HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP (1980)

 

Directed by - Barbara Peters with Jimmy T Murakami (uncredited)

Screenplay by Frederick James from an original story by Frank Arnold & Martin B Cohen.

Starring - Doug Mclure as Jim Hill, Vic Morrow as Hank Slattery, Anthony Pena as Johnny Eagle, Ann Turkel as Dr. Susan Drake, Cindy Weintraub as Carol Hill

PLOT - In the small fishing town of Noyo, California, an unscrupulous company called Canco have been experimenting with a growth hormone upon the local fish population.

The result - Mutation.

The "Humanoids" are here - a hybrid race of mutant beings that are rising from the sea and attacking the town of Noyo. The men they encounter are killed - mutilated and torn. The women, however, are raped.

The Humanoids want to mate with us to evolve to the next level, no woman is safe. Fisherman Bill Hill teams up with Dr. Susan Drake in an attempt to stop them.....

PERFORMANCES - The main protagonist is Jim played by Doug Mcclure, usually more at home fighting cavemen and rubber dinosaurs, here he gets to fight rubber sea mutants instead. O.k, so perhaps 'fight' is a wee bit of an exaggeration in this instance. Mcclure was a bit past his prime by the time he starred in this movie - in reality he was only in his mid forties but his paunchy physique and greying hair makes him look at least a good ten years older. This is doubly noticeable when you meet Jim's brother in the film - I assumed the character was supposed to be his son at first, he only looks about 20 years old, but no -  it's Jim/Doug's younger brother.

This doesn't really matter of course, late 70's/early 80's cinema generally tended to have more older, less "pretty" male leads than you get now and it offers a more realistic view of the world. However,  you do have to feel a bit sorry for poor Doug seeing him look all out of breath and flushed after a bit of running around. He plays the role well enough though, he's much less cheesy here than he is in his earlier movies, he's just playing a normal bloke doing his best in a bad situation. 

Probably the best performance is given by Vic Morrow as local small town bigot - Hank Slattery. Hank is, quite simply, a horrible, horrible twat  - he's all out to get his neighbour Johnny Eagle just because he's a Native American, even going so far as to get him beaten up after accusing him of being behind all the attacks and killings in the town. There's a wonderful moment near the end of the film where Johnny saves Hank's life when he's attacked by one of the mutants. Hank at first looks shocked and then disgusted that he's been saved by his nemesis, and then a look of realisation seems to dawn on his face and gives way to a look of thankfulness. An epiphany as been reached and a lesson learned and somehow, you just know Hank will be a better person from now on. It's a lovely moment and most of it is conveyed just through Morrow's facial expressions with very little dialogue involved.

Morrow was a great actor, mostly known for his tough guy roles. Sadly, only two years after starring in this film, Morrow would be killed on set of the Twilight Zone Movie, decapitated and crushed, along with two child actors by a malfunctioning helicopter falling onto him, a victim of the poor health and safety practices of the time and director John Landis hubris and impatience.

SFX - Here is where the movie really comes into its own.  The Humanoids are a fantastic looking monster - grotesque, disturbing, fish eyed monstrosities, And did I mention the slime ?

 Oh these boys are slimy alright. Slimier than Prince Andrew at a disco full of teenage girls. They drip and ooze thier way across the screen, glistening like wet leather. 

The creatures where designed by FX guru Rob Bottin,who later went on to do the creature FX in John Carpenter's remake of The Thing. They are a brilliantly horrible creation. The gore effects are, literally, bloody good too.

SEX & VIOLENCE - Time to address the Elephant in the room - there's lots of female nudity in this film but seeing as a major plot point involves the rape of these women by monsters, it does have a tendency to come across as a tad sleazy at times. 

Of course, it's an age old tradition in monster movies for the monster to make off with the girl but you never actually see what the monster intends to do with her. In this film you do. In unflinching detail. This is no innocent King Kong love story, this is rape, pure and simple.

Apparently, director Barbara Peeters only implied rape in the original cut and the attacks where filmed in shadow. However, executive producer Roger Corman wasn't happy with this and paid Jimmy T Murakami to refilm the rape scenes to make them more sexualy explicit and disturbing. Peeters was apparently angered by this and threatened to take her name off the movie. I'll leave it to the viewers discretion to judge weather Corman made the right decision or not...

The violence is ramped up high in this film, people are literally torn limb from limb, all in lingering, loving close ups. This really is practical gore FX at it's best.

The end set-piece where the Monsters attack a carnival and the humans fight back is particularly bloody and effective.

RATING - This film has a central premise that wouldn't look out of place in a 50's drive-in movie but is given a gritty late 70's/early 80's makeover. There's a sense of grime and sleaze that hangs over the film, partly down to the rape element but also because of the downbeat ending. 

At the end the monsters are repelled by the humans,  but there's no last minute deus ex machina to save the day, the monsters are merely beaten back by the townsfolk and sheer weight of numbers. Some may have escaped and may well return once more to menace the frightened, battered town. 

That element of uncertainty makes the human victory seem a very hollow, phyrric one...Oh, and there's the small matter of the female survivors starting to give birth in the towns hospital, let's just say, 'Alien's infamous chest burster scene looks tame in comparison....

I'm giving this 4 rapey sea beasts out of 5- approach with caution if easily offended.