A deep sea mining team discover a sunken ship and they bring back some cargo from it- but after bringing it aboard one by one the crew becomes contaminated from some strange under-water organism.
This film is nothing but an 'Alien', 'The Thing' and you can kind of add 'the Abyss' hybrid, ripping off the plot of 'alien' and the special effects and monster design from the 'the thing'- but this time its not set in space or on ice but actually under water. It was not the only under-water feature film to come out that year but also 'the abyss' and 'deepstar six' with it sharing more common ground with the latter.
I'm not really a fan of under-water features; 'The Abyss' was pretentiously over blown and dull, 'Sphere' *Yawn*, 'The Deep' was sleep inducing and 'DeepStar Six' was *hmm* fair- but still irritable. Well though this was an under-water film and basically a rip-off of two great films, it actually isn't that bad- because of a pretty good cast involving Peter Weller, Ernie Hudson, Daniel Stern, Richard Crenna and Amanda Pays and the wonderfully realistic special effects truly pack a wallop and a pretty bizarre- but decent monster design from Stan Winston.
It does have a very slow opening- but the characters themselves make up for it, though they might be cliché ridden, like the joker, cool headed leader, mischievousness doctor, token smart-ass black guy, the edgy and unstable guy, the young go-getter and the strong willed female- but at least they were likable and compelling and that's because of some good performances and a witty script, than that of the similar monster film 'DeepStar six'.
The slow first half makes way for an adrenaline pack second half where the tensity mounts, there are some tense and very claustrophobic scenes that keep you on edge- but overall the film mostly lacks surprise and does become predictable, especially if you've seen 'Alien' and 'The Thing'.
The monster itself looked quite astonishing... especially the change it goes through is truly mesmerising, even more then the finish product and a detail explanation of the monster's origin is a welcome change. The score is definitely one of the standouts by Jerry Goldsmith (who also did 'Alien'), who captures the alienation of the sea and the tension of the edgy situation that occurs. While the cinematography of the under-water mining base and the ocean floor is fairly eye-catching, as the look and setting of the film is vibrantly rich and engaging in detail.
This film can only be appreciated as nothing more than an unoriginal- but amusing rip-off. I for one enjoyed it for what it was.
3/5
This film is nothing but an 'Alien', 'The Thing' and you can kind of add 'the Abyss' hybrid, ripping off the plot of 'alien' and the special effects and monster design from the 'the thing'- but this time its not set in space or on ice but actually under water. It was not the only under-water feature film to come out that year but also 'the abyss' and 'deepstar six' with it sharing more common ground with the latter.
I'm not really a fan of under-water features; 'The Abyss' was pretentiously over blown and dull, 'Sphere' *Yawn*, 'The Deep' was sleep inducing and 'DeepStar Six' was *hmm* fair- but still irritable. Well though this was an under-water film and basically a rip-off of two great films, it actually isn't that bad- because of a pretty good cast involving Peter Weller, Ernie Hudson, Daniel Stern, Richard Crenna and Amanda Pays and the wonderfully realistic special effects truly pack a wallop and a pretty bizarre- but decent monster design from Stan Winston.
It does have a very slow opening- but the characters themselves make up for it, though they might be cliché ridden, like the joker, cool headed leader, mischievousness doctor, token smart-ass black guy, the edgy and unstable guy, the young go-getter and the strong willed female- but at least they were likable and compelling and that's because of some good performances and a witty script, than that of the similar monster film 'DeepStar six'.
The slow first half makes way for an adrenaline pack second half where the tensity mounts, there are some tense and very claustrophobic scenes that keep you on edge- but overall the film mostly lacks surprise and does become predictable, especially if you've seen 'Alien' and 'The Thing'.
The monster itself looked quite astonishing... especially the change it goes through is truly mesmerising, even more then the finish product and a detail explanation of the monster's origin is a welcome change. The score is definitely one of the standouts by Jerry Goldsmith (who also did 'Alien'), who captures the alienation of the sea and the tension of the edgy situation that occurs. While the cinematography of the under-water mining base and the ocean floor is fairly eye-catching, as the look and setting of the film is vibrantly rich and engaging in detail.
This film can only be appreciated as nothing more than an unoriginal- but amusing rip-off. I for one enjoyed it for what it was.
3/5