‘Underwater’ is a thriller that doesn’t quite embrace its weirdness enough

The generically titled thriller “Underwater” veers between being too crazy and not quite crazy enough, without ever hitting the sweet spot a ludicrously premised movie like this requires.

Caught at the nexus of “Alien,” “The Abyss” and “The Blair Witch Project,” “Underwater” is set in a drilling facility at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, nearly seven miles down in the Pacific Ocean. There lies the Kepler station, housing 316 crew members that control the nearby Roebuck drilling rig. When an earthquake hits, the Kepler station is severely damaged, and the pressure of the depths starts buckling sections of the massive facility.

After some scrambling about, six survivors land in one room. The one we’ve seen the most of is Norah (Kristen Stewart), a mechanical engineer who seemingly can hack or rewire anything. There’s also Rodrigo (Mamoudou Athie), Paul (T.J. Miller), Smith (John Gallagher Jr.) and his marine biologist girlfriend, Emily (Jessica Henwick), and Capt. Lucien (Vincent Cassel), who managed to evacuate a fair number of people before the escape pods ran out. Weirdly, except for the captain, the guys don’t have actual jobs — and only Miller’s Paul is allowed any personality quirks.

Capt. Lucien devises a plan for them to get out alive as the Kepler crashes down to the ocean floor. The plan requires them donning diving suits and traversing the ocean floor to the Roebuck drilling site, a mile away, where there should be more escape pods. That’s if the pressure of being that far underwater doesn’t kill them.

Once they get going, though, the crewmembers learn there’s something else they haven’t considered: Something else is down there with them, and could kill them, too.

Director William Eubank (who made the effective low-budget alien thriller “The Signal”) devises some nasty set pieces full of creepy effects, knocking members out of the party one at a time. But there’s a rote feeling to some of the jump scares, as well as the sort of narrative confusion when you put all six of your cast members in identical diving suits.

That’s the not-crazy-enough part of “Underwater.” The too-crazy part comes in the monster mash of a finale, which plays more like a video game’s final boss battle than a sensible action ending. But the cast, particularly Stewart, is game for anything — even crawling through the guts of a slimy beast, which is something no one needs to see.

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‘Underwater’

★★1/2

Opens Friday, January 10, in theaters everywhere. Rated PG-13 for sci-fi action and terror, and brief strong language. Running time: 95 minutes.