So I recently had the pleasure of watching Humaniods From the Deep a film directed by Barbara Peeters and produced by Roger Corman. This film was part of the Roger Corman collection, a group of low budge horror flicks that he was a producer for. Films like Humaniods have sustained a cult following, and I’m sure if you take a stroll through any indie movie rental joint across America the kid behind the counter in thick black frame glasses and some rock band t-shirt is going to steer you in this direction for a good horror flick. Rightfully so though, I must say. This is the cheesy horror movie that you see the protagonist watching in other horror flicks like Halloween while his/her friend is being slaughtered upstairs after having sex. But enough of this lets jump into the film.
The story takes place in a small town in the Pacific Northwest called Noyo. This is a salmon fishing town with big plans of a fish cannery coming into town. The cannery fuels a side story feud between Hank Slattery (Vic Morrow) who is for it and Johnny Eagle (Anthony Penya) who is against it. On one part it will bring jobs and potentially pump more money to the town’s economy. On the other hand it will strip the fishermen of their independent businesses and threaten the local habitat, which is what worries Johnny the most being a local Native American. These two viewpoints bring some awesomely cheesy fights to the silver screen. The kind where no one really takes a blow and they all end up with black eyes. The main story is of course the Humanoids. The Humanoids are these evolved fish-human species that have developed to due to a botched science experiment that you learn late is on the shoulders of the cannery. The Humanoids come from the sea and rip and shred the men of Noyo apart and have sex with their women. They are having sex with the women because for their species to keep evolving they must start procreating with humans. This of course leads to some really hot naked 80s chicks, Sweet!!! However, the sex scenes that follow the hot nakedness are not so sweet. Once the locals understand that there are monsters preying on their women it becomes a fight for survival. This is the basic premise of the story, and I leave the rest of the story for you to watch and find out.
The Good:
The digital remastering makes the underwater scenes look amazing. They look like they could be shots straight out of Planet Earth. Okay you got me, not that good but pretty damn good. The feel of the film is great and has this Salem’s Lot thing going on. It’s grainy and old looking and that really adds to the creepiness. The sound is great and like most of the movies from this era the booms catch all the sound. I personally am a big fan of this because when you can hear everything instead of just the actors you really feel apart of the scene. Jaws is one of the best examples. The girls are hot, and I’m not so sure what it is about chicks from the 80s and 70s but they were hotter. Probably has a lot to do with the all-natural thing instead of the fakeness that dominates today. The acting was really surprising. I was expecting it to be bad, but I was wrong. I won’t say it was Oscar worthy but it wasn’t worth a Razzie either.
The Bad:
You have no idea what is going on with these monsters until really late in the movie. It would have been nice to know earlier. There aren’t any real jump scenes. There are five main components to a good horror flick. Something evil, stupid people with irresponsible use of drugs and alcohol, a hero or innocent soul, nudity and jump scenes that scare the shit out of you. For a more definitive guide consult Scream. ****SPOILER ALERT*****
There isn’t a resolve. They seem to kill off the monsters and then that’s it. So what the hell happens? We don’t know. That effect is great for some movies like the new one with Leonardo DiCaprio wink, wink, however, for Humanoids it doesn’t work so well.
The Features:
The case that the film comes in is great. Its’ highly decorated with old movie posters and there is a little book inside that explains Humanoids, the genre of creature features and Roger Corman. That is pretty cool. There are quite a bit of special features including never-before-seen deleted scenes, trailers, TV and radio spots, Leonard Maltin interviews Roger Corman on the making of the film, making of Humanoids and artwork from the film. The special features are pretty good. The deleted scenes aren’t much of deleted scenes but instead more additional T&A in case you didn’t get your fill in the movie. The artwork is great and displays a ton of artwork from around the world for the film. Honestly I didn’t watch the interview. Neither interviews nor commentaries ever really interest me. I find them to be mainly boring and I don’t want talking during my movie. I can go to the 7 o’clock Friday night show for that. However, for the diehard fans it’s there. The features offer everything the true fan could want from interviews to over seas artwork, and the casing is fantastic.