Humanoids From The Deep
Fishing for love in all the wrong places
Time for Creature Feature Saturday. I wasn't in the mood to watch a mind-numbing SyFy channel Megasharkasauruspodalypse whatever movie with bad acting and even worse special effects. I decided to go back to the 80's for a terrible animal horror movie. What better way to do that than with a movie produced by Roger Corman (Deathrace 2000, The Terror)?
Humanoids From The Deep (also known as “Monsters” in some parts of the world) tells the story of a small fishing village called Noyo. A large corporation called Canco is planning to open a cannery in the town which would create lots of jobs, but local Native American Johnny Eagle is challenging the legitimacy of claims to the land. Local townspeople don't take too kindly to Johnny protesting the cannery. At the same time, a fishing boat catches something big in it's nets, too big to be pulled up and through a series of unfortunate events, the boat explodes. That same night, an unseen creature goes around town killing all of the dogs except Johnny's. Jim Hill and his wife Carol begin to suspect that something strange is going on when they find their dog horribly mutilated. Local teens Jerry and Peggy sneak off to the beach for some alone time. Unfortunately for them, the humanoid is on the beach, kills Jerry and rapes Peggy. More mutilations and disappearances occur. Dr. Susan Drake goes in search of the humanoids with Jim and Johnny where they discover and kill one of the creatures. Dr. Drake reveals that Canco had been experimenting with a growth hormone on salmon to make they mature at an accelerated rate. The salmon got out into the ocean and were presumably by larger fish which in turn mutated them into the humanoids. It's the night of the big Salmon Festival in Noyo and the whole town is invited. Will they be able to stop the humanoids before they destroy the town?
My heart will gone ooooooonnnnnn
Clearly inspired by the Creature from the Black Lagoon and other 50's horror movies, Humanoids From The Deep has a very basic creature feature story. Man messed with nature, so nature is messing with man. What sets this movie apart from the others is that there is lots of gore and nudity, Corman staples. The movie was directed by Barbara Peeters, but apparently her version lacked the “required” exploitation level that would bring people into theaters. Another director was brought in to increase the gore, sex, and nudity and believe me, there's plenty of that. The blood flows freely and the makeup on the victims looks pretty good. The humanoids are unintentionally funny looking. The heads have a lot of detail, but I'm thrown off by their gigantically long arms. It's like someone took Dikembe Mutumbo's arms and shoved them onto a 5'8 body. The rape aspect of the story makes me very uncomfortable and is just not entertaining. They could have easily just said the humanoids are planning to mate rather than having a guy in a rubber suit dry humping a naked woman.
The music in the movie is actually pretty good. The score was composed by Oscare and Golden Globe winner, James Horner (Aliens, Titanic) . That's right, I said composed. Clearly, he was too good for this movie. The acting is fine, nothing particularly good or bad, so I guess that's a win. There is plenty of action, violence, and nudity to keep you interested and distracted from the mediocre story.
Michael Bay's version of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Humanoids From The Deep would have been a perfect candidate for Mystery Science Theater 3000 if it wasn't for all the cursing, gore, and nudity. The story is weak and the monsters look silly. The violence and gore are pretty good and the music is just great. If you're curious, this movie is worth checking out just for the exploitation factor, but beyond that, there's no need to rush to see it.
4/10