Proteus

A group of drug smuglers are ship wrecked, and seek shelter on a near-by oil rig. As it turns out, it's not a oil rig at all, but a high-security genetic engineering where things went wrong, now there's monsters running around. This has to be one of the best film's I've ever seen! Excellent special effects, spectacular monsters, creative premise, a refreshingly non-routine script.....This is perfect! I want it on DVD!!!!!!!! Great twist at the end, too.

This is based on a book called 'Slimer' by Harry Adam Knight. Whilst the book is a tense, gripping and claustrophobic thriller packed with interesting characters and some truly chilling scenes, the film just stinks of a disgustingly wasted license. Another opportunity completely flushed down the drain by people not talented enough to produce and direct the home video footage of a family party.

The plot, for lack of a better word, involves drug smugglers who are shipwrecked and wind up on a deserted oil-rig where sinister experiments are taking place. After a lot of wandering around they meet a scientist with a Germanic accent which sounds nearly as realistic as Professor Tryst's in 'Dr Who:Nightmare of Eden' (which, believe me, is no great achievement). The characters are Z-grade and the film doesn't even attempt to follow the story in the original book. Before long the laughable monster (imagine a cut-price Jaws on legs) appears to sink the film to even greater depths. Doug Bradley (Pinhead in the 'Hellraiser' films) makes an appearance, but even he's wasted in a minor role as a rather cliched mad company boss.

A painful experience. That saying 'the old ones are the best' certainly applies to monster movies. Recent monster films like this waste of (very little) money aren't worth the tape they're printed on.

Bob Keen (the make up and special effects wizard behind Hellraiser 2-3 and Candyman among many others) directed this alien film set in the oil rig. A bunch of drug smugglers have their boat sunk and they have to go to one oil rig they accidentally find while floating in the middle of the ocean. They go on board only to find it's completely abandoned with some menacing voices and dark rooms. Soon they learn there's something nasty and hungry in the rig and it's going to get the new visitors, too.

There are two things which make this film worth watching even couple of times. They are soundtrack and lightning with the usage of camera. The theme played during the credits and during the film isn't too effective or special, but the ominous and low sounds heard in the soundtrack to create suspense are indeed effective and creepy, thanks to the talented film makers who knew what sounds scary. The green and dark mist is present in the film all the time and the images of the abandoned oil rig are very scary again and show only little information about the place.. There are also some effective shocks which make the viewer almost jump, and fortunately they are not too plenty as then they would've lost their power and become gratuitous.

Otherwise this film isn't too noteworthy. The characters are not too deep or interesting and speak and scream things which reveal bad script. The ending is too cliched and the monster too big and becomes little unintentionally comic as the budget didn't make it possible to create more convincing monster. They should've kept the monster smaller in order to make the film look more serious. The ending has also one bit of unexpected gore as the full monster arrives, and it looks little different now that the entire film is practically bloodless and without gore. There is also one brief scene which raises the puke-o-meter pretty high as one nasty alien tentacle goes inside one character's mouth while she's sleeping!

After all, this film has enough atmosphere and horror elements to make it worthwhile for the fans of horror and scifi cinema, but otherwise this isn't too revolutionizing picture even in its own genre. If you appreciate the genre, rent or buy this (if you get it cheap) because it could be MUCH worse than this.

5/10

Proteus is a film that not many people like, take a look at the user rating and 95% of the reviews on here for proof. However, I am one of the film's few fans and I'll explain why. I love 70s, 80s, and 90s creature features, this was the good old times of practical effects (men in monster suits, mechanical monsters), before the age of CGI which to be honest, I think ruined creature features at least the low budget films because in a lot of creature features now, either the creatures are completely ridiculous (Sharknado, Avalanche Sharks) or like in a lot of SyFy fare, they show the creatures throughout the whole film and leave no suspense. Those three decades were the best times for these films, leaving the audience to picture to creature through most of the running time until the big reveal. I know I've been rambling, now on to the film.

Proteus has a plot that I'm a sucker for, group of people stranded in a isolated location with a mutant monster. In this case, it's drug smugglers whose boat sank and they come across an oil rig where experiments have been going on and things have went awry. Nothing special but simple and appealing to me. Craig Fairbrass is the lead here and does a pretty good job actually, he is probably most known for his villainous role in Cliffhanger but he pulls off the tough guy role well. His character also has a nice character reveal halfway through the film. The other five main actors range from mediocre to bad but don't worry, most are there for the body count. Ricco Ross from Aliens has a solid small role and does a good job as well. Horror icon Doug Bradley shows up at the end as the owner of the rig in heavy makeup and does decent, obviously was in this film because he was probably friends with Bob Keen. The pacing is fast, I have heard people call it boring but I honestly don't see it, within fifteen minutes, they are on the rig and not long after does strange things happen.

The dialogue is passable at best but it does have a great line "You're a fu**in fish with a drug habit". The make up and mechanical effects is where this film really comes to life, Proteus has very interesting monster designs and makes the film an entertaining viewing especially if you're a lover of practical creature effects. The atmosphere is also quite good, it has a murky, sticky, gross atmosphere that fits with the film. The directing is average enough, nothing great but there's some cool shots.

I really like the film, I found it a very entertaining B horror film, it's not a good film when compared to the best horror film of all time The Thing (1982) which its rips off of shamelessly but I have a blast and a fondness for it. I would recommend it only to people who are fans of creature features of the 80s and 90s where practical effects was still key. Underrated B creature feature for sure.

Basically a group is stranded on an abandoned oil rig where some testing has been going on and there's a monster. While that would be enough plot for people, the creators decided to add in some crappy drug smuggling story to it. It may give the group an excuse to be out there but, at the same time, it's pretty much unnecessary and leads to some mediocre subplots. My other issue is all the damn monster-vision shots. We have constant disruptions where we see everything through a blurry (green or red) lens moving quickly. To make it worse, half the time the monster isn't even doing anything! It's just running around, not interacting with the group or anything else. Plus, in the interests of being confusing, we'll occasionally catch glimpses of puddles of organic crap appearing and then transforming yet predictably none of the characters see this plus nobody ever seems to hear anything (an aggravating trend).

Finally somebody is grabbed then, while tracking them, they find an old scientist who tells them they're in danger and they should leave. He then promptly vanishes from a locked room. The story proceeds to get weirder from there. However, it never really gets good. The setting is great, though, and I like the concept. Some of the effects are really neat while others... well, not so much. I love the monster's true form. At the same time so much of the movie just isn't worthwhile and there are just so many pointless moments. And while the ending does help salvage other parts of the film, the whole thing feels like a half-rate rendition of The Thing.

Also, the title is a reference to a Greek mythological shapeshifter.