Netflix Horror Thriller Lands With 100% Rotten Tomatoes Score
Jason Statham’s The Meg, though received with mixed reviews, was a massive commercial success, as it quadrupled its production budget at the box office, which warranted a sequel—which did even less to impress the critics, but it surely impressed the audiences.
However, besides making money, The Meg also revived the shark-action and shark-horror movies; now the French made one such movie too—unlike The Meg, 2024’s Under Paris, which is currently available on Netflix, is beginning to show hallmarks of critical acclaim.
A Critical Hit
Where The Meg is pure action with jump-scare elements in which a massive megalodon jumps out of the ocean to eat a smaller megalodon and half a boat, Under Paris from Netflix deals with the shark theme in a completely different manner by grafting ecological message onto the Jaws blueprint.
This includes the European government officials and sponsors who openly ignore expertise and concerns regarding a shark that swims in the Seine River. This in itself wouldn’t be much of a problem, were it not for an aquatic sports event taking place on the river.
An Atlantic Shark In Paris
Netflix’s Under Paris follows a team of scientists on the tails of a giant shark that has evolved to survive in both ocean water and polluted freshwaters, on top of being able to self-reproduce without a mate. The beast makes for the Seine River and the Paris underwater sewers catacombs to spawn an ever-growing school of man-eating baby sharks just ahead of the Triathlon event that promises sustenance and nutrition for its swimming hellspawn.
Cheesy Shark Movie Done Right
If that doesn’t sound exciting enough, add politicians who ignore shark warnings and shark-hugging eco-activists into the mix, and Netflix’s Under Paris promises good fun. Sure, it may sound like a cheesy shark movie, but showing neglectful politicians scoring political points on a sports event while a massive shark that jumped millions of years of evolution eating the limbs of civilians in freshwater rivers isn’t too difficult to imagine. Especially the neglectful politicians part.
Modern B-Movie Masterpiece
Add the eco-activists to the mix, and you have a cinematic depiction of Scuzz Twittly’s “Keep Hugging That Tree” song, but with sharks instead of wolves. It’s a mere connective tissue that helps carry the viewers through the movie and provides nothing but an uninteresting drama that highlights the more action-oriented sequences. The end result is quite peculiar because Netflix’s Under Paris blends the overly serious eco-horror with action-horror elements, heavily sprinkled with B-movie gore.
Streaming Exclusively On Netflix
With everything said, there’s a reason why Netflix’s Under Paris currently has a 100 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a pretty strong audience score as well—its recipe works, and it apparently works better than the one used for The Meg.
Admittedly, the score is still rather fresh, so there is a possibility of it declining or increasing in the future, but it’s pretty evident that Under Paris isn’t just another The Meg or Jaws copy. It’s actually a pretty great movie in its own right, and we strongly recommend it.
Netflix’s Under Paris is currently available to stream on the platform, so grab your popcorn and soda and prepare to be entertained.
