It’s a big success around the world and in France on the Netflix streaming platform. However, this film received bad reviews from the press and the public in France.
Popular does not necessarily mean qualitative. The latest film which is a hit on Netflix has proven it, since despite terrible reviews and opinions from spectators who are no longer convinced, this French feature film is the most seen around the world at the moment on the streaming platform.
The plot of this film, as criticized as it is watched, takes place in Paris, during the summer of 2024, not during the Olympic Games, but in the middle of the triathlon world championship. While politicians boast of such an event, it will take a bloody turn when an environmental activist and a brilliant scientist warn of the presence of a large shark in the Seine. The objective: to avoid carnage. This somewhat surprising scenario is that of Under the Seinedirected by Xavier Gens with Bérénice Bejo in the cast.
If the film is at the top of the most viewed films on the streaming platform at the moment with more than 40,000 views around the world for its first week online, Under the Seine is far from having convinced the press and the public. On Allociné, the thriller received a press rating of 2/5, with Les Echos describing it in particular as “a turnip that hits rock bottom”, Sud Ouest judging that it is “a disaster film without any flavor” , when Première describes it as an “implausible Z series”, despite “very successful” SFDs.
It is not better on the public side, since Allociné users give it a rating of 1.7/ (it is rare for the public to be more critical than the press). Added to this is the fact that director Vincent Dietschy attacks Netflix for “parasitism” by assuring that this horrific thriller would be inspired by his own screenplay, Catfish.
So how can we explain such success? Horror films are always popular, and shark films even more so. This is evidenced by the success of many nanars like Sharknadoor great cinema classics like Jaws. Audiences are always curious to see a sea creature gory and graphically devouring swimmers, a genre that has developed with varying degrees of success since Spielberg’s film. Add the pre-Olympic context in Paris and the concerns that the events planned in the Seine may give rise to (for pollution this time) and you will more or less have the recipe for a hit. Under the Seine is currently available on Netflix.