Deepstar Six

Deepstar Six (1989)

Runtime: 99 minutes

Directed by: Sean S. Cunningham

Starring: Greg Evigan, Nancy Everhard, Cindy Pickett, Matt McCoy, Miguel Ferrer (RIP)

From: Carolco

Yes, I saw this due to Mr. Ferrer passing away yesterday. At least this movie is passable. I talk about it below:

RIP Miguel Ferrer. Yes, this was the main reason why I watched this movie last night, hours after I heard he passed away at the too young age of 61 due to cancer. I've known of the movie for years but hadn't thought of watching it before. This is one of a few nautical-themed movies that came out in about a year's span during 1989 and 1990. Discounting Abyss, the rest were low-budget and the rest weren't well-received, although personally I am fond of Leviathan, even if it's incredibly derivative.

The plot of this involves an experimental U.S. Navy facility which also has some nuclear warheads about to be installed. Various stock characters inhabit the facility, and not all of them act professional. This includes sexual harassment. Then again, this is an outfit where in one scene, a woman is obviously not wearing a bra... anyhow, they encounter a large sea creature and due to contrivances, they have a difficult time against it.

This movie, is pretty stupid. Some incredibly dumb things happen, especially one moment that happens where the crew can't leave. How the person responsible did not realize what they were doing, I still don't understand. That said, I did not think this was an awful movie; someone I know who isn't a Letterboxd member said a few years ago that this movie was “a piece of crap”, in so many words. To me that's too strong. While this definitely was “inspired” by Alien and isn't entirely original either, it could have been far worse.

While this isn't great I can say that at least it was average. I can't complain about the miniatures, the score from Harry Manfredini that was different from what he did with all those Friday the 13th movies, the general plot aside from the dopiness, nor the cast; there are either familiar names or “that guy” sort of people. Besides Ferrer there's Greg Evigan, Cindy Pickett, and Nia Peeples. Plus, it was provocative seeing a character having a mental breakdown and them deteriorating as the plot progresses.

For the horror fans, there are some gory moments and the monster certainly is interesting, although compared to the deep sea creatures that were captured by that Russian fisherman Roman Fedortsov and whose photos went viral around this time last month... while much smaller than in the movie, those real life critters are more bizarre, as if they escaped from the mind of H.R. Giger. Anyhow, I was glad this movie from Sean S. Cunningham was watchable, although I was disappointed that the character who looked just like Hugo Stiglitz wasn't actually played by the famed Mexican actor.