Robots 2000: Odyssée sous-marine

Sadly, before Sonny Chiba made the wonderful martial arts films that made him so famous throughout the world, he starred in a bazillion films--including some real turkeys like INVASION OF THE NEPTUNE MEN (in the bottom 100 films on IMDb). Despite a fairly respectable current score of 5.5 on IMDb, TERROR BENEATH THE SEA is also one of these early bad films. Now it isn't nearly as terrible as INVASION OF THE NEPTUNE MEN (but what is?!), it's still mighty bad and a film only for kids and the curious.

The film involves Chiba and a cast of Westerners and Japanese investigating some strange creatures in the ocean. They look like a poor man's version of the Creature from CREATURE OF THE BLACK LAGOON--rubber body suits painted silver with putty-like faces. It turns out that they are the creation of a mad megalomaniac (Dr. Moore) who has learned to change humans into practically anything he'd like. Using a mind control device, these cheesy monsters do his bidding. And where does this crazed genius live? Yep, 3000 feet under the ocean--and it's up to Chiba and the US Navy to stop this crazy and his freaky friends. They never really explain how the subs are able to go that deep and Chiba's stupid red-headed sidekick wants to swim from there to the surface (they'd be crushed like grapes by the pressure almost immediately). Maybe originally they mean 300 feet and it was mis-dubbed!

The film looks very Japanese when it comes to the underwater battles and sub. There are lots of fires and explosions(!) under water and much of it looks really, really cheap--like they were created by someone who built the cities for the Godzilla films. Oddly, despite these silly special effects, some of the underwater diving scenes were very well done and filmed well and the color throughout the film was lovely--very vivid and clean. The costumes also aren't bad (other than the silver-suited freaks).

The film is entertaining silliness that bad movie fans and kids will like, but I can't imagine anyone else sitting through this odd film. Well,...at least it IS different!

This is a fun adventure flick that conjures up feelings of nostalgic Japanese horror. It's not scary but will keep you in stitches during the viewing and long afterwards. This film would fit nicely into a "films so bad...they're good!" library. It's worth at least one viewing if only for the laughs and the special effects.......oh, they're great!

YOU, thinking of Japanese monster horror, will likely picture either Godzilla or some kind of bodily mutilation, likely involving lots of tentacles (both fair).

YOU probably think you've seen it all.

But YOU have yet to experience the mid-point somewhere in between: a thrilling, chilling, underwater adventure so sixties it's hip! It's now! And how! Behold: the delightfully nostalgic, charming murk that is... TERROR BENEATH THE SEA!

(bum bum buuuuummm!!!)

SHRIEK in terror,as you attempt to uncover the (not so mystifying) mystery of the strange marine sightings interrupting underwater torpedo tests!

CRINGE at the gloriously wooden overacting, especially the nearly unbearably whiny Peggy Neal, and one navy sergeant bearing an uncanny resemblance to Bradley Cooper!

GROOVE to the funky James Bond vibe of the underwater base, matching uniformed minions, and cackling megalomaniac foe, all given a swingin' sizzle by the slam-banging jazzy adore!

GASP at the strange, eerie underwater creatures - like the Creature of the Black Lagoon with his face caught in a vice! Then HIDE YOUR EYES from the stop motion transformations creating the abominations (see? We promised bodily mutilation!)...which would likely be more memorably grotesque with a higher budget, so the actors weren't left looking like they have shredded condoms all over their faces.

PUZZLE at the fish-men being referred to as cyborgs, and how their actions are controlled by an outrageously 60s wall dial. But don't sweat the details - the film sure doesn't.

CHEER as dashing martial arts star Sonny Chiba finally (finally!) gets to unleash some whoop-ass in a fantastically campy explosive finale, after spending too much of the movie frowning and being imprisoned - even if he does more shooting than martial arts-ing (boo).

You ask yourself: are your nerves (or attention span) up for the spectacle, the pizazz, of this frightfully fun creature feature?? Well, there's only one way to find out. Take the plunge with Sonny and Peggy. Steel your nerves. And uncover the outrageous odyssey that is... TERROR BENEATH THE SEA!

-5/10

Ken and Jenny, a doctor and a reporter (Shin'ichi (Sonny) Chiba and Peggy Neal), stumble across the undersea lair of a megalomanic and his army of surgically-modified amphibious cyborgs with which he plans to conquer the world. This juvenile offering from Toei Studios features a mostly Western cast alongside action-hero Chiba (chop-socky fans will be disappointed at the dearth of athletic fights) with a near amateur performance by Neal (to be fair, she has little to work with and spends most of her screen time trying to look horrified). The film contains some reasonably well done underwater miniature work but the centerpiece, the scaly cyborgs are laughable when seen clearly, especially when their costumes are torn. The gilled minions are controlled by the chortling villain through a control box with apparently three settings (off, work, and fight) and are ostensibly brainless (or so we are told) yet seem to know how to effectively use guns. There is an entertaining (if not very convincing) transition scene in which nefarious Doctor Heim (Mike Daneen) creates a cyborg (courtesy of a lot of squishy stop-motion shots intercut with numerous close-ups of Jenny looking increasingly horrified). A later transformation scene involving the heroes leaves the two leads running around with what appears to be pieces of latex stuck to their chins (much to Jenny's horror). There a couple of action sequences involving the undersea-base's defenses vs. An attacking submarine (apparently armed with the X4, a weapon that could "blow up the whole ocean") leading to a finale that includes all of the expected climactic tropes. The film suffers from some editing problems (the scenes in which the heroes are to be transformed seem to be out of sequence or partially deleted) and the overall production including the sound, music, and cinematography, is substandard even for a low-budget Japanese techno-adventure targeting a young audience. I have a fondness for (and a high tolerance of) Japanese science fiction films but 'Terror Beneath the Sea' is pretty awful, even when compared to Toho's dreadful 'Latitude Zero' (1970) or Peggy Neal's other tokusatsu outing, the extremely goofy but entertaining 'The X from Outer Space' (1967).

1966's "Terror Beneath the Sea" is a forgotten sci-fi from Japan, less surprising once you learn it's from neither Godzilla's Toho, or Gamera's Daiei. It's actually a Toei production, one of three that made it to American shores, with "Magic Serpent" and "The Green Slime" better remembered. Apart from future martial arts star Sonny Chiba, we have teenage blonde Peggy Neal, who went on to star in Shochiku's "The X from Outer Space," who promptly disappeared from the scene. The Gill Man costumes are initially intriguing, but become obvious through repetition, though the prospect of human beings being transformed into amphibian cyborgs manages to produce some effective moments. Director Hajime Sato really struck paydirt with his final film, 1968's "Goke Body Snatcher from Hell" (also from Shochiku), as nightmarish a combination of horror and sci-fi as any made in Japan. "Terror Beneath the Sea" aka "Water Cyborgs" was frequently seen on television through the late 70s (not much since), airing three times on Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater from 1974 to 1978.