55
Metascore
20 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 83Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumEntertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumIn the handsome, haunting submarine thriller Below, the usual perils of deep-sea maneuvers are heightened by psychic unraveling.
- 75ReelViewsJames BerardinelliReelViewsJames BerardinelliAs ghost stories go, this one is handled with great subtlety and delicacy.
- 70Los Angeles TimesManohla DargisLos Angeles TimesManohla DargisHas a slamming first hour. As Ian Wilson's camera darts over Charles Lee's spookily atmospheric sets, enigmas sprout like mushrooms.
- 63Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertA 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.
- 63Boston GlobeJanice PageBoston GlobeJanice PageWith more character development this might have been an eerie thriller; with better payoffs, it could have been a thinking man's monster movie.
- 50The A.V. ClubNathan RabinThe A.V. ClubNathan RabinTwohy 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.
- 50TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonaghTV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonaghSituations 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.
- 50San Francisco ChronicleEdward GuthmannSan Francisco ChronicleEdward GuthmannThe dialogue, heavy on sarcasm and puncturing insults, never captures the World War II period but sounds ridiculously anachronistic.
- 30Washington PostStephen HunterWashington PostStephen HunterIt 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.
- 30VarietyTodd McCarthyVarietyTodd McCarthyThis 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.