Plankton

Boasting some pretty good Rick Baker-esque special effects and Deran Serafian in a small role, this pretty lame Italian movie deserves some recognition. Cerchi gets some credit for still making gore flicks while most of the other Italian directors (Ruggero Deodato, Sergio Martino, Lamberto Bava, and Enzo G. Castellari) have moved on to lower-key TV movies. As for plankton, it's half Piranha - half The Thing, with people turninging into monsters, raping women, and causing general mayhem. The ultra-grimy, sleazy, and over-sexed feel of the film makes it hard to enjoy. Only available in Italian language work-prints floating around.

I watched this film in amazement as it was absolutely bizarre. All through this thing I thought it was a film from the 80's, then I look it up and it is from 1994. So the effects look very dated for 1994 as John Carpenter's The Thing boosts way superior effects and it was made 10 years prior to this thing. I am probably being generous giving it a four as it has such horrible editing that even I noticed the editing was bad! It also boosts five of the most annoying and stupid characters ever put to film! Three of them were at least easy on the eyes I guess. Not sure why they went with Plankton rather than Creatures of the Abyss, that one makes it sound so much more ominous while this one just sounds like it should have been a nature documentary...

The story, well, five people who are super excited and talking over each other in what seems to be a cocaine induced frenzy get a raft and put it in the water, a rather small raft I might add. Hilarious hi jinks ensue as one of them gets caught in a net! Okay, it wasn't that funny, but the characters sure thought it was! Well, they get stranded as their tiny boat ran out of gas, good news as storms don't happen in the summer one of the characters said and then they get caught in a storm. Thankfully, they find a yacht, unfortunately, it is filled to the brim with fish monstrosities that are horny...still not sure how are why this plot point was needed or what was going on throughout most of the film.

So, most of the film was filler as the fish attacks are few and far between. For reasons that still baffle me there is a bathroom with like a sexy hostess or something that tells you how to shower and none of the characters are stunned by this...apparently, they've been in a shower like this previously? There is also a wall clock that says stupid things and also rarely tells time and this too is not questioned. Very strange movie that seemed to be trying to go in a sexy horror direction, but it is just too gross in sections to pull this off successfully.

So, the film was edited poorly and you really do not understand what the heck the cast is saying until they get on the yacht. Still, it was so crazy that you could not look away and the effects had a certain charm. Though, the film would have been more impressive had it been made in the 80's, because it sure did have that vibe to it.

What can I say for Plankton or known as Creatures from the Abyss I loved it..It reminded me of the good old days of late night cable TV on a Friday/Saturday night.Director Max Cerchi did a fantastic job directing a very cool Horror B film. What I liked about the story a young couple and their friends decide to go for a fun day at the beach take a trip on a small boat then run into trouble out in the middle of the ocean their boat is taking on water things look bad but luckily they come across an abandoned yacht boat, they go on board little do they know the looming is some kind of mutant crustacean danger that lies in their future. It seems that weird biological experiments were being conducted before the crew mysteriously vanished. Soon the horror ignites as the couple and friends begins to truly grasp the terror that awaits them when monstrous killer plankton come calling. I loved the cool special effects which included some interesting stop motion animation.

Creatures from the Abyss" or Plankton has a lot of cool B-movie stuff. Special effects range from fair to outlandishly silly. It did make me laugh a few times.

"Creatures from the Abyss" is an insignificant and very nasty Italian romp that 'borrows' elements from every notable underwater SF/horror film made in the past 25 years. It rips off the obvious classics like "Piranha", "the Abyss" and "The Thing", but it also steals ideas from B-movies of which I never assumed they would have inspired anyone to do the same. Like "DeepStar Six", "The Blob"-remake and even Roger Corman's "Humanoids from the Deep". Don't even consider buying this flick if you got any good taste left in you, as this is really bottom of the barrel camp! We're talking atrocious acting, hilariously bad dialogue ("Hey, that fish has an evil expression!") and grotesque gore that somewhat resemblances the artwork of Screaming Mad George. Nonetheless, I loved watching it simply because it's such dumb and brainless entertainment that doesn't require any involvement whatsoever. The plot centers on five stupid teenagers who planned a nice day at the beach with their rubber boat. They're overcome by a storm and seek shelter on an Oceanographic Research yacht (let's ignore for a moment that they supposedly drifted off to the middle of the Atlantic on that ridiculously small motorized raft...). Despite the ominous setting of the abandoned yacht, they throw a little dinner party and have some sex. Until, finally, one of them (who at least has a little brain capacity) discovers that giant amounts toxic waste poisoned the plankton in the ocean. Seeing that this plankton is an essential food source for many ocean organisms, the fish have mutated and eaten the crew. Some sequences rate very high on the repulsive-scale, like a girl vomiting sea-creatures or a dude transforming into a rancid monster during a sex-act. The nauseating gore actually is the only reason to check the film out, since there's not much tension or intrigue. It's an unusual type of gore for an Italian film, I'll give it that, as it doesn't handle about zombies or mad raving cannibals for a change. The English dubbing is downright painful and easily one of the worst I ever beheld...and that has got to mean something.

"Creatures from the Abyss" is an Italian film made in the 90's. The only Italian genre director who still meant something during this decade was Michele Soavi and he sure as hell didn't have anything to do with this production. That should give you a little idea about how "good" this film is. It's sick, ugly and monstrous! You can either take that as a warning or a recommendation.

I was expecting this movie to be entertaining, I was let down big time. There was not one entertaining scene in the whole movie. Even the acting was bad. Avoid at all costs, resist the temptation.

Don't think I'll ever eat fish again after seeing this movie.