The Evil Below

This underwater adventure rode the wave of waterlogged films coming out in 1989 (THE ABYSS, DEEP STAR SIX, LEVIATHAN, THE RIFT, LORDS OF THE DEEP, etc.). While the excellent cover sells the horror aspect, the film is closer to THE DEEP with treasure diving adventure taking up a majority of the running time. Horror elements do pop up though in the form of black magic, a big killer eel and a undead protagonist (who is never really explained). Stars Wayne Crawford of JAKE SPEED fame as the equally bizarre named Max Cash. Crawford is pleasant enough and somehow he ends up the object of every woman's affection in the film. How did he manage that? Oh yeah - he directed it! I guess that is as good as reason as any.

My review was written in July 1989 after watching the film on Raedon video cassette.

This routine South African-lensed thriller about legendary evil scares up little interest in its video release.

Comfortable team of Wyane Crawford and June Chadwick go diving for a treasure ship that sank in 1683. They encounter rivals for the booty, as well as shark attacks and lots of local talk about "the devil walks on this island". Incoherent nightmares pad out the running time. Lack of a decent budget puts the kibosh on this one.

It's ho-hum low adventure. Crawford is okay in his typical ne-er-do-well action role.

The VHS cover for The Evil Below makes it look like a cool underwater horror flick. Sadly it's closer to a boring adventure flick and has no real horror elements. It starts off with some divers who get attacked and we see a bit of blood, but that's the only blood in the entire film.

The Evil Below isn't the worst around, but for a horror film it is tediously boring. The acting is decent and to be honest the only thing that keeps you watching is the developing romance between the two leads. There's a few nightmare sequences where it just seems like the director didn't know what to do. I manged to sit through it all (just about) but I wouldn't recommend this film to ANYONE. Horror fans might want a copy for the cool VHS cover, but it's best left at that.

When I found this movie some years back in the discount bin for €1,50 I decided to give it a go. I have to admit it's cool cover art lying amongst generically looking DVD covers really caught my eye. The movie itself turned out decent, it isn't anything special nor is it a complete failure like some people may have pointed out.

The story revolves around a nearly bankrupt Captain named Max Cash who lives on a fictional island called San Sebastian. His surname says it all! He comes up with all kinds of fascinating stories about the sea just to stay in business. He hooks up with a beautiful blonde who is interested in his services and wants to rent his boat to do some treasure diving. As the story progresses they encounter stormy weather, bad luck, some clues, a mysterious individual, rivalry an eventually start romancing.

The pro's include: a good story, some funny wisecracking dialogue and at least one realistically looking fight scene.

The con's include: The slow pace of the movie, even though it got released in 1989 it looks pretty early 80s (this may affect some viewers) and it's misleading horror genre.

To all adventurers out there! Watch and learn about treasures of the deep.

Now this is by no means the worst film I've ever seen, but it might be one of the cheapest looking. And at under 90 minutes in length it still plods on. The cast are universally dull, the two leads are slightly better but that's not saying much. The plot about sunken treasure has all been done better many times and as for the Evil Below, it doesn't ever really happen. One two be left under the waves.