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Not exactly Margheriti's shining moment on screen, but it's still loads better than a lot of his other mid-to-late 80's work like CODE NAME: WILDGEESE or INDIO thanks to some energetic editing and rich special effects. Not to say the the effects budget was all that high, it was awfully low with plenty of painfully obvious miniatures blowing up in slow motion to make them look big. The goofiest effect has to be the full-sized robotic alien at the ending, which has lots of cool tubing and steam vents all over it but looked as though the crew had little or no control over it. When the alien first pops out of the woodwork it's legs dangle limply as though a crane is hoisting it up (and that's exactly what the crew probably used too).

To my knowledge, this is the only time Margheriti worked for Franco Gaudenzi, who usually worked fairly exclusively with Bruno Mattei. In comparison with most of Mattei similar work from the same period, this film seems almost classic. There's a fair amount of cheesy gore and horrendous acting. Co-star Robert Marius from AMERICAN COMMANDOS and COP GAME has to be the worst actor in the history of cinema. Aside from a pretty passive cameo by Charles Napier and Luciano Pigozzi wobbling around in his last role, the acting was all pretty uniformally hopeless. However, I don't see how this film earns the status as "Margheriti's worst film" even though it does flagrantly lift musical cues right out of Larry Cohen's Q - THE WINGED SERPENT. The film is exciting and action-packed enough so that it's never boring, and the finale isn't too big an ALIENS rip, with them using bulldozers instead of robotic lifters of course. Low budget in the extreme, but with enough amusing dialog and funny special effects to earn it a certain place in history. Not nearly as bad as Gaudenzi's other ALIENS ripoff produced the same year, SHOCKING DARK aka TERMINATOR II, which has to be an all new low.

Antonio Margheriti still is one of my favorite Italian directors (thanks to his 70's & 80's films), but the mix he presents us with "Alien From The Deep", he has done before and much better already. "Killer Fish" mixes a heist movie while cashing in on Joe Dante's "Piranha". With "Hunters of the Golden Cobra" he gave us a hero with James Bond allures in a film reminiscent of an Indiana Jones adventure. In a way, "Aliens From The Deep" fits in perfectly with all other blends of Margheriti entertainment. It's not on par with the films it borrows from, but it tries to redeem itself by going over the top a little further.

So what kind of blend does Margheriti present us this time? Obviously, the Italian title "Alien Degli Abissi" (which roughly translates to "Alien Of The Abyss") tries to cash in on James Cameron's 1989 hit "The Abyss". But that's where the comparison ends. Most of the film can be categorized as some type of 'adventure on a tropical island' film. Some military/governmental facility is dumping toxic waste into the earth. Some noble people try to expose this and ultimately stop them. Some action & some shooting. Fair enough.

Now what's with the alien-aspect of this film? Well, we have to wait a good 50 minutes for it to show itself, and it's not really an alien, but some mutant giant monster (basically formed by toxic waste, creating a symbiosis of organic material & scrap metal – I know, that sounds way too smart for a movie of this type) emerging from the bowels of the earth. It somewhat looks like a black giant crab-robot monster of sorts. It just gets thrown into the movie's third act so they could rip off the climax of Cameron's "Aliens". Remember Ripley fighting the mother-alien in that yellow robotic worker-unit? Well, it's here too, only it's some type of bulldozer.

So "Alien Degli Abissi" is just entertaining Margheriti nonsense (featuring yet again fun miniature effects) and nothing more. It's sub-par, as to be expected, but thankfully it's not boring. Oh, and it has Charles Napier running around in it, mainly behind computers. Other than that, he seems to have little else to do.

Good Badness? Yes, fair enough fun & inept action/adventure/monster fodder. 4/10 and 6/10.

"Alien from the Deep" is dull and dragging a horror/Sci-Fi from the usually great and reliable Antonio Margheriti, who admittedly already had to be retired around the time of release.

Two young environmentalists venture to an island resort to battle against a chemical plant company that dumps its barrels of radioactive waste straight into an active volcano. You've got to admit that's a pretty clever type of shenanigans if you're a ruthless and power-greedy businessman! The two get caught, however, but the girl escapes into the island jungle and finds rescue in the arms of a lone snake farmer (what an awesome profession that must be) and together they attempt to stop the illegal dumping. But it's too late, unfortunately, as the years worth of industrial dumping spawned a hideous monster. You'll have to be very patient and tolerant if you want to see a monster or alien or menace of any kind. We're far beyond the 50 minutes mark until there's a bit of gore and at that same moment the director thankfully reminds us that this movie is actually supposed to revolve on a monster of any kind with the discovery of a giant claw. Luckily from then and onwards, the pacing remains steadily fast, the atmosphere becomes grimmer, the make- up effects are satisfying and even Charles Napier's supportive characters – which until then was a dull persona – becomes sleazier. Still, "Alien from the Deep" takes itself far too serious, what with all its environmentalist lessons, and even has a certain aura of pretension hanging around it. There are some nifty miniature settings to recreate the destructive sequences that cost too much to film with real equipment and the monster – when you eventually get to see it in all its glory near the very end – is quite a massive and reasonably admirable construction.

Antonio Margheriti's Alien from the Deep is a gonzo Aliens rip-off, to be sure, and one not to be missed by fans of Margheriti's work as well as Italian exploitation cinema! Any film featuring Charles Napier as the tough-talking, no-nonsense, get-it-done military type is worth checking out but only Aliens from the Deep features Luciano Pigozzi doing his best impression of Lucio Fulci and an alien so outrageous, so comedic, that you will never look at crustaceous meals the same way again. There's no denying that Alien from the Deep is an uneven film, it starts out as an action adventure film with cheesy B-movie potential and then steadily declines into an unintentionally hilarious sci-fi horror film featuring a massive crab's claw swinging back and forth.

As I mentioned above, cult actors like Charles Napier, Luciano Pigozzi and Robert Marius star in this delightful stinker so expect good to adequate acting. Hit or miss acting aside, there's no denying the quality of the production values in this film, I was greatly impressed with the colors, sets and costumes, despite the low budget. It boggles the mind how far some of these Italian filmmakers were able to go in order to stretch their dollars to get a certain "look" and "feel," even if the film itself was a bomb.

Aliens from the Deep is one of those films that you shouldn't over-think, it is what it is and you just have to kick back and enjoy the ride. For me two things really stood out in this production and that was the forehead-slappingly bad creature and the painful dialog. The minute you see the alien tooling about like a remote control car, wildly swinging its claw and, eventually, standing up to reveal its Rickets-riddled legs, you'll fall in love with this film. Before you get to the "good stuff" though you'll be forced to suffer through the dialog which mainly consists of the actors each getting a turn saying, "Balls!" Carpi must have had a rough time writing this gem! From beginning to end, I enjoyed this film. No need to polish a turd, my review is pretty clear. You're either going to be entertained or you won't be. I recommend giving it a rental.

A cheap and cheezy sci-fi/horror clunker from director Antonio Margheriti, Alien From The Deep joins the select list of titles that have proved so tedious that they have taken me three successive nights to finish. Congratulations, Antonio!

The film stars sexy blonde Marina Giulia Cavalli as Jane, a Greenpeace activist who, along with her cameraman Lee (Robert Marius), sneaks onto a high security island where an unscrupulous corporation has been dumping radioactive waste into the heart of an active volcano, an irresponsible act that results in a stream of pure energy being emitted into space, much to the annoyance of an huge, ugly alien who comes to Earth and smashes stuff with its massive claw.

Judging by the amount of recycling that's going on here, Margheriti has clearly taken his film's ecological theme to heart: the director employs well-worn ideas from James Cameron's Aliens and The Abyss for his lousy script, while his monster looks like it has been constructed from old bits and pieces scavenged from a local junkyard. Antonio isn't wasteful when it comes to excitement or scares either, delivering very little of either, the action being repetitive and uninspired (lots of dreary running around the jungle and skulking around a factory) and the horror element almost non existent. The alien doesn't even make an appearance until about an hour in, and when it does show up, it's a massive disappointment, a poorly-conceived bio-mechanical being that looks like it's being wheeled around on a trolley before eventually rising to its feet where it wobbles uncertainly like a newborn baby deer.

This kind of trash usually tries to compensate for its many inadequacies with some splatter and nudity, but Alien From The Deep fails to satisfy in both departments, with only one decent moment of gore (a diver emerging from the sea with his face melted off) and Cavalli only going so far as stripping to her underwear Ripley-style, except that her vest is baggier and her panties are bigger.

2.5 out of 10, rounded up to 3 for IMDb.

I remember owning the 1989 sci-fi horror movie "Alien Degli Abissi" (aka "Alien from the Deep") on VHS back in the day. Though I only recall the movie as being a pretty bad B-movie, then I had to sit down and watch the movie again, as I had the opportunity once more here in 2022. Needless to say that it was not on VHS this time around.

Writer Tito Carpi didn't exactly come up with a storyline that was overly impressive. In fact, the storyline and plot in "Alien Degli Abissi" is very generic and mundane. Sure, it was straight forward, and sort of watchable if you enjoy low budget sci-fi horror with dubious effects.

The acting in the movie was adequate enough. I mean, you're obviously not going to be in for an evening of Shakespearian theater here. You get what you pay for here, and the actors and actresses did fairly okay taking into consideration the limitations of the script and storyline. I was unfortunate enough to sit through an all English dubbed version, and I have to admit that I absolutely loathe audio dubbing in movies.

"Alien Degli Abissi", as a sci-fi horror, should have good special effects to make the movie all the more watchable and enjoyable. Did director Antonio Margheriti have that in this 1989 movie? No. Just plain and simple, no. The creature design was dubious and questionable at best, and it looked very, very fake. It made the alien creature more laughable and ridiculous than it made it scary and otherworldly.

This 1989 movie was as bad as I recalled it to be. But hey, I am sure that there is an audience out there for a movie such as "Alien Degli Abissi". The movie's cover was actually the best thing about the entire ordeal.

My rating of "Alien Degli Abissi" lands on a three out of ten stars.

Antonio Margheriti's filmography is interesting and varied. It featured such well made Italian films as Danse Macabre and Schoolgirl Killer; as well as some trash, such as The Last Hunter, Death Rage and Cannibal Apocalypse. One thing you have to credit the director with, however, is that even when he's making trash; he usually makes it well, and while Alien from the Deep is not exactly a high quality piece of film-making; I do firmly believe that it would have been a lot worse in the hands of a lesser director. The title features the word 'alien' and the film was released not long after James Cameron's Aliens was a big hit; so seeing as this is an Italian film, it should be pretty clear that it's a rip off of the Alien films. Unlike the Alien films (but a bit like the first Predator film), this one takes place out in the jungle. We focus on a big (evil) corporation with an irresponsible approach to waste management; they're pouring it all down a volcano (oh yes), and naturally this leads to trouble in the form of a giant monster.

The film puts it's focus on a couple of people aiming to expose the big corporation's social ills, and this gives it a bit of plot to work with outside of the main monster theme. It has to be said that it can be a little dull at times; but things never ground to a complete halt and Margheriti keeps our interest well enough until the monster appears on screen. Naturally, the monster is saved for as long as possible; but all the scenes featuring it are generally well orchestrated and amusing. Only parts of the monster are shown at first; and it seems to be a sort of scorpion-like contraption...but this leads to disappointment when it's actually revealed towards the end, as it turns out to look more than just a little bit silly (HR Giger has nothing to worry about). The cast is nothing to write home about really; but we do get a pleasant surprise in the form of Charles Napier, who is perfectly cast as the main bad guy. Aside from the monster there's a few interesting ideas, and the monster itself is fun in the way it attacks from underwater and underground. The film is most definitely trash and there's no denying it; but it's also a lot of fun and I can recommend it.

I am and have always been a fan of Italian cinema, especially horror. The Italians used to be the masters of it but sadly that ended in the 1990's.

This late 80's monster feature tells the story of an evil cooporation dumping nuclear waste into a volcano on a secluded island. It's down to a reporter, her cameraman and a er.....snake expert to bring them down.

But of course things aren't that simple, we have to throw into the mix an alien monster creature....thing.

Starring the always excellent Charles Napier, this above average monster film is actually well made but suffers on levels you would naturally expect. From the questionable script to the views of the monster being so restricted Alien From The Deep was doomed from the start but manages to remain watchable regardless.

Not one of the many Italian masterpieces but a harmless fluff piece for fans of the genre.

The Good:

Charles Napier

SFX are above par

The Bad:

Some of the script is rather bad

Monster doesn't get enough real screentime

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

In order to strike their foes Snakes can jump 6ft vertically

A snake bite to the ankle will cause a wound in the knee

Great entertainment here, folks. I had the pleasure to watch the UNCUT Japanese print of this cool Italian "Alien" rip-off. The action sequences are violent and full of automatic weapons. The soldiers are evil in their conquest to stop a man and woman from spilling the secret of nuclear dumping in a volcano. It seems before they can get away, the radiation attracts an evil alien intent on taking over the world. Even tho the alien monster is silly, the movie on a whole is a decent spaghetti-made gory alien monster movie!

Rating: 7/10 because even tho the budget was small, director Antonio Margheriti still manages to catch the attention of the audience and the effects are pretty gory. If you liked this movie, also check out "Cannibal Apacalypse" and "Blood For Dracula" for more shocks!

Toaster/VCR robot with crab claw deserves credit for being that and nothing else, no mystery necessary. Subplot: Romance unblossomed, italian style. Bad guy with a guy gets it big time (from the crab pincer). Guy has a poisonous snake for a pet but is afraid of giant cybernetic lobster with who is neither cunning nor extremely proficient with big claw unless you are kinda in his way, in which case, how could you not get hit? The thing is bigger than a truck. Kinda makes you wonder: Is the cyber lobster controlling the claw... or is the claw controlling the lobster? This is clearly a comment on our mindless consumerist culture, to which I take offense. We give you italians our Papa Johns recipes to make your pizzas better and these are the kind of dehumanizing allegories we get in return? So we're drudging, cannibalizing trash scavenging lobsters, huh? Is that how we shall sign the check? Jokes on you, we love this movie, and will watch it for many years to come. You didnt even need to write any dialogue, for it functions as a grotesque muted ballet, accompanied by The Best That I Could Offer at the Time: (Hits) By Phil Collins. I wear my sunglasses during these things.

`It's gigantic, evil and invincible!' boasts the tagline. Well, this alien dwarfs the original alien in physical size only. Although the film takes place on a tropic island, a few similarities to `Alien' are obvious, down to the fact that the heroine has to stand the last fight with the creature wearing nothing but her white underwear. No, I don't complain about that ;-) Anyway, the huge creature which can move under the ground is quite scary (but only until it stands up and suddenly looks like a cross between a senile robot and a lunatic crab), the characters (including a snake hunter, Greenpeace investigators, a not-yet-mad scientist and an unscrupulous officer trying to `control' the situation) help to develop an interesting storyline, and I cannot agree with reviewers who consider this a simple rip-off. There is a lot more to see, `Alien degli abissi' is not too bad entertainment from an experienced director (voted 6/10).

Oh, how I loved this movie. It is filled to bursting with everything you could want from Margheritti, and then some! Lots of exploding miniatures, plenty of running through the jungle, and a heroine who keeps finding ways to lose her pants. The real charm of the movie is trying to count the myriad other films it is trying to rip off. Obvious nods to ALIENS abound, (flamethrowers,a battle with a towering monster and a big yellow vehicle), with plenty of allusions to the first ALIEN thrown in for good measure (building the weapons, the chamber filled with hanging chains). Amusingly the first hour seems to be a curious mishmash of either THE CHINA SYNDROME or SILKWOOD with, of all things, ROMANCING THE STONE!!!! It is all daffily endearing.

HEY EVERYBODY, ITS ME (4) ....and today we review .....cloverfield 1989 ....

of course im kidding BUT you have to admit we all though "cloverfield" when they said something fell from the sky lol....

WELL here we have yet another feel good film telling how terrible we humans are for contaminating the world around us .... you know the ol "toxic waste makes monsters" schtick ... BUT here we have an alien come to earth to ...eat? The chemical waste being thrown into a volcano .... YEA because that was a good idea to begin with ....hold up

seriously .... at what point were they sitting around trying to figure out "where should we dump this radioactive waste" and jimmy said "i know what could never possibly go wrong instantly .... an ACTIVE VOLCANO!!!" you know that thing that explodes with melted rocks on fire and utterly destroys everything around it .........yea one of thise ..lets RADIATE one of those ....and irritate its bowls untill it needs to crap itself like late night run to taco bell ...SLPODE !!!!!!!!! But naaaa i mean ... tossing waste barrels in there should be FFIINNNEEEEEE ,,,

fast forward a few weeks i guess and hey now apparently an alien notices from you know ....across space somehow (has a better nose sniffing out radiation to eat than my kids do finding my snack cakes) and it fumbles its was to the source of nom noms ....where it pretty much becomes a 3 story tall crab..... man bot ..... angry ...clam head ..... hose monster ? .... yes .... its unclear if this thing grows , or is just laying down and somehow stilll moves around ...but most of the time its just a claw going after people until the big reveal ... also if it touches you, you get the "ick" ... kind of like when your creepy uncle puts his hand on your shoulder for WAY too long .... yea like that ...only in this film its greenish gunky slime that is alive and we never really see what it can fully do ...i would assume it would turn a person into another form of the creature .....thus replicating it ....and if thats the case then ....lol.... yea these people all screwed up WAY up ...

the monster does leave a bit to be desired i admit .... the big reveal is more like when you think you need to pass a little gas ....so you carefully , slowly ....and quietly s#!t your pants ..... you realize instant regreat and think "yea i wish i just would have left it alone " if they would have just left it being something you never REALLY see in the smoke and dark it would have been 73.6 % better

with some of the acting you could make this black and white and it would fit in perfectly with the more classic 1940/50s era sci fi films ..old war of the worlds/the day the earth stood still etc especially with that ending ...it was VERY old school lol.. "maybe it was just a warning " ... yea ....

but all and all its a great little anti corporation meets monster flick like many from this era, its a fun one ....well worth the watch if youve never seen it and probably worth the rewatch if its been a few years ....

despite the over acting from snake man in a few places lol.... and the monsters lackluster reveal, it does retain some interesting location shots and action moments that will for sure never remind you of predator ...but you know ...there in a jungle so .....theres that ... the sets are solid ...and the miniatures are well done

this film deserves a solid 7/10.