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5
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4 |
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10
= Highest Rating |
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Executive-produced
by Roger Corman, this horror/sci-fi schlockfest
features bad acting, cheapjack production values
(nothing new for Corman!), a lame story and a
terrible script. I sort of liked it. Not the least
bit pretentious, the flick certainly has its heart
in the right place... The filmmakers knew exactly
where to put their emphasis: Beasts, breasts,
and gore.
It's basically a reworking of the 1978 Corman
film Piranha. Noyo,
a small town on the northern California coast,
is plagued by a rash of animal killings dogs
are turning up dead followed by the disappearance
of a number of its citizens. Racist fisherman
Hank Slattery (a permed, snarling Vic Morrow)
blames local Native Americans for the trouble.
The Indians, led by community activist Johnny
Eagle (Anthony Penya), are opposed to the construction
of a new cannery on environmental grounds, so
pro-business Slattery uses the crisis to turn
white citizens against them. Caught in the middle
is good-natured fisherman Jim Hill (At
The Earth's Core's Doug McClure), Johnny's
friend who believes the cannery will help Noyo's
economy.
The true culprits are a race of slimy, mutant
fish men spawned by the genetic experiments of
CanCo, the big industrial concern eyeing Noyo
as the site of its next fish canning plant. The
beasties have a pretty straightforward agenda:
kill any male humans encountered and rape/impregnate
the females preferably young, nubile gals with
nice, bouncy ta-tas. As Dr. Susan Drake (Ann Turkel),
a CanCo scientist investigating the situation,
puts it, these "humanoids" kill to protect their
habitat and ravage women to propagate their species
at the next level of evolution. By the time she,
Jim and Johnny figure all this out, however, the
nasty 'Noids have congregated along Noyo's waterfront
to launch a full-scale attack on the town's rather
lame annual Salmon festival. (The event's entertainment
is provided by Jo Williams and Her Whitewater
Boys, a septuagenarian Dixieland band whose most
rockin' tune is "Ta-Ra-Ra-Boom-Dee-Ay".) Fortunately
for the viewer, much bloody mayhem ensues.
Special effects wizard Rob Bottin (Robocop),
in 1980 a very young lad at the beginning of his
career, cooks up some pretty effective gore here.
On the other hand, his costumes for the rampaging
'Noids are passable but more laughable than frightening.
(We've seen worse, that's for sure.) Though helped
by location filming the production looks cheap
even for a Corman flick. Most of the budget must've
gone to hiring the lead actors a waste of money,
actually. Morrow phones in his by-the-numbers
small town jerk role; McClure, after gamely battling
movie monsters in the '70s as the hero of a number
of British-made Edgar Rice Burroughs fantasies,
looks bored by it all. Turkel is simply a bad
actress and doesn't even take off her clothes.
(Don't worry. Other ladies in the cast do.) The
film's best performance actually comes courtesy
of a ventriloquist's dummy!
Basically the movie redeems itself because
it doesn't aspire to be anything other that what
it is: a low-budget monster flick with skin and
gore. Happily, a smattering of off-the-wall humor
is thrown in for good measure. Provided you've
an adequate supply of popcorn (not to mention
alcohol and/or herb), Humanoids
From The Deep should prove an agreeable
time-waster. After all, if you're a cheese fiend
then you're likely to have gone in with low expectations
to begin with.
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| This,
like New Concorde release Battle
Beyond The Stars and others, is a budget-priced
DVD retailing for under $15. (Usually in the $10
- $13 range.) Even with the low price it's something
of a disappointment. Extras are skimpy a 5-minute
interview of Corman by Leonard Maltin, talent bios,
a Cliff Notes booklet on Corman's career, along
with the same trailers we've seen on other Corman
discs but that in itself is no big deal. Shown
full frame, picture quality is acceptable, about
as good as one would expect for such a throwaway
monster flick. The disc's main problem is the audio
track. It's very tinny at times
Be prepared for
bursts of static whenever James Horner's score swells
or the 'Noids start screeching.
9/06/01 |
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UPDATE
This disc went OOP in 2003, and is now fetching
40 bucks and up.
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