If I had a nickel for every time I played a Lovecraft-inspired video game and suddenly felt inspired to go to my local library and check out a tangentially related disaster movie with Mark Walburg that dramatized a tragic nautical disaster, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't much, but it's weird that it happened twice!
First, I played Dredge, game about being a fisherman in Lovecraftian waters, and suddenly felt the need to seek out Wolfgang Petersen's The Perfect Storm- still a pretty good movie. A few weeks later, I try out a game called Still Wakes the Deep, and suddenly I'm reminded of a movie about an oil rig disaster- Deepwater Horizon. I don't think I actually saw this when it came out in 2016, but I remembered seeing advertisements for it.
So why not take a look even if it is an odd way to have it brought to my attention... or is it?
Mike Williams (Mark Walberg), James Harrell (Kurt Russell), and Andrea Fleytas (Gina Rodriguez) are crew members assigned to the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, only to find it barely functional. Despite a multitude of problems and last-minute tests showing they really shouldn't be drilling here, BP executive Donald Vildrine (John Malkovich), decides to ignore the experts and force them to start drilling anyway. Because that's what happens when you put big businessmen in charge of dangerous machinery. PLOT TWIST! This turns out to be a really bad idea. The movie is a dramatization of the real-life Deepwater Horizon explosion, which caused a massive oil spill and killed 11 of its workers.
Disaster movies are notoriously hard to pull off. It's easy to get so caught up in the spectacle that the story feels more like an excuse to justify the special effects, or, on the flip side, to spend so much time on the buildup it takes too long to get to the actual disaster. Deepwater Horizon manages to find that comfortable middle ground. It takes its time getting to the big moment, but by the time the special effects happen, you've gotten acquainted with the major characters, conflicts, and the life of an oil rig worker.
The acting in this film is actually really good. Everyone seems to do their best and fully immerse themselves in their characters. Kurt Russel is barely recognizable with his big mustache and southern accent. But the real standout performance is John Malkovich as the charismatic BP executive Donald Vildrine. He really nails the role of a charismatic but ruthless businessman who misuses his authority, easily stealing the spotlight in every scene he's in. Interestingly, though, this is mostly in the first half, while he is completely silent in the second- an interesting reflection of his experiences.
And of course, we can't discuss a disaster movie without talking about the special effects. And the film certainly delivers on that. Deepwater Horizon takes full advantage of its setting to create a visual spectacle for the audience. Even before the fires and explosions happen, the audience is treated to some interesting views of the rig's inner workings. These shots, giving us a glimpse into how the drill shaft operates, actually do a lot for building up atmosphere.
Of course, when things actually start going wrong, it still delivers. The rig feels like a deathtrap from the start. Everything about it just feels like it's begging for something to go wrong. The team supposedly there to inspect the drill's structural integrity leaves the instant the main characters arrive, having done zero tests. A lot of the rig's machines are poorly maintained, if they even function at all (probably because BP is cheap). Even the phones aren't working properly. So when the explosion finally happens, it feels like a natural consequence of everything that's already been established.
Overall, Deepwater Horizon is a surprisingly competent disaster film from, of all people, Battleship director Peter Berg. Yeah, I was surprised to learn that, too. Turns out, he might be a more capable director than the infamous board game adaptation would have you believe. Even if it was a bit weird to be brought here by making an unlikely connection through a video game... or was it.
Still Wakes the Deep and Deepwater Horizon aren't quite as far off as you might expect. It's true that one is a grounded dramatization of real events while the other is a fictional Lovecraftian horror story, but ultimately they both start from the same basic point. They follow workers who end up trapped on a deadly oil rig because corporate greed forced them to drill where they shouldn't. And it could be argued that Deepwater Horizon's result is just as bad as, if not worse than, any monster Lovecraft could conceive. Interestingly, Deepwater Horizon even has people comparing the oil well to provoking a sea monster. It actually doesn't seem like that big a stretch to imagine the developers of Still Wakes the Deep were taking inspiration from Deepwater Horizon.
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