HumanoidsfromtheDeep

Humanoids from the Deep (1980)

A sleepy little California fishing town is set upon by some evil sea creatures in this low budget bit of cheese from producer Roger Corman. The local fishermen are barely making a living because the salmon have been over fished and are basically gone. But when a cannery decides to open up nearby they first come up with a way to make the fish grow faster and larger. Of course they don’t tell anyone and when some of their experimental fish escape it sets off a chain reaction. The engineered salmon are eaten by the other fish in the area and those predatory fish mutate into humanoids that can live in both the water and land. And if it wasn’t bad enough that they are eating the men, the mutant fish are driven to mate with our women!

Damn they just don’t make them like this anymore. Not only is this a great little creature feature with the monsters crawling out of the nearby ocean to tear apart the locals, but we also get the sleazy angle of the creatures wanting to get busy with the nubile young ladies of the village. And they really do play with up this angle with several fish on lady action scenes if you know what I mean. Oh and as one would expect with a Corman produced flick we see plenty of naked ladies in this one as well. Before anyone calls me a pervert you have to understand that Humanoids from the Deep is an exploitation flick and I for one appreciate that it is delivering the goods.

But there have been many movies that think if they throw gore and nudity at the audience that their job is finished. The thing that makes Humanoids so memorable for me is that the story is very solid. The movie is only about an hour and 15 minutes long, but this gives it a tight storyline and ensures that every minute on the screen is filled with something interesting. Add to this that the movie has a familiar, but effective, subplot of science messing with nature for some great ‘70s/’80s creature feature entertainment. There is also a great cast of familiar “B” actors in this one like Doug McClure and Vic Morrow.

Time to talk about the creatures. The Humanoids were designed by Rob Bottin and are really cool looking. Now these are obviously guys in rubber suits, but when I’m watching a movie about fish monsters that want to make sweet love to the ladies in the nearby town this is the kind of creature that I want to see damn it! They have a cheesy and silly charm to them that fits with the story, while actually looking like something that could be responsible for the mayhem taking place on screen. Speaking of that mayhem we get to see some fun kills including a face partially ripped off, many chests torn open, and someone’s head getting ripped off. You know the kind of good family entertainment that we are all looking for on a Saturday night. I mean this is what I grew up on and I turned out fairly normal… Right?

One more thing before I finish up here. For this review I watched the new DVD from Shout Factory for this review. Included on the disc is a killer documentary that clocks in at just around 30 minutes. They speak to Corman and several others about the making of the movie. I found it very interesting and fun to hear about the history of the movie, as well as some of the things they did as filmmakers to make it appeal to their target audience. If you are a fan of Corman then this will be a must watch and as a huge Corman nerd I’m so glad to see a company giving him his props with such a wonderful release as this.

Humanoids from the Deep is a fun creature feature that holds up well, which can’t be said of many movies that I used to love when I was younger. I highly recommend the movie and the new DVD.

3 ½ out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer