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Humanoids From the Deep
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The peculiar genius of schlock-king Roger Corman is in full bloom with this extremely gory, pointedly offensive homage to 1950s monster movies (with a generous helping of Alien thrown in for good measure), in which a legion of mutated salmon-men terrorize a small town in their search for unwilling female companionship. (Potential viewers should be warned that this movie goes to great lengths to show what earlier films in this genre had only implied.) A guilty pleasure for exploitation fans with a strong stomach and a twisted sense of humor. For what it's worth, director Barbara Peters has claimed that additional shock scenes were inserted by producer Corman without her knowledge. The glop-intensive special effects were devised by Rob Bottin, who later went on to gross out the masses with his work on Seven, Robocop, and John Carpenter's graphic remake of The Thing. --Andrew Wright
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Humanoids From the Deep
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Summary: Humanoids from the Deep Review from The Massie Twins 2008-11-01
Comment: Noticeably taking several cues from big budget horror films, Humanoids from the Deep still manages to create an enjoyable atmosphere and a few unique thrills to retain an air of originality. Combining an infinitely absurd plot with serious actors, decent gore effects, gratuitous nudity, and a pervasive foreboding score from James Horner culminates in a low budget horror flick that nearly breaks free of such impediments to offer plenty of scares and laughs, mostly in that order.
In this Roger Corman produced monster movie, a small coastal village finds themselves facing a deadly invasion when DNA testing on local sea life causes mutated amphibious monstrosities to rise from the waters and begin preying on the villagers - and attempting to mate with human women.
With their large, exposed brains and slimy green bodies, the designs for the "Humanoids" look like a cross between Swamp Thing and the extraterrestrials from This Island Earth. Knowing the limitations of their budget and creature effects, the filmmakers wisely chose to keep the beasts shrouded in darkness, and until about halfway through we never see the entire mutant. As legendary B-movie producer Roger Corman himself stated, the true monster will likely never live up to what the audience creates in their own minds, and here such words of wisdom certainly apply as the Humanoids' shambling long-armed awkwardness and fishy faces lessens the horror and amplifies the silliness. But in the end this is a B-movie, so the "people in rubber suits" creatures are expected and the amount of destruction and mayhem they cause is actually rather impressive.
In an interview with film historian Leonard Maltin, Corman admitted that he felt a sense of humor is very important in horror films - especially if you don't want audiences laughing in the wrong places. One of the major shortcomings with Humanoids from the Deep is that there are no obvious moments of humor - the laughs arise from cliché character stupidities and overly witless dialogue. In fact, most often the funniest moments are meant to be the scariest. This makes Humanoids from the Deep an effective schlock horror film, but by no means demonstrates the level of purposeful humor that Corman insists he instilled.
As a throwback to the science-fiction monster movies of the 50's, Humanoids does offer bloodthirsty fans the opportunity to enjoy the entertaining cheesiness with an added dose of violence, gore and nudity. Many scenes of nubile young vixens getting their clothes torn off appear to be added just for the sake of more nakedness, which of course is a greatly appreciated fundamental aspect of B-movie bliss.
- The Massie Twins
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Summary: Fishmen want human women with big boobs 2008-10-08
Comment: Barbara Peeters classic 80's HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP is a real hoot from start to finish. A classic "B" movie with stalwarts like Doug McClure, Vic Morrow and Ann Turkel. Attempts to increase salmon production at a fishing town in the Pacific northwest has terrible results when the experimental fish escape to the open seas and are consumed by another fish -- which causes it to mutate and take on it's principal competitor: humans. It also drives it to mate with human females (well endowed human females I might add). The ending blatantly rips off ALIEN. The Noyo Festival featured a famous Monterey area Dixieland band, Jack Stock and the Abalone Stompers.
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Summary: A Little Something For Everyone 2008-10-06
Comment: I'm conflicted. I, like many taxpayers, am insensed by the recent Federal bail out of Wall Street investment firms that were "too big to fail." But, I think GMO's are awesome and am sympathetic to the corporation's work to build a better salmon.
Ultimately, relentless pursuit of the bottom line (and not genetic engineering itself) ruined a good thing when Canco's operations produced a race of amorous and bloodthirsty fish-men. It just goes to show you can't trust Corporate America do do the right thing. If there had only been enough USDA and Fish and Wildlife Administration oversight, the bloodbath at Noyo, CA never would have happened and there would never have been Humanoids from the Deep.
Alas, hindsight is 20/20 (as Secretary Paulson has himself admitted). In Humanoids from the Deep, we get a nice slice of sleazy schlock that conveniently doubles as a cautionary warning against free market laissez-faire mentality.
Humanoids from the Deep is also a stirring tale of the struggle for racial parity in an industry dealing with potential loss of autonomy as the capitalist robber-barons jockey for control of the local work force.
It is also a fear-mongering instrument of the Religious Right to shore up conservative family values by proving that pre-marital sex is a gateway drug to unnatural and destructive inter-species mating.
There's really something here for everyone.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
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Summary: A tasty dollop of campy horror 2008-06-04
Comment: Oh, this was a funny time. Movies usually seen only on the nascent HBO. This film harkens back to the late 50s/early 60s b/w Corman classics, with what Frank Zappa aptly called "Cheepnis". My favorite momment was when one of the beasts encounters a bikini-clad gal on the beach, apparently he needed to pull her top off in order to get his amphibious rocks off. And he didn't even call her later.
1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
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Summary: Wait, this looks familiar... 2008-02-18
Comment: Humanoids from the Deep (Barbara Peters, 1980)
Perhaps the worst insult I can pay a film, from my own experience, is my not remembering I'd seen it before until I'm at least halfway through the movie. It's usually the oddest things that make me remember I've seen a film before. In this case, it was Anothony Pena's entirely innocuous "I've caught a bunch of steelhead I need help eating, wanna come?" line. From there, the deja vu came thick and fast. When the dock collapsed, I knew I'd seen it before and forgotten it entirely. How did I forget it? Easy-- it's completely forgettable.
The story: Noyo, California, lives and dies by its salmon industry. In order to revitalize the town, CanCo, who are planning in opening a cannery in town, have hired a doctor, Susan Drake (Ann Turkel, perhaps better known for being Richard Harris' ex-wife than for any of her film work) to work on a growth hormone to help the salmon reproduce and reach maturity faster. Well, you know the rest, it's standard ecohorror fare, with a Corman twist: the sea monsters feel driven to mate with humans, allowing for much gratuitous nudity in the great Roger Corman tradition. (Peters, who never directed another feature film after this, reportedly refused to shoot the nude scenes, so Corman brought in another director-- Jimmy Murakami, who would later go on to well-deserved fame as the co-director, with Melinda Gebbie, of Where the Wind Blows.)
Unfortunately, the nudity is pretty much the only reason to watch this. The script, basically a one-off collaboration by folks who never did much in Hollywood, is predictable and silly, while the cast is made up of B-grade actors (Turkel shares top billing with second-feature stalwarts Doug McClure and Vic Morrow) delivering even less than their usual verve. Peters' direction shows that she grew up at Corman's foot (her entire feature film career consisted of work in the Corman stable), never rising above the level of cheap exploitation fare. The special effects are about as special as my education. In short, why bother? *
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