DeepStar Six

"There's something in the airlock!" 1989 was the year of the underwater monster movie. That year we saw the release of George P. Cosmatos's Leviathan, DeepStar Six, and last not but least, James Cameron's The Abyss. Out of all those films released that year, the only one that really garnered attention and did extremely well was The Abyss. And why not? It was helmed by legendary James Cameron who had directed Aliens and The Terminator before it. It also had the benefit of big-name actors such as Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio. The other movies? Leviathan and DeepStar Six. DeepStar Six ended up flopping big time, and didn't reach cult status like Leviathan did. I'm going to review DeepStar Six for this post.

In the near future, the United States has established a top-secret base at the bottom of the ocean. The purpose is two-fold. One: To see if a permanent colony can be established in the deep. Two: Securing nuclear missiles. The scientists discover a gigantic cavern beneath the missile site, and opt to collapse it to place the missiles. However, something has been unleashed from the cavern and threatens the crew of DeepStar Six. It's a simple setup. Nothing too fancy, right? It's nothing original, we've seen it before. The film opens as a shift change happens and scientists swap positions from the main DeepStar complex and the SeaTrack laboratory. Eventually the scientists in the lab discover immense caverns beneath the missile site, and yet the scientist in charge, orders them to be collapsed. This is among the first of stupid decisions made in this film, and there are a lot of them. That can be attributed to the fact that the script is half-baked. Basically, the caverns are blown up and some kind of sea monster is released and terrorizes everyone, and because of dumb decisions, people die. If you have to abandon nuclear missiles at the bottom of the ocean, you DON'T NEED TO DETONATE THEM! One of the people in the base, Snyder(Miguel Ferrer), when asked to secure the missile sled, says, "It's not like people are going to swim down and steal them." Afterwards, chaos ensues and they have to find a way to get out of the base before it explodes too, because it's also a nuclear bomb, in a manner of speaking. Chaos ensues and people die.

As for the creature itself? Not very original. It looks like an over-sized lobster. And only two people are actually directly killed by it. Truth be told, when the creature actually shows itself, it's not too bad, as you don't see the whole thing. But then again, it's pretty static, as in it really doesn't move anywhere when it shows itself. It seems I'm really down on this movie doesn't it? Fact is, I had a lot of fun with it. And I'll tell you why. One, it's directed by Sean S. Cunningham of Friday the 13th, and it's well-acted. The three standouts are Taurean Blacque(Laidlaw), Miguel Ferrer(Snyder), and Matt McCoy(Richardson). Despite the crappy dialogue and script, these people give their best, particularly Ferrer, who's got playing a weasel down pat. He does it extremely well. Don't believe me? Check out RoboCop. Three, it moves at a decent clip. Granted, the shit doesn't hit the fan until about thirty minutes in, but it's still fun to watch the interactions between the characters.

Some of the problems I've mentioned are also attributed to the fact that there is another movie with almost the same setup, Leviathan. And I will admit that Leviathan is the better film in every aspect. But DeepStar Six is good old-fashioned movie monster fun, that may not be the best, but it certainly isn't the worst, and I find it's very fun. I give it a solid 8/10.