johnlinkmovies

Had never heard of this sci-fi/horror film before stumbling upon it last night. And, really, any time you can find a potentially bad late 80s sic-fi/horror film you need to take the opportunity to watch it. As least, that’s how I feel.

I watched DEEPSTAR SIX (1989) on 11.30.14. It was my first viewing of the film.

This is a late 80s derivative of ALIEN. Someone clearly got their movie financed by saying “I basically want to make ALIEN, but under water. I’ll have a crew that is isolated and trying to do a job, a mix of women, a couple of minority representatives, corporate undertones, and a big freaking monster trying to kill everyone.”

Sounds cool, and this movie is endearing enough, even if it isn’t great. The monster loos weird more than scary, but we don’t even see it for the first hour. Instead it runs into the underwater vehicles these folks drive around while they bounce around inside and look at blips on a radar screen moving quickly towards them. Blips on a radar screen don’t make for scary movie watching once, let alone three times in a movie.

The script is quaint, in that it is filled with all the decently written but horribly-delivered jokes a movie has before a studio gets its hands on it. The main female character, played by Nancy Everhard (yes, Eric, that is her real name), is sleeping with the lead guy (Greg Evigan), but he doesn’t want to commit. So when we learn she is sick to her stomach in the first five minutes my wife immediately used her feminine instincts to realize she was pregnant. So that wasn’t a surprise when it came up forty minutes later.

The crew has this one real jerk, Snyder (Miguel Ferrer), who literally does everything wrong. He makes major mistakes six or seven times in the movie, and acts like an ass the whole time. We expect something redeeming to happen with him… but it never does. It’s actually surprising how much of an idiot the guy is. It’s hard to blame the movie for being unoriginal here, because normally this guy would be the first to die or find some redeeming quality at some point. This guy, instead, just keeps screwing up over and over.

But for all its warts, its lack of quality acting, and its suspect underwater photography, this is an engaging enough movie to be worth it for sci-fi geeks. The monster is not memorable, but the characters (other than Snyder) are likable and engaging. We want them to live, even if we know they are destined to die one by one. This movie also doesn’t skimp on the late 80’s gore. It isn’t exactly realistic, but there is a certain level of nostalgia watching a movie which hits the right mix of low-quality and high-ambition.

So this isn’t a classic, or a big recommend or anything. But it’s interesting even if it isn’t particularly original.

SCORES

FILM: 4; MOVIE: 8; ACTING: 4; WRITING: 5

4+8+4+5+0=21

FINAL SCORE: 5.25 out of 10

~ by johnlink00 on December 1, 2014.

Posted in ~ D ~, ~~~ 1989 ~~~
Tags: deepstar six, greg evigan, miguel ferrer, nancy everhard