Below
Miramax Films | Release Date: October 11, 2002 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
55
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 20 Critic Reviews
Positive:
10
Mixed:
7
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
In the handsome, haunting submarine thriller Below, the usual perils of deep-sea maneuvers are heightened by psychic unraveling. Read full review
80
L.A. WeeklyDaniel Fienberg
Twohy moves effortlessly between conventions of the sub and horror genres, with long tracking shots and masterful sound design, shock cuts and mismatched mirrors and reflections. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneRobert K. Elder
Twohy pulls all the strings to create an inventive genre piece. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
As ghost stories go, this one is handled with great subtlety and delicacy. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesManohla Dargis
Has a slamming first hour. As Ian Wilson's camera darts over Charles Lee's spookily atmospheric sets, enigmas sprout like mushrooms. Read full review
70
Dallas ObserverLuke Y. Thompson
Twohy's a good yarn-spinner, and ultimately the story compels. Read full review
70
Washington PostDesson Thomson
An ingenious hybrid of submarine movie and ghost story. And there's a wee bit of "Macbeth" in there too. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Until the ghost story takes over this is a tense and absorbing war picture. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
A movie where the story, like the sub, sometimes seems to be running blind. In its best moments it can evoke fear, and it does a good job of evoking the claustrophobic terror of a little World War II boat. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeJanice Page
With more character development this might have been an eerie thriller; with better payoffs, it could have been a thinking man's monster movie. Read full review
60
The New York TimesDave Kehr
Has the bad luck to come on the heels of Kathryn Bigelow's beautifully made and politically impassioned "K-19," making this submarine picture -- a relatively modest, low-budget affair -- seem skimpy by comparison. Read full review
60
Village VoiceJustine Elias
Though the genre collisions (horror/WWII submarine/undersea Macbeth) are as jarring as the sound design, the cumulative effect is one of claustrophobic creepiness. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
Twohy and co-screenwriters Darren Aronofsky and Lucas Sussman don't show their hand until late in the film, but by that time, Below has grown slack and silly. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
Situations don't come much more claustrophobic, and if the payoff doesn't quite live up to the build-up, the film is still an enjoyable exercise in claustrophobic suspense. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleEdward Guthmann
The dialogue, heavy on sarcasm and puncturing insults, never captures the World War II period but sounds ridiculously anachronistic. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
The story offers an interesting twist, but the only really spooky part is when a Benny Goodman record insists on playing without human aid. More scares, please. Read full review
50
New York PostLou Lumenick
A substandard attempt to outfit a World War II submarine with every haunted-house cliché known to man and filmmakers. Read full review
30
Washington PostStephen Hunter
It just never began to work for me, and the sub story behind the ghost story is far more interesting than the ghost story in front of the sub story. Read full review
30
VarietyTodd McCarthy
This hokey thriller reps what one can only hope will be a one-of-a-kind hybrid between a World War II actioner and a ghost story outfitted with innumerable false-alarm shock cuts and shot with enough colored lights and filters to delight Baz Luhrmann. Read full review
16
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
An excruciatingly awful thriller. Read full review
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