What Lies Beneath the Watery Depths - Leviathan (1989)

I do seem to watch this one every six years or so. I had forgotten that Stan Winston’s studio was behind the icky monster effects and that Goldsmith and his orchestra contributed the score. I think this film has two specific things going for it—well, I guess it does, to each to agree or not—the cast on a film poster might have drawn quite a bit of attention at the time and a somewhat afterward (maybe not today unless you are 45 and might have missed the film somehow when it was on VHS or cable/satellite premium channels) and the blue collar underwater mining operation sea monster creature feature genre plot and sets that were all the rage in the 80s (preferably in the late 80s; this film is often paired with Cunningham’s “DeepStar Six” in 1989). This film screams “Alien” (1979). Poor Ernie Hudson; the film had the opportunity to let the guy survive and decided to allow him to surface only to drown him thanks to the monster following the only three left by the end. Peter Weller as the geologist assigned to lead the union mining operation on the ocean floor is the quintessential straight face to his more colorful cast, which includes perverted creep, Stern (he is always too close to Pays, who I had a serious crush on when I was a youth), astronaut-in-training, Pays, demoted doc (who speaks many different languages, with his Russian coming in handy), Crenna, wise-cracking, sarcastic, Hudson (he reacts as many of us would), with Carmine (nearly dying early when his malfunctioning suit is losing oxygen and probably would have been better than what ultimately happens to him), Elizondo (too good an actor for this kind of underwritten part; a monster trying to bust his chest (“Alien”, this film models VERY closely) but his hand even has a mouth with teeth!), and Eilbacher (also a good actress, indeed featured in B-movie genre fare with the occasional A film part coming her way). Stern and Eilbacher drink some “tainted” booze from a bottle found in a downed Russian ship vault and suffer “genetic alteration” with an eventual aquatic monster on the loose going after the cast. When part of the monster is “broken off” it can still mutate and grow (especially when encountering blood bags for nourishment)…one such scene has it attaching to Carmine and working itself into him. This film can get gross but director Cosmatos shoots the monster to keep the bigger form running around carefully shown in glimpses. There is this moment where you see Stern’s arm deteriorating with an open wound exposing bone and Weller gets a close up look of the creature and recognizes Carmine’s face within the body begging to die. There are teeth at the end of worm/eel like creatures that either function as appendages or breakaway miniature versions of the bigger creature. I personally think this film wastes its cast but Hudson, for me, is great. Weller is Weller and Pays is beautiful, of course, and likeable. Pays was always that kind of actress that I can’t take my eyes of and seem to be attracted to her every move…she makes the most of a film that doesn’t deserve her, either. I just think Elizondo and Crenna are hung out to dry…Crenna is the doc who releases escape pods out of concern for the human race and eventually attacked by whatever it is that has taken hold of Elizondo’s biology. The gore effects are good, though, but that is no surprise considering the talent behind them. And I do enjoy Goldsmith’s professional score for a film that was a critical failure. I will say, this is a guilty pleasure. I can’t help but find it watchable despite how frustrated I am the cast just gets the shaft in terms of what they are given. I am indeed a sucker for sci-fi/horror that deals with blue collar types looking to fulfill their quota only to endure unexpected “complications” in the form of some creature (s) that ruin their return to home. I do like the suspense scenes where Weller, Pays, and Hudson have to try and find a way off the big mining operations station after the creature destroys key ventilation that will eventually set off an implosion with Weller trying to outwit the thing that is pursuing him. The sets are impressive: I always feel like I’m watching tired/bored underwater mining employees outside in their suits hoping to get as much product as possible while contending with machines / equipment quivering and practically smoking, as cameras go in and out, chamber doors on the verge of locking or closing prematurely, and the inner workings of the whole installation seems as if bailey wire and chewing gum (the gum Elizondo uses to show Hudson how to “fix” a machine in need of serious overhaul) keep the systems running. They obviously spent some money on making the installation as authentic as possible. Against my better judgment, and I'm a sucker for underwater creature features, a soft 2.5/5.

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