Under Paris

• (French: Sous la Seine)
• Directed by Xavier Gens
• June 5, 2024
• Netflix

A marine biologist is forced to face her tragic past and help save Paris from a bloodbath when a giant shark appears in the Seine.

After the first few minutes I can’t say I expected to like Under Paris (French: Sous la Seine) to any extent by the end. I was even fully prepared to shut it off and find something even bigger and dumber yet there is enough enjoyment in what they give that I could keep watching.

This is a nature’s revenge story set in Paris about a shark that started out normal and then grew huge before slaughtering a whole scientific team and then three years later showing up in Paris with some crusading environmentalists trying to save it. It’s not like those environmentalists are unaware that the shark killed these people. They go out of their way to save this known people eater.

Under Paris can get derivative. Much like in Jaws you have local officials unwilling to do the smart thing. While there it was so they could cash in on the tourist season, here it is so they can cash in the Olympics. There are people from around the world and officials won’t take steps to make sure everyone lives? Sure. Why not. The gathered media will ignore the corpses. We even get not one but two beach panic scenes. One occurs in a reservoir under the city while another happens with every camera on planet Earth watching. I expected Roy Scheider to show up. Characters way too often ignore the obvious or do the stupid just to move things forward.

Another thing bothers me. Our assorted characters keep calling what this shark is doing a behavior change while also talking up how it has gotten bigger and even discovering that it reproduces asexually thus explaining a few things seen in the opening scene. A behavior change and this clearly becoming a new species are not the same. Maybe it was a translation thing that nobody thought to fix.

And they are some of the prettiest people that you will ever see misusing language. This centers around a scientist and a group of river cops. Those cops are good looking enough to model clothing and be in magazines. The scientist not so much. Why?

And Under Paris follows the recent film trend of trying to be a scary message film. Pollution and climate change have caused this new breed of shark that can produce asexually to be born that is named ‘Lilith’. From the name with religious connotations to the message to just about everything, they do not hide the environmental message and Almighty punishment of this movie much like was done in The Black Demon.

As a message film it beats you over the head with its message. Normally I hate message films that put message before a good story but the level of gore and ultimately the level of destruction gets me past that. It moves the story into dumb territory so the message is kind of muted. When you get stupid even the biggest lectures have some charm. Like when a doubting character looks away and you see a fin pop up behind them for a moment. Or when the characters make plenty of stupid decisions that get them eaten by the member of nature exacting the revenge. As trashy schlock though it hits all the right notes. It’s dumb enough to be entertaining, and that’s pretty much it. 

The gore we get is not that heavy. It is mostly red water and severed body parts floating. I do not recall seeing much actual carnage. Most of it is implied with we the viewer seeing the aftermath. Screams followed by red water or people missing limbs being frantically tended to.

Under Paris is no great cinematic achievement but it is dumb fun. The message which is most certainly present gets drowned out by the excessive stupidity of the characters and the mild gore. This is an enjoyable watch.