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My boss at the time and showed it to us at a Halloween party at our office. He is the Chris Huntley that co-wrote and acted in it. He knows it's bad, we know it's bad and we all agree that the monster looks WAY too much like a vagina to be coincidence. Maybe it was from a gynocological experiment gone wrong.

It was a VERY low budget and the actors were all friends so what you have here is a case of "hey gang, lets' put on a show".

Nobody got hurt and it was a first attempt. Nothing wrong with that. It gave us all a good laugh and it's a great film to watch with friends and make fun of. :-)

A group of 7 gold prospectors head into a mine that was recently opened back up after an earthquake. Of course, they don't pay attention to local legend that something is down there and killing people. This low budget ($25,000) horror flick has a slight cult following and I'm not exactly sure why (unless it is because it is so obscure). I'll admit the last half hour is pretty entertaining, but the hour getting there is pure torture. Lots of walking and talking and our titular strangeness doesn't appear until 45 minutes in. Even in the extras co-writer Chris Huntley admits it commits the unforgivable sin of being boring. I would forgive them if they were strict amateurs, but this group graduated from USC so I would hope they know an exploitation film should be exploitive. Anyway, like I said, the last half hour is cool as three survivors battle the stop motion monster and there is a cool John Carpenter-like score. I wanted to see more of the monster, but it is literally on screen for 45 seconds.

Even if the movie isn't the best, Code Red DVD has given this great attention. You have interviews and an audio commentary by director Melanie Anne Phillips, producer/actor Mark Sawicki and co-writer Huntley. The tales about how the film was made are pretty fascinating and inspiring (like a cave set being built in a backyard). Even more interesting are Sawicki and Huntley's USC student shorts, which are actually all better than the feature production. Huntley was a pretty talented artist and it is a shame he didn't go on to anything else. Sawicki has worked steadily in Hollywood as a visual effects and camera guy. The film's VHS is kind of legendary for how dark it was and I'm sure this is much better. However, you still get scenes where the only image are five helmet lights bouncing around in the blackness. Safe to say, the original MY BLOODY VALENTINE is still "horror film set in a mine" champ.

A geological expedition of an abandoned mine becomes a living nightmare when its members find themselves trapped underground with a hulking, tentacled vagina monster. The interesting looking beast is brought to life via stop-motion animation(with marginal success). This creature, of origins which are never conclusively deduced, appears to digest its victims externally by covering them with a thick, enzymatic slime.

This unjustly overlooked monster movie was clearly produced on breadcrumb rations, but well-maintained suspense and a dark, foreboding atmosphere make up heartily for its bush-league deficiencies. Not a classic, perhaps, but certainly deserving of a more prominent placement within the annals of horror cinema.

6/10... Recommended.

I want to say I liked this film, I really do, but when it boils down to it it was just far too boring. It starts off looking promising, and even once they get inside the mines the creepy atmosphere and mood is great. The problem is the monster, or lack of it. As people have said it's a stop-motion monster, but that's not the problem (stop-motion can look great if done properly). The problem is that we don't see enough of it and we don't get to see any deaths. This is meant to be a horror film so a lack of monster and a lack of deaths equals boredom. There were some scenes I liked, such as when one girl is using her camera in the dark and the monster is coming towards her. There are also a few other creepy scenes but they are far too few to hold your interest and definitely not worth watching the film for. It's a shame, because I can see that had it been handled correctly it would've been an effectively creepy horror flick. The saddest thing is that films like this will never be made again, because film makers over-polish their films these days and rely on crappy CGI effects.

This extremely low-budget monster flick centers around a group of mine surveyors exploring an abandoned gold mine in order to see if its worth reopening. They get trapped after a cave in and find they are at the mercy of a strange, slimy creature which seems bent on knocking them off one at a time. The word that most came to mind as I watched this movie was 'desperate'. The script and acting is terrible, the stop-motion monster effects were unintentionally funny, and since the bulk of the movie takes place underground lighting the sets convincingly looked like a logistical nightmare. All that being said however for some reason I felt this movie failed not from lack of effort, but maybe from either a lack of budget, experience and/or lack of creative inspiration. The whole thing came off like it was either a college project or a first film made by amateurs, I have a certain amount of affection for films like that even when they completely miss the mark. I guess what I'm saying is I give it an B for effort and a D- for actual results, not insultingly bad as some low-budget monster movies I've seen but still not worth seeing unless you have a LOT of free time on your hands. I'm voting it a 5.

Some movies are just … unlucky. These are the films that obviously thrived on a lot of goodwill and a handful of potentially great ideas, but simply didn't have the budgetary means and/or professional cast and crew members at their disposal to make it happen. "The Strangeness" definitely belongs in this category. You really want to like it, but even the most tolerant and undemanding 80's horror fanatics will have to admit the film barely reaches the level of mediocrity due to its atmosphere of cheapness, clumsy stop-motion effects and impenetrably dark cinematography. "The Strangeness" has a fairly original plot and setting (okay, it's similar to "The Boogens" but I sincerely doubt that director David Michael Hillman intentionally ripped off a fellow insignificant 80's B-movie) and the players deliver enthusiast performances even though they're all miscast. An assembly of amateur speleologists go on an expedition to explore the infamous Gold Spike mine. Many years ago, several miners mysteriously died there and the place has abandoned ever since, but there's supposed to be too much gold hidden there to remain closed forever. Shortly after they descended into the mine, the group members one by one encounter the slimy ruler of the Gold Spike mine; a Lovecraftian monster with tentacles and an incredibly cheesy way of moving forward. Throughout most of its running time, "The Strangeness" is a boring and incompetent mess that is difficult to follow due to the complete lack of lighting. The characters are uninteresting and the mine remains a mystery because the only lighting effects come from the helmets of the speleologists. There's very little action or horror to experience in the first hour, but director Hillman cleverly grasps the viewers' attention by showing bits and pieces of the monster at regular intervals. As soon as you catch the first glimpse of the monster's tentacle, you're doomed to keep watching till the very end. The creature is realized with stop-motion effects, which I usually adore and worship, but here in this case they look extremely weak and pitiable. The person responsible for the special effects should have paid more attention to the work of Ray Harryhousen. The death sequences largely occur off-screen and there's very little suspense throughout the whole movie. A horror flick with a setting like this should benefice from claustrophobic atmosphere and unidentifiable sound effects, but "The Strangeness" lacks all this. The biggest trump of the film is unquestionably the beautiful appearance of blond actress Terri Berland. She resembles a speleologist as much as I resemble Mother Theresa, but she surely looks good in her tight white top and beige pants.

I'll give "The Strangeness" credit. For an ultra low budget, almost student film, at times it captures the total darkness cave experience pretty well. Sure it's dark, and at times headlamps moving in the blackness is all you see, but I would rather have that than some bogus source of light. The acting is not good. The dialog is not good. The first hour is boring and not good. Character development is not good, but at least you can tell the characters apart. Finally, the ending is a complete sell out, where believability flies out the window. So what is there to like about this film? For one thing, Terri Berland wearing a skin tight tank top and button busting jeans will hold your attention, and the stop motion, rarely seen monster, is so bizarre you will be anxiously awaiting your next brief glimpse. - MERK

Oh dear me! This is the worse movie I have watched in decades. The story was dumb n the plot was even dumber.

The acting was atrocious n wooden n the characters were totally unlikeable n they had zero charisma.

The whole movie was shot in the dark n was difficult to see much of anything. The creature was pathetic n was reminiscent of the 1960 stop motion triffids.

There was no action no tension n no suspense just a lame long drawn out boring story.

The ending was pathetic n totally predictable.

I can not recommend this movie to anyone even if you like creature features.

There are nostalgic reasons to like this now, back in the good old days the mid 1980's when low budget still meant you shot the thing on film and went outside of your neighborhood to shoot it. But I saw this in the 80's before the nostalgia kicked in and it was fun and it holds up for the most part now, rewatching a well battered VHS.

This is in the Lovecraft zone for sure and the story is good. The execution varies, it would be great to see a DVD release of this with some background info as this is an Indie production and therefore its origins would be interesting. A DVD might show the cave sets to be sets, but would probably also show the image more cleanly in good ways too. I think it's pretty well photographed,but in some instances video transfers just couldn't handle the contrast ratios like this. In one scene, for instance, a flash camera is used to light the way and each flash makes the whole video image jump and ruins a cool reveal shot of the creature.

(A pretty nice DVD of this was released in August of 2009 and is well worth getting)

The monster is creepy looking, even if you're not afraid of vaginas and part of it certainly does look like one. The DVD reveals two things that have to be mentioned in light of this. The director is now a women (though still married to his/her wife that he had kids with?!?) How much of a woman then is he/she? And the designer of the creature is now openly gay though at the time says he was not "out" yet. So think, or don't think, about this too deeply while watching the movie. They also show the puppet, battered but still looking very, well vaginal or as the designer says, it looks like a penis with a vagina on the end of it. Does all this make the monster sound scary enough for you?

Performers vary but several of them engage your interest enough to care about their fate and one of them, who deserves to die, does indeed have a very good death scene. Yes 1980's film fans, the lead large-possibly-not-real-breasted actress, seemingly the only veteran actor of the bunch, wears a tight white semi tube top,and even tighter jeans, and yes they eventually get her wet. But the thing that it deserves credit for is you can always tell which character is which, which, if you pardon the repeated word, is more than THE DESCENT managed to do.

The enjoyable John Carpenter rip off score is probably the most dated element and it actually dates it in a good way, the whole story with a cave monster gives it a old fashioned feel in a good way too. It's a good old fashioned monster story.

Other films in this ballpark are of course the recent THE DESCENT, and WHAT WAITS BELOW, and THE BOOGENS, but this film is not exactly like any of those and though not as good as those in many ways still has its share of creepy moments amid a couple of "we didn't really shoot this action scene well enough for it to all make sense sequences." The mine setting is well enough done to build interest and it moves pretty well to the end. Bring on a DVD version someone. Some of the well done animation is by Ernest D Farino who has for many years worked at Industrial Light and Magic doing work on Star Wars films and several James Cameron title sequences.

I was lured in by the DVD cover for this movie. Sure, I knew it was old, but I didn't know what it was about, aside from it obviously being a horror movie.

I managed to sit through 50 minutes of this ordeal of a slow paced and uneventful movie. Then I had enough and I just quit.

The characters in "The Strangeness" were pointless and irrelevant to the storyline.

And while we are on the topic of the storyline, then the storyline was so generic and sluggish that you were at danger of being lulled to sleep. Trust me.

The few times you do see the creature, in the 50 minutes I managed to endure, it was a horrible stop-motion animated tentacle creature that was more laughable than it was scary.

This was definitely one of the more genre defining horror movies to make it out of the 1980s.

Ah, Code Red, you have a tendency to release rarities to DVD that range from lost classics ("Soul Survivor" and the upcoming Messiah of Evil" SE) to terrible ("Don't Go In The Woods...Alone!") to watchable but mediocre ("The Unseen" and "The Dead Pit") and the truly mind boggling ("Boardinghouse") Well, "The Strangeness" falls into the third category. I've been wanting to see it since I read the entry on it in Stephen Thrower's essential 70's/80's Horror Tome "Nightmare USA," and lo and behold, Code Red gives it a DVD release.

The plot is nothing special: A group of people people surveying a abandoned mine end up trapped in a cave, and what do ya know, a slimy tentacled monster. So yeah, nothing new, and nothing spectacular. On the plus side, the creature itself is a pretty nifty creation-done using Stop-Motion animation, and looking like a mix of H.R Giger (it's pretty much looks like a combination of a phallus and a vagina) and Lovecraft. Also, the direction is competent, the low budget sets are convincing and the John Carpenter like score is a lot of fun.

On the other hand, the acting is terrible (it's pretty much amateur hour here) and this was done with a PG rating, so those expecting plenty of gore will be let down considerably, as the majority of the deaths occur off screen. Plus, the Stop-Motion creature certainly has it's charms, though the animation itself is a bit jerky.

So, is it worth it? Well, it's certainly no "The Descent" that's for sure. On the other hand, if you have fond memories for not yet on DVD cave creature flicks like "What Waits Below" and "The Boogens", then this might be worth it. It's no classic, but there's worse ways to spend your time.

This a very low budget and very unknown 80s horror, shot in grainy 16mm and in what appears to be real caves with almost no light (this gives the film a cool look, that's one of its best attributes). The movie is nothing special, just mildly entertaining, and the funny stop-motion monster appearances are blink-and-you-missed-it. You basically have to wait until the last 30 minutes for something to actually happen.

I bought a copy of the British VTC VHS tape because I'd never heard of The Strangeness and the artwork looked "interesting". Just finished watching it, not at all impressed. For a start it is very very slow. We get bad actors spouting bad dialogue. And bearing in mind that this was made after John Carpenter's "The Thing" the creature special effects would have looked ok in the 1960's but in the 80's they look very dated. A few gory moments including a maggot infested corpse but otherwise this proved to be a rather tiresome watch.

I'm honestly surprised this movie has as high a rating as it does. Generally, I grade cheapo horror flicks like this on a curve, but I found this one almost unwatchable. Perhaps there are cleaner versions floating around out there, but my copy is an original VHS in almost mint condition and the scenes as a whole are so dark and blurry you can hardly tell what the hell is going on. The film has potential, but you don't want the viewers of a horror/action flick to be wondering what they are looking at half the time. The kids are supposed to be trapped in a large labyrinth of a cave, but every set looks like the same part of the cave (what little you can make of it). Can't believe it came out in 1985-it looks much more mid-1970's. Pretty bad and not in a good way.

VERY low budget horror film, ("Caves" built in a garage cheap), but not a completely wasted effort. Over all maybe it falls shy of anything you'd call "good", but there are some very effective moments that keep me from calling this "bad". Fun stop-motion creepy-crawly and a VERY well done scene with complete darkness and a repeating flash bulb are highlights for me.

A disparate group of individuals are recruited to explore an abandoned gold mine. Their job is to ascertain as to whether it can be reopened. But they find that there was a very good reason why the mine was abandoned. A very, VERY good reason. There is a slithering, slimy, tentacled horror just waiting in the darkness, waiting to pounce on any chump dumb enough to separate themselves from the pack.

Considering this was made for a paltry $25,000, this independent cave-horror / creature feature is solid fun for any fan of monster cinema. Yes, this viewer does understand the common criticism that it moves slowly. But, speaking personally, he felt that it took just the right amount of time, with the first victim being claimed at approximately the half-way point. In the meantime, we get plenty of atmosphere, a stifling feel (you do feel that the characters are in genuinely cramped quarters), appropriate lighting (the best part is the final third, when things are often lit mostly by flare), and an eerie, John Carpenter-esque electronic music score. The gore is quite nasty, and the creature itself is quite enjoyable to behold. (One other thing reviewers will often comment upon is the suggestive look of the creature, although effects man Chris Huntley swears this was unintentional.)

Director Melanie Anne Phillips, who wrote the script with Huntley, builds a sufficient amount of tension. The performances are not exactly award-worthy, but they get the job done. The other effects man Mark Sawicki, who went on to a great career in Hollywood working on things like "The Terminator" and "X-Men", is good at being annoying as a wannabe writer with poetic aspirations who knows the history of the mine. (Thus giving us enough exposition to digest.) Amiable lug Dan Lunham is the hero, Geoff Calvert, and Terri Berland is the lovely leading lady, Cindy Flanders. Rolf Theison hits the mark playing one of those standard JERK characters we so often expect to find in movies like this. His character, Myron Hemmings, is a gold-hungry, domineering, impatient dummy.

The monster itself remains an enigma, with no explanation for its existence. This viewer will give the filmmakers credit for using stop-motion to create the beast.

While "The Strangeness" is not exactly a great film, for this viewer it IS a thoroughly enjoyable one that merits a look from interested monster movie lovers.

Eight out of 10.

It's sometimes a tad repetitive, and unevenly exercised, but wherever the credit belongs for the music, I actually really like it. Rather evoking John Carpenter with the synth-heavy themes, the score adds some splendid atmosphere to the proceedings. I gather some credit is also deserved for some minor ingenuity, as I'm given to understand that filming was split between a little bit of a real mine, and a lot of sets built and decorated inside a limited space to give the appearance of an underground cavern. As we've seen in everything from amateur horror to Neil Marshall's 2005 exemplar 'The descent,' fabricating set pieces and arranging them just so - moreover with smart lighting and camerawork - can make the ordinary look and feel extraordinary. I'm certainly not directly comparing filmmaker Melanie Anne Phillips or 'The strangeness' to Carpenter or 'The descent,' for this is clearly marked by a low budget, limited resources, and to some degree inexperience or developing professional skills. Yet I recognize the earnest effort and hard work that went into it, and I've seen too many major studio pictures that achieved less and went worse with far more. For my part I think this is fairly good!

That doesn't mean it doesn't have flaws. Even in writing there's not a lot that actually happens over the course of ninety-odd minutes, and the pacing feels troubled as much of the length is characterized by the characters preparing to enter the mine, then just walking carefully through the darkness. The gloomy setting is ripe for a story to be told, and the music provides aid with its terrific ambience, but these only get us so far without more eventfulness of one sort or another. Kind of emphasizing the point, one scene just before the one-hour mark is intended to be ominous with the lighting, audio, and wind effects as the characters react, but only the use of practical effects instead of computer-generated imagery prevent the moment from being equally suitable for a modern production from The Asylum or James Nguyen. What the writing and direction lack to too much of an extent is a sense of stakes, or danger, or urgency, that could have at least been brought to the fore through the acting. That the acting does not do so has less to do with the cast, I think, than with the capabilities at the time of filmmaker Phillips, and co-writer Chris Huntley.

Still, I fully mean the praise that the feature initially inspires. There's a tiny bit of humor that really is amusing; while the narrative isn't completely sound, it's suitable enough to serve as a foundation for the project, and likewise the scene writing. I like not just the music but the sound effects that are duly creepy, somewhat fostering a sense of claustrophobia as noises reverberate through the tight passageways (a notion that could have been latched onto more). The sets are appreciable, and so are the practical effects and tangible creations that were put together - including the design of the creature, even if it does, in part, raise a quizzical eyebrow - and I will always welcome stop-motion animation like what we see here. I really do admire the consideration for lighting and camerawork, even if the result has some faults. The cast wasn't about to win any awards, but they perform well enough to meet the needs of the title as we see it. And so on, and so on: 'The strangeness' has issues and is perhaps underwhelming compared to what it could have been, but it does boast sincere strength at its best, and I really did enjoy it. For what Phillips and her cast and crew had to work with, and the energy they poured into the endeavor, I think this is a swell success.

Yes, there are rough spots throughout, further including a few composite shots near the very end. Then again, much more than not this can claim a rather strong finish with the third act, including some odds and ends that are especially smart and sharp. It's imperfect and modest generally, and flawed specifically in some ways, but also altogether excellent at select moments. By no means is this a movie one needs to go out of their way to see, and anyone who isn't receptive to the unpolished side of cinema aren't likely to find anything here to change their minds. Be all that as it may, I'm pleasantly surprised by how entertaining and worthy 'The strangeness' ultimately proves itself to be, and I'm genuinely glad that I found it, and took the time to watch. Be aware of the nature of what you're getting into, but if you're open to fare of this variety, I'm happy to give 'The strangeness' my firm recommendation!

I saw this movie on Amazon and at one point considered buying the DVD. Then I saw it on Amazon Prime and was able to watch it free and I am so glad that I did not buy this one. I like horror movies set in caves, but this one was just so slow, even more slow than that Alien II: Alien on Earth film from Italy that takes its time to get the action going. It was 45 minutes before the first kill and reveal of the monster and the film was not lacking for people to kill. Should have been spread out way better.

The story has a cave where some miners are hired to investigate whether the mine is worth reopening or not. Apparently, there were attempts to reopen it before and strange stories about the first mining team that attempted to go for the gold. Well, the group finds out that there is something lurking within the caves as it begins to pick them off, one by one. as the miners feel the need to argue or interview the others for a book.

Had promise, but fails to deliver for the most part as I am betting the extremely small budget is the main reason why. The monster looks okay; however, it is stop motion so there is always a disconnect in the way it looks that makes it clear it is not really there. They did an okay job with the cave too, as they are not in a cave for a lot of it, but rather the director's grandparents' garage, so while it does not look like a cave on close inspection, you can kind of just roll with it. The main problem though are the characters that spend more time talking about books, telling awful jokes and arguing than being terrified of the monster.

So, in the end, very glad I did not buy this film. I have watched numerous cave horror films over the years and this one does rank near the bottom. The Boogens is a lot better monster in the cave movie made around the same time as this one and it isn't all that great. I also think if your going to title your movie The Strangeness, you need more going on than just one monster. That title makes me think that there is going to be strange happenings like corridors suddenly disappearing and pitfalls opening underfoot, rather than just a stop motion vagina monster (yes, its mouth looks exactly like a vagina).