Into the Deep: The Submarine Murder Case
Year: 2022
Director: Emma Sullivan
Starring: Peter Madsen & Kim Wall
Runtime: 90 mins
BBFC: 15
Published: 15/09/23
Director: Emma Sullivan
Starring: Peter Madsen & Kim Wall
Runtime: 90 mins
BBFC: 15
Published: 15/09/23
I can’t understand how I managed to miss the ‘Submarine Case’ as it has been dubbed. I have close family connections to Denmark, and around the time of the trial depicted in this documentary I was in the country. Yet nobody mentioned it, I didn’t see it on Danish news, and somehow the first I learned of the whole thing was this documentary. Yet, this was a mystery that shook the country to its very core…apparently. Anyway, enough of my complete lack of awareness about current events, how was the film?
When documentary filmmaker Emma Sullivan began following Danish amateur inventor Peter Madsen in 2016, she would have no idea that this quirky guy who liked to build submarines would soon become the country’s most hated man.
When Peter and Swedish journalist Kim Wall ventured out into the sea surrounding Copenhagen in August 2017 on the amateur submarine ‘Nautilus’, Peter would be found a day later with no submarine and no Kim, claiming the vessel sunk, and that Kim never came on board with him.
But when holes begin to appear in Madsen’s story, the incident evolves from a missing persons case, into a murder investigation.
Into the Deep works on so many levels, and I think what makes that is just how gripping and scary it is. The documentary Sullivan set out to make was one about submarines and eccentric engineers, but the one she ended up needing to make was about uncovering the disturbing truth behind a mysterious disappearance.
When documentary filmmaker Emma Sullivan began following Danish amateur inventor Peter Madsen in 2016, she would have no idea that this quirky guy who liked to build submarines would soon become the country’s most hated man.
When Peter and Swedish journalist Kim Wall ventured out into the sea surrounding Copenhagen in August 2017 on the amateur submarine ‘Nautilus’, Peter would be found a day later with no submarine and no Kim, claiming the vessel sunk, and that Kim never came on board with him.
But when holes begin to appear in Madsen’s story, the incident evolves from a missing persons case, into a murder investigation.
Into the Deep works on so many levels, and I think what makes that is just how gripping and scary it is. The documentary Sullivan set out to make was one about submarines and eccentric engineers, but the one she ended up needing to make was about uncovering the disturbing truth behind a mysterious disappearance.
The documentary does unfold in a non/chronological format which I wasn’t particularly keen on. It opens with the Nautilus’ disappearance, people that Peter works with realising that he didn’t return from his dive the evening before. From here it concerns itself primarily with peeling back the layers of the mystery, and coverage of the court case. It only uses the footage from before the disappearance as context to Peter’s personality, which I personally found disappointing. I would rather the doc played out chronologically, and then replayed particular clips later on to gain new context behind Peter’s often strange choice of words.
It would have been nice to gain more insight into who Kim was. She’s given painfully little of the runtime, which I do understand on one hand because the documentary was always about Peter, but I feel it’s only right to have put a bit more focus on her than Sullivan does.
The best aspect to the documentary is the interviews given by those who work with Peter. All of these were conducted late into the process and focus on their personal relationship with Peter. For some it’s an exclusively positive experience, and for others it’s a startling realisation that they could just have easily been in Kim’s place.
I will briefly mention the Sky documentary miniseries Undercurrent: The Disappearance of Kim Wall as a companion piece to Into the Deep. I wouldn’t say it’s worth watching both as they cover a lot of the same ground, and Into the Deep does it much more concisely. But Undercurrent does a better job at giving Kim the spotlight, and it also has the benefit of being able to delve a bit deeper thanks to the longer runtime.
The submarine case is one of the most intriguing modern murder documentaries available. It manages to the subject matter of true crime genuinely frightening thanks to how well it frames the idea of this could have happened to literally anybody, just the wrong place at the wrong time.
If you’ve got a murder mystery itch, Into the Deep will certainly scratch it.
It would have been nice to gain more insight into who Kim was. She’s given painfully little of the runtime, which I do understand on one hand because the documentary was always about Peter, but I feel it’s only right to have put a bit more focus on her than Sullivan does.
The best aspect to the documentary is the interviews given by those who work with Peter. All of these were conducted late into the process and focus on their personal relationship with Peter. For some it’s an exclusively positive experience, and for others it’s a startling realisation that they could just have easily been in Kim’s place.
I will briefly mention the Sky documentary miniseries Undercurrent: The Disappearance of Kim Wall as a companion piece to Into the Deep. I wouldn’t say it’s worth watching both as they cover a lot of the same ground, and Into the Deep does it much more concisely. But Undercurrent does a better job at giving Kim the spotlight, and it also has the benefit of being able to delve a bit deeper thanks to the longer runtime.
The submarine case is one of the most intriguing modern murder documentaries available. It manages to the subject matter of true crime genuinely frightening thanks to how well it frames the idea of this could have happened to literally anybody, just the wrong place at the wrong time.
If you’ve got a murder mystery itch, Into the Deep will certainly scratch it.