Das Grauen aus der Tiefe

This 1996 B-Movie legend Roger Corman TV Movie was a remake to his earlier movie of the same name 16 years earlier,

It's absolutely ridiculous of course the plot goes something like this..... A bunch of death row prisoners are injected with a special gene by the military which turn them into Half-Man Half-Salmon Monsters in rubber suits I last saw on a 50's Monster movie, who terrorise a small town because some shady locals are dumping some nasty stuff into the sea, which these monsters feed on.

They kill the men.. but have sex with the woman and stick them in some sort of slimy cocoon. There is one hilarious scene in which a woman gives birth to a baby monster a-la Alien chestbuster and the locals try to batter it with baseball bats as it runs through a bar....Classic!!! The acting & FX are what you would expect from a movie called 'Humanoids from the deep'

** out of *****

In the mid 90's producer Roger Corman did a series of re-makes of his previous movies for the Showtime cable network. Corman is a great low budget producer, but it does not really show here. They have cut back on all of the extreme gore and sex that made the first one a drive-in classic.

All in all, worth a watch for only a true horror, or Roger Corman, fan.

I must say that Emma Samms shines in this film. I thought the film was tense and suspenseful, even though I typically do not like horror movies. The storyline is on the one hand silly, yet frightening at the same time. Robert Carradine and Danielle Weeks play father and daughter and have good screen chemistry. I have not seen the original picture that I see people commenting on, but found this one to be well done. Recommend.

Humanoids From the Deep (1996)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Remake of the 1980 film pretty much has the same story as chemicals turn regular salmon into walking killers. The 80's film was a lot of fun due to the violence, gore, nudity, sex and outrageous politically incorrect humor but pretty much all of that is missing here. The director throws out all sorts of gore but he forgets to make the film very fun. Watching both films back to back would just make this one seem even worse than it is. David Carradine is horrid in the lead but Clint Howard has a pretty funny role. Stick with the original.

The title kind of explains everything you need to know about this film anyway. If you can't work out what the film is about and the quality of the movie, then you need to watch more films! A small town gets more than they bargained for when someone does something or other (it doesn't really matter) that makes giant fish men come up from the depths and start trying to 'get to know' the local female population. But don't worry... a plucky band of fish-fighting men are on hand to sort out these aquatic Casanovas.

The film has a real eighties feel about it - which is odd as it was made in 1996 - the same year as sci-fi blockbuster, Independence Day. It's hard to believe that two so radically different looking films can be made at the same time (although, Humanoids From the Deep is a little more believable when it comes to plot - no fish men were killed with the help of an Apple computer).

The first half of the film is played straight, however in the second half, the mood starts to change to something a bit more tongue-in-cheek (definitely how this movie should be taken, in my opinion). Yes, it's cheesy, yes, it's daft and yes, this film will never be up there with The Godfather and Shawshank Redemption. However, it is rather silly fun and if you're a fan of eighties horror movies with men in big rubber suits trying their hand at dating human females, then you might enjoy this - definitely one of those 'guilty pleasure' films.

NB. Was it just me, or did anyone else think there were a few 'Aliens' references in this film? I won't go on about them. It might just be my imagination.

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