Published by Mason Oldridge, 24 June 2024
CONTAINS SPOILERS!
You’re gonna need a bigger boat for this French action-horror that has taken the Netflix charts by storm.
The film sees a marine researcher team up with the Parisian river police when a mako shark becomes lost in the Seine in the run up to a triathlon in the city.
Any prenotions that this is just another entry of the saturated shark attack subgenre following the likes of the Meg and 47 Meters Down series’ can be kiboshed as it maintains enough originality to stand on its own. First of all, the shark has ventured inland to Paris and therefore is not set in the sea.
Also, there are a few shocks in the film compared to the subgenre’s relative predictability, such as when environmentalist Mika leads a group of followers to the catacombs and enters the water, only to launch a scary mass attack resulting in several deaths. Furthermore, the discovery that Lilith is a new breed which can reproduce asexually and is rapidly doing so highlights the growing scale of the issue.
However, the best element of the film is the ending as it moves towards becoming a disaster movie. In opposition to the usual closer in which the shark is captured and killed, attempts to do so reignite unexploded ordnance, culminating in a tsunami and consequential flooding of Paris. The film ends with Sophia and Adil atop a building before revealing how the sharks have spread across the world in an epic yet chilling conclusion.
There’s some lulls between action scenes but on the whole, Under Paris separates itself from the other Jaws replicas with a unique approach and a terrifying ending.
7/10