Warning: This article contains SPOILERS for Deep Water!
Vic Van Allen has a peculiar obsession with snails that is left relatively unexplained throughout Deep Water, though his strange hobby has a much deeper meaning than the film lets on. Based on the 1957 Patricia Highsmith book of the same name and directed by Adrian Lyne, Deep Water's cast is led by Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas as Vic and Melinda Van Allen, a couple in a passionless marriage who begin playing dangerous mind games with each other and those who dare to become intertwined in them. Vic’s lack of passion in his marriage becomes a significant reason behind Melinda openly seeking affairs with other men, with Vic's main priorities being his daughter and his snails.
Between the acts that follow Melinda's different lovers, Deep Water frequently cuts to Vic in his garage-turned-greenhouse, where he attentively raises and studies the habits of snails. At first, it’s hinted that the snails will have a curious part in the murders of Melinda’s lovers, but no such revelation occurs. Instead, Vic’s obsession with snails in Deep Water seems to be just that, albeit in one climactic scene in which Melinda finds Tony’s wallet in a box of the snails. Including the strange snail facts that Vic tells those who come to his home, under the surface of Deep Water’s snail scenes is a look into the psyche of the indifferent cuckold-turned-murderer.
Hulu’s 2022 film Deep Water primarily uses the snails in close-up shots to provide an erotic, slimy metaphor for Vic’s substitution for sexual passion with his wife, with the gastropods proving that Vic is passionate about something – it’s just not his wife. The snails were more prominently featured in Deep Water’s 1957 book, which had Vic obsessing over the mating rituals of two particular snails he was raising as stand-ins for his sexless marriage with Melinda. Leading up to Deep Water's ending, director Adrian Lyne cuts to quick close-up shots of two snails in Vic’s garage, which continue this metaphor for Vic and Melinda’s tumultuous marriage. Vic even mentions to Don that a snail would climb a “12-foot wall to find its mate” because of the smell, thus proving the lengths that one will go to in order to stay with the one they’re meant for, even though Vic’s “12-foot wall” is murdering Melinda’s lovers.
The snails also serve a purpose in Deep Water by demonstrating that Vic has a long-repressed controlling personality. Since he and Melinda’s marriage became largely sexless, with Melinda even telling him to go sleep in a different room after a party, Deep Water’s snails are a refuge for Vic, as a passion that he can completely control. He can’t control Ana de Armas' Deep Water character, and no matter how much he tells their friends her affairs are all “innocent fun,” Hulu’s film shows Ben Affleck’s controlling character gradually unraveling as he finds his dominance by murdering Melinda’s lovers. Oddly enough, the snail scenes are the most sexually-charged element of Deep Water, which complements the idea that this is the only aspect of Vic’s life in which he has a domineering control, thus giving him the most satisfaction.
Although the snails didn’t come in handy to cover up the murders of Charlie and Tony, their inclusion in Deep Water was utilized fittingly as a representation of Vic’s sexual frustrations. In fact, the snails are the only part of Vic’s life that he’ll vehemently stand up for in public – as proven by when he screams at Tony that the snails are not for eating. These men can touch his wife, but they better not joke about using his snails to make escargot. While the negatively-reviewed Deep Water may have been lacking the levels of erotica normally expected for an Adrian Lyne film, it’s a good thing Disney didn’t end up cutting out the snail scenes as they had planned. Alongside being the most sexual aspect of Vic’s character, Deep Water’s snails provide the deepest insight into his psyche as the thriller unfolds the frustrations of his passionless marriage.