A nightly peruse of my Netflix recommendations led me to a new high-suspense thriller, Under Paris. The movie, directed by Xavier Gens, is a French film centered on marine biologist, Sophia, played by Bérénice Bejo. Sophia is tasked with the insurmountable feat of eradicating sharks from the Seine. The movie garnered international attention, quickly becoming Netflix’s 5th most watched Non-English film. At an hour and forty-four minutes runtime, Gens ensures to piecemeal the horror in this campy thriller. If you’re looking for jump scares and boogeymen, look elsewhere. The futility of the unknown drives the horror in this plot. Like your favorite beer, it is an acquired taste. Nonetheless, it is a fresh attempt at blending ecological dystopia and psychological horror. Let’s get into the themes that showed up throughout the film and discuss what worked and what didn’t.
Spoilers are imminent. I warned you.
The Past Always Comes Back to Bite
This isn’t just a clever subheading, it’s also the film’s premise. The film opens with Sophia and a team of divers searching for a shark they tagged and were observing. The shark, Lilith, returns and, you guessed it, mauls the crew–except for Sophia–to death. Sophia narrowly escapes death and vows to never think of Lilith again. Many years later, Lilith returns and makes the Seine her new home. Her presence attracts the attention of a local radical conservationist group, reawakening the terror induced in Sophia. Lilith also attracts the attention of law enforcement, spearheaded by Adil, played by Nassim Lyes.
The various groups contest their solutions against each other while simultaneously peeling back the mystery that is Lilith. Why would a shark, whose natural habitat is salt water, choose the freshwater Seine for its nest? How do you safely remove a shark from it while not risking innocent lives? Sophia feels a special responsibility for Lilith’s actions, failing to subdue her many years prior, and is now on the loose causing havoc in the present day. The ecological angle Gens takes is apparent as we juxtapose the film with real-world manipulations of nature. How will our past transgressions against nature come back to bite us? With 2024 on pace to be the hottest year on record and unprecedented natural disasters plaguing humanity, Gens’ shark allegory feels all too real.
The Horrors of the Deep
As stated earlier, the film’s horror lies in the suspense rather than the climax–Lilith appears fairly little, mostly depicted as an ominous circling fin. This is enough, however, to make clear that the Seine is Lilith’s new hunting ground. Lilith’s ferocity is magnified when it’s discovered she has evolved into a new species of shark–one that is capable of asexual reproduction. This leads to the shocking discovery of thousands of self-reproducing sharks living in the Seine.
In the few scenes of shark violence, Gens does not hold back on the gore. Almost every time a character entered the Seine, we witnessed their gruesome fate in crystal clear detail. Well, as crystal clear as a Netflix CGI budget will get you. This was a major blow to my enjoyment of the film. We do not get many scenes of shark attacks and when we do, some come off as cheesy.
A Blind Eye To The Truth
This wouldn’t be an ecological thriller if we did not have a government entity completely ignoring the magnitude of the problem. While Sophia and Adil are combating Lilith and her offspring, Paris is preparing to host its annual triathlon. This year is critical as it will be a major look at potentially hosting the Olympics. The Mayor of Paris, played by Anne Marvin, is far more concerned with putting on the triathlon as planned despite pleas that the Seine is far too unsafe to swim in.
Whether by coincidence or intention, the real-life Seine is facing a similar problem ahead of the Olympics this summer. The Seine is contaminated with bacteria from sewage and wastewater. As of June 21, 2024, the Seine recorded unsafe levels of E.Coli and enterococci despite Olympic organizers raising $2.2 billion to clean it up. Real-life Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, assures the world that major initiatives are underway to make the Seine safe for various Olympic events. Much like the characters in Under Paris, Parisians do not seem to agree. Many have decided to throw fecal matter and waste into the Seine in protest of the local government’s preference for profit over people.
Under Paris feels like the many world-ending films Netflix released recently. While those in power can make the necessary changes to keep pace with drastic ecological changes, they rarely make the right call. The ending of the film is inevitable as the city is overtaken by sharks and find themselves under Paris.
All in all, the film is not very action-packed, nor does it carry itself on meme-able moments. Instead, Gens gives us a film that makes stark criticisms of our current conversation surrounding conservationism.
Under Paris is now available to stream on Netflix. Featured image courtesy of Netflix.