Movies
[Nightstream Review] ‘Breaking Surface’ is an Unrelenting, Intense Aquatic Survival Thriller
The setup for the aquatic Breaking Surface sounds familiar; two sisters on a diving excursion find themselves facing a grueling race against the clock when one of them becomes trapped on the ocean floor. Instead of sharks and a required suspension of belief, writer/director Joachim Hedén opts for realism and ingenious situations, creating one of the most intense and propulsive survival thrillers in recent memory.
Sisters Tuva (Madeleine Martin) and Ida (Moa Gammel) are lifelong divers, which means they’re no strangers to danger. Tuva, who turned diving into a career, survived multiple brushes with death underwater. Her more reserved sister, Ida, is less daring and settled down to create her own family. She agrees to a diving excursion with Tuva to explore a Norwegian fjord just days after Christmas with her marriage on the rocks. The isolated setting proves a significant obstacle when a rockslide leaves Tuva trapped below, pinned under rubble, and Ida without a path to seek aid. Depleting oxygen, extreme pressure, and freezing temps are only some of the problems the sisters will have to overcome if they hope to make it out alive.
It’s clear straightaway that Hedén aims for a more realistic portrayal of diving, heightening the stakes and suspense. Malfunctioning equipment, rips in suits in such icy waters, and the potential for the bends are all very authentic scenarios these women can face. To keep things moving along at rapid speed, and visually impressive, it’s on the less experienced Ida to figure out a way to free her pinned sister. In true survival thriller fashion, anything that can go wrong will go wrong, but the inventive scenarios never feel implausible or out of place. Ida, an intelligent but emotionally vulnerable woman, falls prey to panic and desperation, but never at the expense of rooting interest. She makes tough choices that make sense and forgivable mistakes in line with the dire circumstances. With Tuva as a guide, Ida’s forced to become a take-charge heroine.
The Norwegian setting is breathtaking, adding rich production value. Perhaps more importantly, it furthers the authenticity of this distressing narrative. The gorgeous cinematography by Eric Börjeson for underwater sequences keeps the action crystal clear. The serene depths mask the dangers, and that translates well on screen.
Clocking in at around 90-minutes, Breaking Surface makes for a non-stop, unrelentingly intense thriller that never struggles to find new ways to prolong the answer to whether these sisters will make it out alive. It’s lean, simple, and focused solely on the survival component, but Ida’s family drama doesn’t contribute much to the story at all. It’s an unnecessary way of upping the emotional stakes and fleshing out her character. By the end, it’s all but forgotten. That’s for the best, because Breaking Surface doesn’t need anything more beyond these two capable sisters fighting to live, and that’s where it excels. Hedén’s approach to realism heightens a slickly produced aquatic thriller that goes for the jugular in intensity. The filmmaker demonstrates that mother nature doesn’t need sharks or aquatic beasties to kill you; it can knock you out in several ways with alarming ease.
Breaking Surface made its US Premiere at the Nightstream Film Festival.
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At the Abigail premiere, Dan Stevens listed Norway among his four favorite vampire movies. “I just saw a great movie recently that I’d never heard of,” he told Letterboxd. “A Greek film called Norway, about a vampire who basically exists in the underground disco scene in ’80s Athens, and he can’t stop dancing ’cause he’s worried his heart will stop. And it’s lovely. It’s great.”
You won’t find a better endorsement than that, but allow me to elaborate. Imagine Only Lovers Left Alive meets What We Do in the Shadows by way of Yorgos Lanthimos. The quirky 2014 effort follows a vampire vagabond (Vangelis Mourikis) navigating Greek’s sordid nightlife circa 1984 as he dances to stay alive. Not as campy as it sounds, its idiosyncrasies land more in the art-house realm. Stylized visuals, colorful bloodshed, pulsating dance music, and an absurd third-act reveal help the existentialism go down in a mere 74 minutes.
With the recent solar eclipse renewing public interest in the astrological event, Bloody Birthday is ripe for rediscovery. Three children born during an eclipse – Curtis Taylor (Billy Jayne, Parker Lewis Can’t Lose), Debbie Brody (Elizabeth Hoy), and Steven Seton (Andrew Freeman) – begin committing murders on their 10th birthday. Brother and sister duo Joyce (Lori Lethin, Return to Horror High) and Timmy Russell (K.C. Martel, The Amityville Horror) are the only ones privy to their heinous acts.
Bloody Birthday opened in 1981 mere weeks before the release of another attempt to claim the birthday slot on the slasher calendar, Happy Birthday to Me. Director Ed Hunt (The Brain) combines creepy kid tropes that date back to The Bad Seed with slasher conventions recently established by Halloween and Friday the 13th – with a little bit of the former’s suspense and plenty of the latter’s gratuity. The unconventional set up helps it to stand out among a subgenre plagued by banality.
Starting in the late ’70s and throughout the ’80s, Italy built an enterprise out of shameless rip-offs of hit American movies. While not a blatant mockbuster like Cruel Jaws or Beyond the Door, 1989’s Alien from the Abyss (also known as Alien from the Deep) was inspired by – as you may have guessed from its title – Alien, Aliens, and The Abyss.
After a pair of Greenpeace activists attempt to expose an evil corporation that’s dumping contaminated waste into an active volcano, the environment takes a backseat to survival when an extraterrestrial monster attacks. Character actor Charles Napier (The Silence of the Lambs) co-stars as a callous colonel overseeing the illicit activities.
Director Antonio Margheriti (Yor: The Hunter from the Future, Cannibal Apocalypse) and writer Tito Carpi (Tentacles, Last Cannibal World) take far too long to get to the alien, but once it shows up, it’s non-stop excitement. The creature is largely represented by a Gigeresque pincer claw that reaches into the frame, giving the picture a ’50s creature feature charm, but nothing can prepare you for its full reveal in the finale.
Set against the backdrop of displaced Syrian and Palestinian refugees, What Is Buried Must Remain is a timely found footage hybrid from Lebanon. It centers on a trio of young filmmakers as they make a documentary in a decrepit mansion alleged to be haunted on the outskirts of a refugee camp. Inside, they find the spirits of those who died there, both benevolent and malicious.
It plays like Blair Witch meets The Shining through a cultural lens not often seen in the genre. The first half is presented as found footage (with above-average cinematography) before abruptly weaving in more traditional film coverage. While the tropes are familiar, the film possesses a unique ethos by addressing the Middle East’s plights of the past and the present alike.
Cathy’s Curse is, to borrow a phrase from its titular creepy kid, an “extra rare piece of shit.” The Exorcist, The Omen, and Carrie spawned countless low-budget knock-offs, but none are as uniquely inept as this 1977 Canuxploitation outing. Falling squarely in the so-bad-it’s-good camp, it’s far more entertaining than The Exorcist: Believer.
To try to make sense of the plot would be futile, but in a nutshell, a young girl named Candy (Randi Allen, in her only acting role) becomes possessed by the vengeful, foul-mouthed spirit of her aunt, destroying the lives of anyone who crosses her path. What ensues is a madcap mélange of possession, telekinesis, teleportation, animal attacks, abandoned plot points, and unhinged filmmaking that must be seen to be believed.
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