10 Recent Horror Movies That Broke All The Rules

Rule Break: The monster wins, and the apocalypse is televised.

French director Xavier Gens is no stranger to breaking horror conventions. His debut Frontière(s) was a relentlessly grim gem of the New French Extremity wave, offering zero relief. His underrated apocalyptic thriller The Divide took the classic bunker survival setup and gleefully subverted every trope and emotional connection along the way.

So, what’s he doing directing a Netflix shark movie set in Paris?

Well, Under Paris might sound like a straight-to-streaming disaster and the kind of premise you'd expect from The Asylum, but Gens brings his genre-warping sensibilities to the table. Despite the film’s bonkers neo-science explanation for why there’s a shark in the Seine, he plays it (mostly) straight: sharp direction, tense set-pieces, grounded performances, and - against all odds - some genuinely eerie moments.

But the real jaw-dropper? That ending! The shark wins. Big. It's a bleak twist that throws creature feature logic out the window and dares to end on a city-wide massacre.

Yes, the plot veers into goofy territory (there’s even a political movement trying to protect the shark), but Under Paris remains a stylish monster movie with surprisingly strong execution, gorgeous cinematography, and just enough self-awareness to make it all work...mostly. Not high art, but definitely high-grade cheese.