Terror nas Profundezas

This was released on a widescreen VHS tape by Anchor Bay a few years back, and if you're a fan of silly, slowly-paced, violent 70's films, you may find it to be fun.

This is a fairly standard treasure hunt film in which some decent people decide to photocopy a supposedly cursed map ("If there was a curse, it could hardly go through a copy machine," the narrator confidently explains) and go looking for the sunken cache of gold. Nice underwater footage of rotting old boats, sharks, coral, and various kinds of grody sea scum. It seems that the diving footage was captured first, and the script then written around it; the film subsequently made with actors wearing diving suits that matched those of the divers in the original footage. At least, that's what it looks like to me. If that is the case, it's pulled off fairly well.

Film is notable, or maybe not, for its 70's-style mean-spirited violence, which provides for some fairly graphic and shocking moments, including sharks munching on a girl, and a face burned on a barbecue. This was before sophisticated gore effects were in vogue, and so most of the violence is achieved with simple makeup and bright red opaque 70's blood poured all over the place. The intent to startle is clearly there.

As mentioned in another review, there is a G-rated cut of the film available, in case you'd like to see the treasure-hunt stuff without the gruesome, gory violence. This shorter cut isn't too bad either!

Not high art, but it's not a bad movie, really, just a bit of low-budget exploitation.

In the scenes under water, this movie came across as one of those bad films we had to watch in school--poor audio, home-movie quality video, bad new age music, boring narration. But the plant and animal life in the sea was amazing, and quite well photographed. And when the "treasure" was changed from buried gold to coffins on a sunken ship, I thought the photography of the wreck was also good.

Once we got out of the water, the underwater scenes seemed like a masterpiece. I was starting to wonder (since I arrived late) whether this was a college or independent project where someone followed around a group of friends. No, there were villains, and no documentary would have had scenes with only the villains. It was a pleasure to see some potential for conflict, because at least these people could act, unlike our heroes.

Cheryl Ladd had beautiful long blonde hair and looked good in a bikini, though she usually wore more, which was a shame. If her character was supposed to be intelligent or have special skills, I couldn't tell. For the ladies, Darby Hinton usually wore only a swimsuit.

I will say that the quality of the music improved at times, because it sometimes included fine classical piano in the style of Ferrante and Teicher or Roger Williams. Even the alien noises that usually dominated might be considered quality by the coffee house poetry crowd.

And the narration also seemed to improve. The only good writing seemed to be the narrator's, bordering on poetic at times.

I do need to single out one scene. In a James Bond movie, this type of situation is a staple and often spellbinding. Here, it was poorly executed, poorly edited, and quite confusing. I finally realized what was going on, but in a good movie it would be obvious.

This could have been quite a fascinating movie. Instead, it probably should have stayed buried.

I cannot even give this a one because it would be too high of a rating. For the exception of some serious Cheryl Ladd boobage, this thing was quite possibly the worst film ever made, and the directors/writers should be completely and utterely embarrassed. Make sure if you watch this, you have no sharp objects, a tie or rope, or a big bowl of water, because you will want to hang, drown and stab yourself to try and ease the pain of watching this.

Quite literally you could sit and stare at a wall, and that wall would tell a better story than what this movie will do for you. You can't even use your imagination because by watching this, your mind is completely dormant and you will have no thought process until you manage to summon the remote to change the channel.

Your feelings will be hurt, your kids will hate you, your friends will never speak to you again and your wife or husband will leave you for somebody else if you are caught watching this "masterpiece." Do yourself a favor and please don't watch this incredible piece of crap. It is the equivalent of going to the strip club only to watch the DJ, to try and nail jello at the wall, to pick up women at the bar with a coors cutter (non-alcoholic) beer in your hand. None of it makes sense and neither does this movie. SAVE YOURSELF!!!!

The original working and first release title (co-feature with "Witch Mountain") by Buena Vista was "Secrets Of Jamaica Reef".

Cheryl Ladd was credited as Cheryl Stoppelmoor, because that was her name when working on the film. She met David Ladd -=on=- this film and married (after his divorce) later! Not that the film is any better for it, but the original was almost totally filmed on location in Jamaica. It was 'spiced up' with later 'additions' such as those commented upon by the first review.

Daily'd, Sync'd and Edited in Jamaica.

JA - Production Sound Mixer

I watched at that movie as a fan of Stephen Boyd, and I was also interested by the fact that he personally participated to the production. I have to be honest, the movie that I have seen is not good. I saw a new tape purchased on the web and issued by a regular company. Is it a right one ? So many tapes are recorded from TV re-issues, with a blurry picture and cuts, that I would like to get the point of view of somebody who had really attented at a performance at the time it came out. The critics of the movie in 1976 were not so bad. Where is the truth ?

The shots, under the water are really beautiful. The fact that advertising made at the time of the movie are speaking of "jaws" and that I saw just a few sharks makes me definitly think that we are facing a short version and that we have to be careful with our judgment. The VHS would have had to quote on their jackets when they are coming from TV copies and not from the original film.