Les seigneurs des abîmes

Pathetically poor production from Roger Corman and directed by Mary Ann Fisher about sometime in the future when more habitable living space is needed - so a company is trying to mine the depths of the oceans as a future home for mankind. We get to look in on the daily lives of a small group of scientists led by Bradford Dillman as they find another living form hitherto unknown to man. The plot pretext doesn't sound all that bad, but you are in store for a real "treat" as we get nowhere fast with the plot, some inane dialog, some incredibly poor special effects, a pace that would make the tortoise bored, and acting from a paper bag by Dillman and even worse pretty Priscella Barnes trying to convince the audience and the camera that she can act dramatically. There are a couple scenes, where Priscella has just witnessed a killing or heard of one, and she still looks like she smiles throughout the whole proceedings. But worst of all - this film is just plain boring. Nothing of any real note happens, and it has some ludicrous end to try and wrap it all up.

In the future, the government has established colonies on the bottom of the ocean to contend with the threats of global warming. Priscilla Barnes plays a scientist who becomes dazzled by what discoveries she makes living underwater.

This is dull, dull, dull. There is no action, no violence or nudity, and Roger Corman has a cameo. The special effects are passable, but some of this stuff is lifted from past Corman flicks, which ads to the cheapness. Mostly, the characters just talk a lot, and argue.

This is no way to spend 79 minutes, unless you like looking in at fake aquariums.

I have a great story about the movie. In 1989, I was going to David Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee. Near Lipscomb is 100 Oaks Mall, which at the time had a 99 cent movie theater in one of its strip centers next to the mall.

One Friday night I was hanging with a bunch of friends and we decided to go see a cheap movie. I forget the other show but in theater 1 was Lords of the Deep. It was billed as having the same sfx director as Aliens so we thought it might be good. There were roughly 30 people in the auditorium, including 8 in my group.

Within minutes we realized that we were in for a real gem of a movie. As each minute passed the storyline got more and more ridiculous and the actors looked like they were sleepwalking through the lines fully cognizant that they'd just made a massive career blunder. Within 10 mins. there were the first subdued chuckles from some of the more ridiculous lines and then came snickers, snorts, chortles, and lastly, pure laughter for a supposedly serious Sci-Fi thriller.

After it was over we pledged to try and see the movie again Saturday night. We drove back to campus and told all of our friends. Saturday there were 60 people in the crowd. At the Sunday 9pm showing there were probably 100 people. Monday, the last time I saw it the show was nearly sold out.

If you want a true, blue, so-bad-it-is-good film check out this cinematic calamity at your nearest Blockbuster.

The main thing I took from this movie was that I want the horrible jumpsuit that they all wear, it's so 80s yet also timeless. The movie was bizarre yet somehow boring. The energy from the cast was as if they were all acting in different movies. The commander was in a Shakespeare play for some reason and all the other men looked exactly the same and I was lost honestly. The only way I could get around this was by giving them all stargate character names since the one guy is called jack O'Neill. It's a good film to make fun of

This movie came out in June of 1989I was born in July of 1989. So luckily I wasn't alive to witness this. If a middle schooler got a couple of bucks from his parents and had the neighborhood act in the movie, that's kind of what you get with Lords of the Deep. The title is throwaway because it's never mentioned of alluded to. There's like 10 people who work in the underwater lab but everyone has name tags.With first and last names. The aliens look like they were made in an elementary school art class by first graders. The MST3K episode of this trash is awesome, so I would highly recommend watching it. But don't watch this movie alone, your sanity may depend on it.