Leviathan (1989/Daughter request)

You put this kind of cast together, add Winston creature effects, throw into the works this punchy Goldsmith score, include the go-to Alien plot where a mining operation finds a creature/human symbiotic monster on the rampage through a large structure (ship or undersea facility, what matters is plenty of metal flooring, monitors, doors to open, corridors and shafts, crawlspaces, and machines with buttons to push, not to mention, pipes and walls, older machines, and the overall system seemingly in dire need of repairs and an overhaul), and a sinister corporation keeping secrets from the crew hired to pull material of interest to their profit margin, and I'm as happy as a pig in slop.

I know a lot of folks give Weller some shit for his limited acting style, but I've always been a fan. Maybe I just think he makes interesting movies. Whatever the case he has a hell of a team together in the film with Pays, Hudson (it is not cool that what they did to him, letting him get all the way to the surface just to have the creature drown him!), Crenna (as a doctor with not the greatest bedside manner), Elizondo, Carmine (who has a harrowing diving suit malfunction), Eilbacher, and Stern (who is probably the most "cancellable" of the crewmembers with his creeping of Pays). The sets for the film are primo, and if genetic alteration to human bodies causing a hideous change resulting in something "fishy" gets under your skin, this is a grotesque thing of beauty. Let's just say if open gooey wounds gross you out, you might want to avoid. How about a hand with a mouth of teeth? Winston brings the yikes!

I think the Big Bad at the end might not be as awesome as what happens to Stern and Eilbacher, but overall, despite being derivative, I think this is a lot of fun if love B-movie genre kind of 80s monster junk. I just like this because it is prior to the overabundance of CGI, so it is more special to me. My daughter said she prefers this to DeepStar Six. I like both about the same, maybe Leviathan just a bit more due to the cast comparisons.

My favorite scene has Carmine "invaded" by the aquatic teethy worm spawned out of a severed appendage.