Curator Watchlist
A knowingly absurd shark-in-Paris disaster movie with enough momentum, gore, and citywide spectacle to work as a late-night watch, even if the plotting is clumsy and the satire is uneven. It’s best approached as a pulpy creature feature with environmental anxieties and a few genuinely fun set pieces rather than a… Read more
Where to watch: Buy
Tue · 1h 42m
Director: Xavier Gens
Starring: Bérénice Bejo, Nassim Lyes, Léa Léviant
In order to save Paris from an international bloodbath, a grieving scientist is forced to face her tragic past when a giant shark appears in the Seine.
Xavier Gens
Bérénice Bejo, Nassim Lyes, Léa Léviant
A knowingly absurd shark-in-Paris disaster movie with enough momentum, gore, and citywide spectacle to work as a late-night watch, even if the plotting is clumsy and the satire is uneven. It’s best approached as a pulpy creature feature with environmental anxieties and a few genuinely fun set pieces rather than a polished thriller.
Under Paris takes a ridiculous premise and commits to it with enough seriousness to make the absurdity land. The result is a creature feature that is often more entertaining in concept than in execution, but its murky river setting, city-scale panic, and occasional splashes of gore give it a scrappy, watchable energy.
The film’s environmental angle is its most interesting layer, even if the script sometimes treats activism and bureaucracy as blunt instruments rather than lived-in ideas. That tension between earnest warning and pulpy mayhem is what gives the movie its odd charm: it’s trying to be a disaster thriller, a shark attack movie, and a climate parable at once.
When it works, it works because the movie understands the basic appeal of a shark film: escalating danger, public denial, and a few big payoff scenes. When it doesn’t, the pacing drags and the logic frays. Still, for viewers who can enjoy a glossy, slightly deranged B-movie with mainstream polish, it’s an easy curiosity to sample.
Matthew Kelly (1★) · 3765 likes
At no point does anyone say "Shark-re Bleu!" One star.
kdasari07 (3★) · 2904 likes
Damn the shark actually wins
Joe A (2★) · 2654 likes
Well the ending was fun? Like I have to give the movie credit, not sure a movie has ended like that ever before.
Kylo (3★) · 2329 likes
You can never count on the Mayor to make the right decision when there’s an event on in town.
ro🫧 (3★) · 2269 likes
oh miss lilith you did not have to EAT like that
The foundational shark thriller: suspenseful, character-driven, and the clearest comparison point for anyone drawn to aquatic terror and public panic.
A lean survival shark movie that keeps the focus on tension, physical danger, and a single determined protagonist.
Claustrophobic creature-feature suspense with a similar appeal for viewers who want sharks, dread, and escalating survival stakes.
A pulpy disaster-horror hybrid that balances creature attacks with fast-moving survival action and a fun B-movie spirit.
Big, glossy, knowingly ridiculous monster-movie spectacle for viewers who want a giant predator and a lighter tone.
A slick, goofy sea-monster action horror film that thrives on chaos, creature mayhem, and broad entertainment value.
A classic late-90s creature feature with a similar mix of absurd premise, crowd-pleasing monster attacks, and pulp energy.
Another playful monster movie that leans into dark humor, local panic, and the fun of a deadly creature in an unexpected place.
A gleefully trashy creature feature that embraces gore, chaos, and camp with far less restraint.
A monster movie with social satire and family stakes, offering a smarter, more emotionally grounded version of urban creature chaos.
For viewers who like large-scale disaster spectacle, public panic, and the feeling of nature turning violently against human systems.
Found-footage city panic and escalating disaster energy for audiences who enjoy urban chaos and helplessness on a massive scale.
giant creature attack, environmental disaster, grief and trauma, public panic, bureaucratic failure, urban survival, eco-horror, spectacle over realism
shark attack, disaster thriller, eco-horror, campy, urban survival, French cinema, creature feature, climate anxiety, action horror, B-movie