Les Monstres de la mer

Roger Corman produces yet another classic piece of trash, having it helmed by Barbara Peeters (unsurprisingly her last movie ever directed). This time the black lagoon throwback delivers a story of sex-crazed mutant amphibians hell-bent on raping all the broads, whilst dispatching of any potential competition. Flailing long arms with razor-sharp talons disembowel and cause unwaning blood splattering, while girls show off their youthful graces while screaming in horror. To stop the onslaught a mild mannered elderly fisherman (or Fisherman to punctuate his hero status?) Jim Hill (Doug McClure) leads the stand-off with Indian Johnny Eagle (Anthony Pena) his brave Tonto. All in order to counterattack the science-initiated epidemic of killer trout-men with big bulging brains.

Unabashedly exploitational "Humanoids from the Deep" with a strong sexual innuendo (and several rape sequences) coupled with absolute adoration to gorrific entertainment, Corman produces another guilty pleasure - a movie so morally inept, script-horrific, but entirely enticing and engaging. Epitomising dumb fun, it is inexplicably entertaining offering a hearty laugh at the in-built stupidity, while also keeping the blood pumping through some well-defined tension. Albeit idiotic in base premise and execution the whole movie is done tongue and cheek, winking at the audience. A stand-out scene occurs during an absolutely hilarious attack on a ventriloquist and his girl, where the puppet rolls his eyes to get a glimpse at all the bloody action.

I first saw this film way, way back in the early 80's as a teenager around 13 or 14. The film had some memorable scenes etched in my mind and, I thought the film was an intense, well-crafted thriller. After reviewing it again, I realized the only scene which really stuck with me was the bizarre tent scene and that makes perfect sense considering my age then. What I DID forget is just how awfully bad a film this one is. I mean it is a stinker! Where to begin...the story is about mutated salmon that are eaten by prehistoric-like fish that quickly evolve into man-sized creature from the black lagoon/alien ripoffs. These monsters are plentiful and have only one goal: to capture as many girls in a bikini and have sex on the beach to procreate in order to create more mutant fish people. Fish people having babies with real people despite any biological problems that might arise(no pun intended). Hmm. Next, add Doug McClure, Vic Morrow, and Ann Turkel into the mix. None of them great actors...not bad either when they have some decent direction. Not evident here. Morrow overacts, McClure is over his head when he is the lead, and Turkel is less than mediocre. One scene really showcases her "talent." The scene where she is in the lab telling us how much she has fought to bring the news of the superfish out is one of the finest pieces of bad acting I have seen in a long time. It is almost an inspiration for everyone else in the film to do likewise. Director Barbara Peters really seems to set out to be solely exploitative and there is nothing wrong with that if you can do it well or with a point. I mean her producer Roger Corman did it all the time. Here plot, acting, and all those other qualities that make a movie good are secondary(or tertiary) to gore, violence and nudity. Peters does do some things fairly well. The pacing of the first three-fourths of the film is rapid and there are some well-shot scenes of menace. I particularly liked the scene in the water with the naked(of course!) girl and boyfriend playing splash...soon to be victims of the fishman's enormous libido. The last scene...roughly 20 minutes or more is just simply too ridiculous as creature after creature pop out of the boards on a boardwalk and start gutting everyone. OK. I think I would prefer keeping my adolescent opinion of the film intact; the entire film centered around a beautiful, full-figured woman, her man, and a dummy.

The fact alone that a woman directed this film makes it a curioso piece. It's indefensible trash that certainly works on a campy, visceral level. It also has the makings of some actual characters. Seriously, in the midst of the gratuitous nudity and bloodshed, I found the movie to be... No wait a minute. Let's get back to the gratuitous nudity and bloodshed. I watched this movie expecting to see these two, and it delivered. I knew going in that this was going to be B-movie material, and that's what I got. I was entertained. You can sit back and analyze this movie all ya' want. I'm just gonna enjoy it for what it is. And what an ending!

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?

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.