The Rig

This horror film is set aboard an actual oil rig--one that was the first of its type and is a museum today. A cute twist is having one of the characters actually wearing a t-shirt for the museum in one scene! On the rig, some underwater beast is disturbed and comes aboard to pick off the crew one by one.

"The Rig" is a low budget horror film with very modest production values in most ways. However, in two ways the film was quite outstanding--the blood and gore was a lot more realistic and profuse than you might expect and the musical score was great and really added to the tension. Otherwise, the film is clearly inspired by films such as "Alien", "Predator" and "The Thing". The idea of an alien slowly picking off members of a group certainly is NOT original and the writing could have been a lot better (the characters sometimes seem like caricatures and the ending is weak). It also suffers some from a few stupid clichés (such as adding nudity where it is pretty inappropriate) and seems a bit formulaic. Overall, the way I see it, if you like gore and low-budget monster films, you'll probably enjoy the film. If not, you'll probably wonder why you've wasted nearly and hour and a half of your life.

This movie makes absolutely no sense and was written by people who have absolutely no idea of work safety regulations... people die all the time on that drilling platform and the staff acts like if they simply deserted - there is no emotion, no stress, no documenting what happened, just sex scenes and stupid dialogue.

I understand they had no budget, but that no excuse for lazy writing and pathetic acting. Roger Corman made movies on shoestring budgets but never sank that low.

I'm surprised the director ever found another job.

I'm usually a huge fan of cheap low budget movies. And just as a previous reviewer said, I also thought the monster was a gigantic sea creature... but it turned out to be some tiny monster that looked not much larger than a little kid.

You can almost always tell the cheaper-made movies apart from how they show the monster. It's always... show an arm here... a leg there... a scene with some teeth and claws, etc. However, what makes this movie stand apart from all of that is this... You NEVER actually really clearly the monster(s) at all. I figured that maybe at the end you will be able to clearly see it... but no... it was inside a dark tunnel so you can't even really see it clearly.. unless of course you pause the movie... then you can sort of see it... kind of... hahahah Aside from being kind of predictable and the characters doing illogical things... it wasn't all that bad, I guess. I did manage to watch all of it.

In the midst of a tropical storm, the crew of an offshore oil rig must survive the rampage of a creature after invading its undersea habitat.

Although I don't think this film debuted on SyFy, it belongs there. It's of low budget, little original plot, and just all around lesser quality. I can say, thank goodness, this did not have the horrible special effects of SyFy (actually, some of the gore was decent).

William Forsythe is the alleged star, his name even appearing before the film's title. Well, that's a tough call. He's not the main character, and he is outacted by his mustache in a few scenes. So, unless you're a die-hard Forsythe fan, don't expect him to be the key to this film's success.

The DVD has a misleading cover image, making the monster look gigantic. It's much more humanoid. And there is a subplot of a brother story... for why? It's not important to the story at all, and adds a thin sentimentality to this film. Very thin.

The one thing I can praise them for is that this movie was shot on location at Charlie rig (now a museum in Louisiana). As far as authentic scenery goes, you can't get much more real than this. An actual rig!

Alright, well first of all, just based from the movie cover, you already know this is going to be something like a standard horror movie from the late 80's / early 90's, and sure enough - it is! This movie is just screaming late 80's/early 90's horror flick. From the way it is shot, the storyline and the setting. Let's take an isolated rig out in the middle of the ocean, miles from land. Throw in a storm, of course, for good measure. Then cut off communications with mainland and then have some strange creature come aboard the rig. A creature no one ever heard or seen before. Yeah, late 80's/early 90's cocktail right there.

Oh, and while we are at it, lets put William Forsythe's name up on the poster, then we have a semi-famous name to draw people in. Now, this puzzles me indeed, especially because his role in the movie is no more than a supporting role, if that much even.

Anyway, "The Rig" is actually filmed in an adequate manner, especially if you are into horror movies from back in the day. The setting of the movie, well it has been used a bit too much in the past.

The people in the movie also did a good enough job with their roles. But you never really got to feel for any of the characters, as they were all just portrayed superficially. There were very little character development and building in this movie. Basically just your standard isolation-horror-with-slim-survival-chance-movie here.

And what was up with the storm? At one point it was furious and pounding the rig with no mercy. But when they had to go out to walk on the cranes (or whatever it was) the storm had dissipated? Even though they had said it wouldn't break up before the next day? And once off the crane, it started to thunder and get sort of stormy again? Tch, tch...

I must admit that I blackout and snoozed maybe 10 or 15 minutes away of the movie, but when I woke up, I could immediately get back into the movie and the story, because nothing major happened, nothing that couldn't afforded to be missed anyway.

What ticks me off in these types of movies, is the fact that you rarely get to see the creatures in full detail. It is always blurred motion, small and fast glimpses, silhouettes, or whatever they come up with to make it more thrilling and creeping. No, no, no! It doesn't' work to that end, it doesn't become thrilling, it doesn't become scary. I will tell you what it becomes; it becomes annoying and frustrating. As a movie lover, I want to see such monsters, I want to see the horror that stalks the people. I am not content with glimpses here and there. It makes the whole project reek of low-budget and cheesy effects.

If you are in for an evening of horror in the predictable genre, then this might be something right up your alley. But if you, like me, prefer more than just cheap thrills and bad plots, don't bet your money on "The Rig". The movie is bearable to sit through if you have nothing else at hand, but there are far better horror movies available. And don't get fooled by an otherwise rather interesting-looking movie cover!