Terror Taught Me: Underwater & the Public Domain

This week we’re reposting some old articles.

Underwater, one of the last U.S. releases before shutdown, features the writing of Black List perennial Brian Duffield (though this particular script was on the Hit List). It follows a deep sea drilling crew making their way across the ocean floor while pursued by prehistoric monsters. Dark and claustrophobic set pieces abound.

But what we will be looking at is definitely spoiler territory, so make sure you’re ready . Today’s lesson comes from the movie’s third act.

All set? Okay.

Stealth Public Domain Adaptation

In the final moments of the movie, as our few survivors struggle to find a way back to the surface, they discover where these monsters have been coming from. And it’s straight up Cthulu. The Cthulu. He never gets named out loud, but the wings and tentacle mouth are a dead give-away. We’ve actually been watching a Lovecraft adaptation this whole time.

In retrospect it makes perfect sense. We get some hints and nods throughout, like the pentagram on the map in the second station. And the plot beats line up well with the prototypical Cthulu mythos story – humans go where they were not meant to tread, awakening more and more horrors until coming face to face with some old god woken from its slumber.

Rather than doing a straight adaptation of a specific story, Duffield pursues a fresh way into the concept. He takes a modern set-up and characters – deep-sea miners – and then asks what would happen if they accidentally ran into a Lovecraft story. Mayhem ensues.

Applying To Your Writing

There’s definitely a fine line to walk here. Part of the appeal of IP is being able to market and leverage known material, which Underwater doesn’t really do. But you can still take the same approach and apply it to some other part of the public domain. This way you’re not beholden to the same plot beats that have been done many times before but can still engage with the same iconography.

What if you had a new character go into wonderland? What would happen if a lawyer from today arrived in Dracula’s castle? What kind of chaos could Puck cause for a different set of modern teens caught up in the drama of who loves who? Give yourself permission to take the most interesting bit of a public domain concept and create something fresh for the rest.