Les Monstres de la mer

A great Roger Corman production again involving monsters, this time killer salmon creatures memorphed into humanhoid beings that kill men and rape women of a small Oregon fishing town. The movie opens with a fishing boat taking a group of fishermen out to bring up their nets only to have something large and unseen claw away at it which leads to one little boy falling overboard and getting eaten and the boat exploding killing all aboard. The tension, suspense, exitcement starts almost from the first scene and never lets up for a minute. For the next scene has a nighttime setting which has one humanoid lurking around a local house with the lady inside wondering where strange noises are coming from, and her going out to investigate. With the rash of attacks, and dissapearances, bring in a scientist who slowly explains the reason for the creatures existence while more and more humanoids are attacking campers, beachgoers and others in various gory ways. One may find it cheesy and absurd, but that's the whole point as a great cheesy thriller that had a tight script and a great climatic humanoid attack against the fishing pier. I'd give it a 10 out of 10 rating.

As near as I can tell this is the first monster movie to make explicit what has been implicit in monster movies from at least as far back as King Kong in 1933... that monsters just want to have sex with human women. Since this has only been suggested at before, nobody has ever bothered explaining this rather inexplicable behavior, beyond something like "beauty killed the beast". But Humanoids from the Deep explains all (at least for Roger Corman's man-fish critters) and gives a reason for their unusual mating habits... that "these creatures are driven to mate with man now in order further develop their incredible evolution." Alas, if only the 'scientist' who came up with this theory had just pronounced "coelacanth" correctly she would have had a great deal more credibility in my books. Still, on the plus side, it is a fine example of it's genre, where lots of nicely done rubber-suit-monsters tear the men up into bloody shreds so they can strip and ravish the women. If you watch this film expecting anything more... well, why were you?

With some imagination, the best way to describe "Humanoids from the Deep" is calling it a nasty and perverted update of the "Creature from the Black Lagoon"-premise. That classic Jack Arnold featured oppressed sexual undertones while HftD is a downright outrageous and rancid flick. Not bad to see a woman directs a more or less anti-women movie…even though Corman hired someone else to shoot extra sleaze-footage. In many ways, it also feels like you're watching an Italian horror product! The style and atmosphere of this film are so silly, the violence is so explicit and the plot rips off several other genre classics. Don't be fooled, however, because this is an authentic Roger Corman production and definitely one of the most entertaining ones he ever was involved in. The plot handles about ecologically mutated fish that attack a little fish-town during the annual salmon-festival. The creatures, which evolve amazingly fast, kill the men and rape the women.

"Humanoids from the Deep" is an unbelievably entertaining gorefest! The monster-suits are some of the most efficient ever and they look truly despicable. The gratuitous nudity is – of course – a very redundant element but Corman surely knows that it sells. As mentioned before, this film rips off quite a few genre hits and cleverly uses eerie ideas (and music) from "Jaws" and "Alien". The make-up effects are simply disgusting … and that's a positive comment. Especially the grotesque finale, set during the yearly festival, contains some sickness every self-respecting horror fan should see. Even though the film could have used a little more humor to put it the wholesome into perspective a little, this surely is fundamental viewing for all fans of trash film-making. For some incomprehensible reason, Corman also put his money in made-for-TV remake during the 90's. That film might be fairly gore as well, but it entirely lacks the campy, light-headed fun of this original. Make sure you watch the right version!

.Humanoids from the Deep (1980)

*** (out of 4)

Ultra low-budget but highly insane monster movie takes place in a fishing community where the fishermen start to notice that all the fish are missing. Soon the people are finding their dogs slaughters and before long people are missing. Fisherman Jim Hill (Doug McClure) begins to investigate with a scientist (Ann Turkel) and soon their worst fears are confirmed when they discover mutant fish creates that aren't just killing people but also trying to mate with women.

HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP came during a period where Roger Corman's studio was making an outrageous amount of movies that were pretty much throwbacks to the type of films that he made during the 1950s. CREATURE FROM THE HAUNTED SEA and MONSTER FROM THE OCEAN FLOOR are just two type of films but this one here is a terrific mixture of that old-fashion monster movie but of course it's brought up-to-date with some outlandish violence and of course all sorts of beautiful women naked.

If you hitting play on your disc player in hopes of seeing some sort of high art then you're going to be extremely disappointing because this isn't a well-made movie. There's also no question that on a technical level there are all sorts of flaws due to the budget but for the most part I thought Barbara Peeters handles the material quite well and succeeds at delivering fans what type of exploitation they'd want. The performances are good and the actors are entertaining enough to keep you glued to the story. McClure, Turkel and Vic Morrow are all fun.

Of course, it's the monsters that steal the show. The overgrown seaweed with the large brains and sharp teeth just look fabulous and they add to the fun. Being a Corman production we also get some rather memorable deaths including a man getting his head ripped off (but be sure you're watching the uncut version). The nudity is also on full display as Corman hired some good looking women to get naked and run around. So is HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP a classic? You bet it is. In regards to the chain of 80s monster movies it's certainly one of the very best.

Oh man, was this one fun to watch. One of the reasons some bad films are viewable is because you can sense how much fun everyone had making this film. This is such a case. It is real bad. The actors play it straight and that only adds to the fun with all the ridiculous goings-on. And you can't beat this logic: these oversized man/salmon creatures are coming up on land reeking havoc. So how does Doug McClure intend to catch these things? He heads to his boat and out to sea armed only with a fishing pole. I was sold. If you watch to laugh rather than be scared, you'll have fun with this one.