Note: Not really sure what is going on in this poster. And why is Special Effects Team in quotations? Do they mean it sarcastically?Deep Rising (1998)
Director: Stephen Sommers
Genre: Survival Horror/Action
THE MOVIE:
Few movies have as solid a genre movie/B-movie pedigree as Deep Rising. It was written and directed by Steven Sommers, who would later go on to do The Mummy series and GI JOE. It featured Treat Williams (The Phantom and The Substitute 3,) Famke Jensen who, up until that time, was known for being the best Bond girl ever in Goldeneye, Anthony Heald from Silence of the Lambs, Wes Studi of Streetfighter: The Movie, Trevor Goddard (Kano in Mortal Kombat,) and Djimon Honsou, at that time best known as Horus in Stargate. So pop this movie in your DVD player knowing what to expect: Deep Rising is not an allegory for anything, it is not trying to make any particular statements about the world. It is, however, a solid monster movie.
Sommer’s movie was part of the ‘90’s wave of creature flicks that were just beginning to cash in on the digital promise of Jurassic Park. No longer were movie monsters to be encumbered by only having to use clunky rubber suits, stop motion effects, or animatronics. Finally we had a generation of movie creatures that were capable of real kinesis. These monsters could convincingly run and jump and give chase which added a new level of fun to the genre.
Deep Rising involves a plot to destroy a luxury cruise liner so that its owner (the typically slimy Anthony Heald) can cash in the insurance money. He hires a group of mercenaries to intercept and destroy the ship. The mercenaries charter the boat of the very Han Solo-esque John Finnigan (Treat Williams, who actually says “I’ve got a very bad feeling about this” at one point during the movie). When they arrive at the ship they find it deserted with the exception of a few crew members and a Sexy Jewel Thief (Famke Jensen). The survivors tell of sea monsters that have eaten the rest of the passengers. The remainder of the movie involves Finnigan and the mercenaries’ attempts to escape the tentacle monsters and get off the ship.
Roger Ebert gave this movie a very unfavorable review, referring to it as another Alien clone, which I find odd because its tone and content are totally different from Ridley Scott’s movie, which was relatively cool and humorless. Yes, it has a toothy monster in a confined space but that’s about the only similarity. I would say it actually has more in common with James Cameron’s Aliens (1986) because it features a bunch of gun-toting machomen who get their asses handed to them by monstrous forces they don’t understand.
THE MONSTER/EFFECTS:
Most of what we see of the monster are its tentacles, each one ending in a toothy maw. This creature seems to have an infinite number and length of these tentacles. This has led some to believe that there is in fact more than one monster. However, we only actually get a look at one of them in its entirety during the very cool ending of the movie and the monster is revealed to be a sort of giant Lovecraftian octopus (a Kraken, perhaps?).
MONSTERS FEATURED:
Just the one.
DVD AVAILABILITY:
Available in a plain-jane early generation Disney DVD, with practically no extra features.
MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE:
I don’t know about you but I’m a sucker for a good still-alive-regurgitated-victim scene.
SEQUELS:
None yet, but there have been rumblings.
SEE ALSO:
Anaconda(1996)
TRIVIA:
The original title of this movie was “Tentacle,” for obvious reasons.
TRAILER
Patrick Garone
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