Maritime monster movie Escape From Coral Cove kicks off in promising style: after a brief funeral at sea conducted by men in white robes, the film cuts to a naked woman doing a spot of underwater swimming near a coral reef where she discovers a manky severed head bobbing around on the seabed. That's the nudity and gore boxes well and truly ticked off. After the credits, the film introduces its main characters, couple Alex (Alex Fong) and Chen-Chen (Ying Chuen Joh), Chen-Chen's buxom sister San-San (Elsie Chan), their friend Irene (Yuen-Ching Leung), and brothers Dak (Louis Kong) and Gus, who are painting a condo at the coastal apartment complex where the others are staying.
These six characters set off on a boating trip, enjoying the sea and the sun, which means there's plenty of opportunity to ogle the three very attractive women in their swimsuits, but apart from the scantily clad babes, there really is very little about this film to recommend it. After lots of messing about on the boat and frolicking in the water, with lothario Alex trying his luck with San-San, the film eventually introduces the horror, an unseen creature attacking Chan-Chen as she sets off alone on a catamaran, having lost her temper with Alex. She disappears into the depths in a cloud of blood.
Sadly, when we finally get to see the monster later on in the film, it proves very disappointing indeed: a dour looking man (Roy Cheung) draped with seaweed, who occasionally pops in novelty contacts to try and look more scary. This crappy creature sometimes appears totally human at times, lessening the effect even more. After menacing the protagonists, killing a few more people in bloodless fashion, Dak, Gus and Irene try to escape on the boat, but the craft is scuttled by the creature. Dak is left to battle the beast armed with a harpoon dipped in a liquid that causes fish to explode (Gus's science project, a bottle of which he luckily happens to carry around with him).
The meandering plot, lack of decent kills, and really crap monster make this film a real bore for most of the time. 3/10 for the lovely ladies, but that's being generous. N.B. Animal lovers might get upset at the sight of a real goldfish being stuck with a hypodermic.
