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U.S.A.
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1980
Directed
by Barbara Peeters
Starring
Doug McClure
Ann Turkel
Vic Morrow
Color |
82 Minutes |
Not Rated
Format: DVD (R1 - NTSC)
Shout! Factory
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Review
by
Brian Lindsey
Film:5
DVD:10
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| Replaces
EC's review of the 1999 New Concorde edition |
| 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. |
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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 (Doug McClure, At
the Earth's Core), a friend of Johnny's who believes the
cannery will help Noyo's economy. |
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The
true culprits are a race of slimy, mutant fishmen 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. |
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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. (I'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 a little 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. |
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Basically
the movie redeems itself because it doesn't aspire to be anything
other that what it is: a low-budget monster flick peppered with
skin and gore and a smattering of off-the-wall humor thrown in
for good measure. As long as you've got an adequate supply of
popcorn (not to mention liquor and/or other substances), Humanoids
from the Deep will provide a reasonably entertaining 82
minutes of wasted time. |
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| Shout!
Factory's recently released edition of Humanoids
from the Deep
totally blows away the fullframe New Concorde DVD from 1999, which
has been OOP for over six years now. Sourced from the interpositive
(made from the original edited camera negative, using the international
title Monster), the 1.85:1 anamorphic
transfer renders the film as good as it's ever going to look on
home video. Colors are natural-looking; everything in the darker
nighttime sequences is now readily discernible. Yes, some scenes
are very grainy but that’s how the movie's supposed to look —
and is certainly preferable to any overly-aggressive digital scrubbing.
The disc's Dolby 2.0 Mono soundtrack is more than satisfactory
when compared to the tinny, scratchy audio that plagued the '99
DVD. Dialog, music and those screeching 'Noids come through loud
and clear. |
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With the exception of the U.S. "red
band" theatrical trailer and a brief interview of Roger Corman
by Leonard Maltin (both carried over from the New Concorde release),
the extras Shout! has included are new. The Making of Humanoids
from the Deep is a worthwhile 23-minute featurette blending
interviews and movie clips. Offering their recollections of working
on the film are producer Corman, 2nd Unit director James Sbardellati,
Oscar-winning composer James Horner (this was his 4th film score),
editor Mark Goldblatt, special effects artists Chris Walas and
Ken Myers, and actors Linda Shayne and Cindy Weintraub. I suppose
it isn't all that surprising that director Barbara Peeters does
not participate —
she was more or less fired by Corman before the film was complete
for her reticence to go the T&A route. (This matter is discussed
in the doc, which goes into some detail about the shooting of
extra scenes to pump up Humanoid's
sleaze factor.) There's also a 7-minute reel of deleted scenes,
all in remarkably good shape (some without sound, however), many
of which would've added even more nudity and 'Noid rape to the
film had they been retained in the final edit. (I think the majority
of these scenes should have been left in. More naked women and
monster action is never a bad thing.) |
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Additional extras: Radio and TV spots, an image
gallery of posters/promo material, the German theatrical trailer,
trailers for other Shout!/Corman releases, reversible cover art,
and a booklet of illustrated liner notes. (This title is also
available on Blu-ray.)
8/14/10 |
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