Humanoids From the Deep (68%)

Director: Barbara Peeters     Cast: Doug McClure, Ann Turkel     Genre: Horror/Sci-Fi

Runtime: 82 minutes     Release Date: May 21(?), 1980    Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1(?)

Over the last few years Shout! Factory has released a rather large amount of Roger Corman produced and directed films under the banner Roger Corman's Cult Classics. Of all the films that have been released so far I looked forward to seeing Humanoids From the Deep most of all. It sounded gory, fun and way over the top in a cheesy B-movie kind of way. Just what I like. So last night I sat down and finally watched it.

Ever wonder what would happen if Roger Corman mixed the blockbuster Jaws, its hit sequel Jaws 2, the well made rip-off Piranha and The Creature From the Black Lagoon? No? Me either but after watching Humanoids I could see exactly where this film was coming from. It liberally steals from all those pictures but throws in excessive gore, sex, nudity and rape. And man was it fun. It was everything the inner 15 year old in side of me could want in an exploitative horror film.

In a small fishing community, local natives fight with local white men about opening a cannery to can salmon. While this is happening, a beautiful scientist is there to monitor the salmon which her company has intoxicated with a chemical that will make them bigger and meatier. At the same time the town is gearing up for their yearly festival which involves people coming from miles away to dance to a seriously out of touch band led by a an old lady who doesn't like to play fun and danceable music. Unbeknownst to everyone around, the chemical used to grow the salmon has also infected a rare and prehistoric creature from the depths which has grown into humanoid form and is bracing to attack.

Humanoids is no masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination. It's a cheap rip-off of better movies that plays to the things that excite teenage boys and brings money to the box office. But it does transcend it's B-movie, schlock roots and stands as one of the better movies to come out of the exploitation era wave of filmmaking. It's not for everyone, but if you like your films laced with nudity and gore then you are in for a real treat here.

The Good:

Speaking to my inner teenager, Humanoids really did appease me in that sense. It was everything I had hoped it would be and it was much better made than I expected it to be. For 82 minutes I sat with my mouth open unable to believe what I was seeing. Let's start at the beginning shall we.

After a few moments of set-up we are taken out to sea on a local fisherman's boat. He works with a partner and his son. I'm thinking that here, the fisherman and partner will die, leaving his son to tell of strange creatures coming from the sea. Wow, was I wrong! Instead (in un-Hollywood-like fashion) the son is pulled under the water and killed. I sat gaping as the first death in the film was a child. Killing a child meant I was in for one hell of a ride and not 10 minutes later a dog is killed signalling a no holds barred film that won't going to hold back at all.

So these humanoids that come from the deep kill children, men and animals. No one is spared their wrath and its even worse when it comes to women. They don't kill the women and they don't kidnap the women. No sir ree, what they do is rape the woman. That's right. You heard me. They kill the men and rape the women, making sure to strip them of their clothes before they do. I love nudity in a film. It's titivating and exciting and it gets the blood of every male boiling. This film is filled with sexy and young nubiles who get naked all the time. We see breasts and bush aplenty and from almost every female cast member. Awesome!!!! 

Along with the nudity quotient there is tons and tons of gore. Blood spurts everywhere, guts fly all over the place and axes, arrows, bullets, rocks  and anything else you can think of make for gory, gooey grotesqueness. The climax of the film is a free for all orgy of gore, nudity, rape, violence and chaos and quite frankly it is a joy to watch.

A young Rob Bottin makes some great looking monsters (albiet cheap) and a young James Horner scores the film perfectly. It's a top notch score that is eerie, moody and just plain wonderful. In fact, it really makes the film seem bigger and better than it is and wouldn't feel out of place in a big budget Hollywood film. The acting is pretty good too, Doug McClure is great in the lead and the sadly missed Vic Morrow gives a strong performance as a racist asshole. Ann Turkel as the scientist is surprisingly excellent. She's not just a sexy face and gorgeous body but she's smart too and gives a great performance that seems very believable 

And the story, while not terribly well written, takes its time to get going. It doesn't just throw sex and violence at you. Nu uh. It introduces characters. sets them up, sets up the town and gives meaning to what you are watching. As the chaos mounts you actually care about these people and the town and then all hell breaks loose. Unexpected deaths occur throughout the film and when it's all over there is no happy ending. It's downright miserable and it works really really well.

The Bad:

Since this is a low budget film there are plenty of effects that look cheesy, there are plenty of performances that seem very wooden and there are numerous shots that suffer from low lighting and crappy angles. The editing is a little choppy at times and there are moments here and there that feel a little rushed.

The dialogue at times is clever and well written but then at other times it's choppy, corny and even plain bad, especially the opening scene. As I said before the script is a pastiche of other successful movies cobbled together to make a new one. It throws in rape and violence but watching it you can see the scenes, moments and ideas that were stolen from these other films. It's still fun to watch but it leaves an air of unoriginality to the table and slightly hampers the film. The open is so Jaws, the basis of the story is so Jaws meets Jaws 2 and the entire climax is Piranha. Then there is the final scene which is straight out of Alien. Overall, it's not the most well written or original script but then again that's not why you would be watching this movie, now is it?

The Ugly:

I was expecting this film to have a lot of ugly parts to it but thinking back on what I just watched there was really only one thing that I found really bad. (That is, if you like B-movies that appeal to the sick and twisted kid inside of you then you will overlook certain aspects of the production like I did.) The one thing that didn't work for me occurs during the climax. The way that McClure and Turkel end up defeating the humanoids makes no sense what so ever. I am so tempted to say what happens but I like this film enough not to ruin it for you. It's the weakest moment of the film for sure; badly written, non sensical and overall not indicative of the hard work put into the rest of the film.

The Verdict:

Humanoids From the Deep comes highly recommended. That is, it comes highly recommended if you are into violence, sex, nudity, rape and gore. Basically if you are a teenage boy, or like me haven't grown up yet, then you will highly enjoy this film. Anyone else should stay away cause it's probably not your cup of tea. It's a film that almost surpasses it's low budget, exploitative, B-movie roots and it can be seen that the cast and crew tried their best to make this happen. I'm so glad I finally saw this movie and can only finish off by saying I wish I had seen this when I was a teenager. It would of been even better.

Recommendation: Piranha

           Re-playability: 7 out of 10     Directing: 7 out of 10     Originality: 6 out of 10                 

Costumes and Make-up: 6 out of 10     Acting: 7 out of 10     Editing: 7 out of 10

Cinematography: 7 out of 10     Music: 8 out of 10     Script: 6 out of 10

         Production Design (Sets/Locations/Special Effects): 7 out of 10                  

Total Score = 68%