La cosa degli abissi

The underwater sub called Syren 1 is disappeared at a depth of 30.000 feet , and his designer named Wick (Jack Scalia) is sent down by NATO (main chief played by Edmund Purdom) to investigate it . The mission on board a sub called Syren 2 is commanded by a stiff captain (R. Lee Ermey) , the crew is formed by a misfit group (Ray Wise , John Toles Bey , Emilio Linder , Ely Pouget , Frank Braña) and a scientific (Deborah Adair) , former Wick's love interest . Tracking a black box signal , the submarine heads to the deep rift where they find several surprises and dangers . The danger below is now the danger within . 'You Can't Hold your Breath & Scream at the Same Time'

This Sci-Fi/fantasy movie packs a blending of various films , as the deep rift with astonishing monsters (Leviathan , Deepstar six) , a crew saboteur (Alien) , a giant mother of creepy monsters (Aliens) and abysmal underwater mystery with weird beings (Abyss) . Acceptable interpretation and good acting by Lee Ermey , as always , who brings nice performance as a stiff-upper-lip commander , his usual role . The passable secondary cast is full of Spanish actors , such as : Frank Braña , Luis Lorenzo , Tony Isbert and even Pocholo Martinez Bordiú , grandson of dictator Francisco Franco . Cheesy but enjoyable special effects and creatures by Colin Arthur (The Neverending story) . Scale models and functional maquette work by Emilio Ruiz del Rio and Francisco Prosper . Atmospheric and colorful cinematography by Juan Marine , Juan Piquer's ordinary cameraman . Thrilling and adjusted musical score by Joel Goldsmith , Jerry Goldsmith's son . It's produced in middling budget by Francesca DeLaurentiis , daughter of the great Dino . Francesca hired David Coleman to rewrite a 250 pages draft by Colin Wilson . At the beginning the yarn was set in outer space in an earlier draft of the storyline but then was subsequently deemed an underwater setting , providing more stirring and fantastic scenarios . After producing Leviathan (1989) for about $40 million , Dino De Laurentiis , albeit uncredited, decided to finance for his daughter Francesca this medium budget version of his own bigger budgeted movie .

The picture was professionally directed by Juan Piquer Simon (Slugs , Pieces , Extraterrestrials visitors , Supersonic Man), and also producer . The principal shooting for this film lasted eight weeks . Moreover , an additional editing for fourteen weeks was spent by shooting the special effects being carried out by Colin Arthur and Emilio Ruiz Del Rio . Rating : Average but entertaining.

I found this on Tubi and watched it over the course of a week because I'd always put it right before bed and usually fall asleep a few minutes into it. I was expecting a talk fest with little action, but once I watched the whole thing, I found a pretty decent low-budget movie. The acting is serviceable, the plot is alright, and there's plenty of action and decent practical special effects. Worth a watch for fans of science fiction B-Movies.

The Rift (1990)

** (out of 4)

The experimental submarine Siren I goes missing so the government sends the Siren II to find out what happened. A new crew led by Captain Phillips (R. Lee Ermey) heads into the waters and soon they find the killing creatures.

Juan Piquer Simón will always be known for his cult classic PIECES as well as the overly insane and gory SLUGS but this film here certainly has enough good moments to where fans of his will want to check it out. Obviously, the low-budget film borrows from the likes of ALIENS, THE ABYSS and even LEVIATHAN but this somewhat adds to the charm.

The best thing about this movie are the gory special effects that certainly push the R-rating. Obviously the effects aren't as graphic as what we saw in PIECES but they're still a lot of fun. I really thought the production team did a terrific job on the underwater scenes and especially the cave of the creatures. All of it looked extremely good and they certainly got everything that they could out of the budget.

Even better where the gory special effects. Once the violence breaks out there are all sorts of creatures that get blown apart and this adds to the gory fun. The look of the creature was also decent, although they do kind of take a Roger Corman approach and not show it that much. The cast is good for what they're asked to do but there's no doubt that the screenplay is really lacking any sort of originality and I'd argue that the film is missing any sort of suspense.

With that said, fans of the director will get a kick out of certain elements of THE RIFT and for the most part it's a decent low-budget film.

R. Lee Ermey is the only reason to watch this soggy underwater submarine sci-fi film. He has a starring role, and his presence for the mercifully short 79 minute running time helps maintain some interest. "Endless Descent" is loaded with the usual crisis of the minute clichés, and races along with little character development, and really makes little sense. The crew explores an underwater cave system, while being attacked by a nice assortment of evolutionary accelerated critters. Meanwhile a toxic plant specimen is overrunning the submarine. Throw in a traitor on board, and you pretty much have the plot, or lack thereof. Except for the presence of R. Lee Ermey, this is entirely forgettable nonsense. - MERK

I liked the film overall. OK, I admit the acting (except for Lee Ermey at the end) was uniformly bad. The idea of a land ledge deep down in the ocean was pretty neat. Sure there were stupid mistakes, but hey this is a movie. Look, late at night I prefer mindless monster movies. Another good thing was they didn't try to make Jack Scalia too much of a macho hero. And they didn't make too much romance. When you're facing unheard-of-before monsters who has time to say silly romantic lines we see in so many other movies? There was some smartness in the plot, although I would have liked some more genetics mumbo-jumbo. The starfish monster was pretty good. I'd give it 5/10.