’s a fun track, and well worth a listen.

The Process is a brief featurette that demonstrates the process of bringing the script to life for the screen. Hosted by Twohy, it compares script pages, storyboards, behind-the-scenes footage, and the final shots as they appear in the film. It’s actually pretty interesting seeing how Twohy interacted back and forth between the actors and his crew in order to work things out—much more interesting than most of the typical EPK fare or talking head interviews that are common these days. Finally, the Deleted Scenes can be played individually or as a group, with or without optional commentary by Twohy. Creepy Comic is a small moment that doesn’t necessarily add much to the narrative, but Twohy says that he’s sorry that it’s gone since it added a character beat that was missing from the final cut. Hot Fish is an action scene where one of the torpedoes accidentally ignites inside the sub and they have to get rid of it before it goes off, while Red Flare Ending is an extended version of the finale with some added action of the sub listing after it surfaces. Twohy felt that they both had to go since they felt a little too much like something from an action film, and he wanted to focus on the suspense instead.

It’s not much, but a good commentary and at least one worthwhile featurette is still worth more than a whole pile of fluff, and Below was never going to get Arrow’s The Chronicles of Riddick treatment anyway. Nor, for that matter, was it likely to get the 4K treatment at all, so props once again to Kino Lorber for being willing to go places that many boutique labels won’t. It’s the textbook definition of a sleeper, and while it hasn’t quite built up a significant cult following at this point, hopefully this UHD will help get that ball rolling.

-Stephen Bjork

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