Good luck going for a swim after watching this one
Imagine Jaws, now imagine he’s French, now imagine he’s at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
That is pretty much the gist of this French horror that is taking Netflix by storm and has even turned the head of horror royalty Stephen King, best known for his creations such as Carrie, IT and The Shining.
The world-renowned writer said that he thought the film would be a “jokey movie”, however it is in fact “really quite good.” High praise from the king himself.
The film in question is called Under Paris and is a French creation from director Xavier Gens, known for his Gangs of London TV series and the first Hitman film.
The premise of the film is similar to any shark-attack horror, where a large shark finds itself in a human dense environment on the eve of a large event where lots of tasty people will be and it is up to the protagonists to put an end to the carnage, no matter the cost.
However, Under Paris does come with a modern twist that spotlights climate change and the impact humans are having on the habitats of animals with a key plot point being the changing water temperatures that has forced this man-eating monster into the Seine river in Paris.
The film follows the exciting teaming-up of a scientist and the commander of the Seine river police who have to work together to prevent a bloodbath at the World Triathlon Championships, being held in the Seine for the first time.
Despite average reviews across IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes, the film has instantly become a cult classic as it takes over rankings on Netflix.
Stephen King said he only watched the film that he thought would be “like Sharknado” because of the amount of messages he was receiving on X urging him to give it a chance, but was ultimately glad to have done so saying “the last 25 minutes were amazing.”
For those up to date with the Paris 2024 Olympics the irony of a triathlon race turning sour in the Seine will not be lost on them with many parallels being drawn by the way the French government have tried to clean up the river in time for use at this years games.
President Macron has vowed that he will swim in the river when it is ready for the Olympics, an activity banned since 1923 because of how polluted it is. Many doubt this will ever happen as the French president is yet to give a date for his paddle with the Olympics only six weeks away.
The river is scheduled to see the marathon swimming and triathlon events take place in the Seine river.
Interestingly enough the film was shot all in Belgium and Spain, showing what a great job the post production team has done in bringing all the elements of this film together.
As a French creation, this movie is all in spoken French, however viewers have the choice to enjoy this film à la française with accompanied by English subtitles or dubbed directly into English.
Under Paris has seen incredible success for a foreign film, being viewed more than 41 million times in its opening five days while topping Netflix’s top 10 for non-English language films across 93 countries.
Read next:
Scotland fans injured in major crash after ‘forgetting Germany drive on the right’
Man Utd make £45m offer for Jarrad Branthwaite while Everton claim he is not for sale
