Day 2: Deep Star Six

  "Deep Star Six" was the first of several underwater themed Horror films released in or around 1989. It was a short lived trend, and the only film to find any sort of success from the sub-genre was James Cameron's "The Abyss". Obviously this movie is no work of James Cameron. Really all it's known for is being the first release in the whole underwater trend.

The film follows a Navy crew in the midst of a 6 week tour experimenting with underwater colonization. When the crew discovers an underwater cavern that could potentially interfere with their mission they are ordered to destroy it. The explosion awakens/releases an ancient sea monster that begins attacking their ship and killing off the members of the crew.

It's pretty easy to see why "Deep Star Six" wasn't released to critical acclaim. It's boring. The movie opens up with a marathon of bland character dialogue that is an absolute chore to sit through. I don't remember exactly, but I'm pretty sure the monster doesn't really appear on camera until about an hour into the film. This is usually a fine technique for building suspense in a horror film. However, we are given literally nothing to hold our interest in the time being. All we get is stale characters whining about their jobs and robotically delivering sci-fi ship commands.

Special effects are pretty much the only reason why one should subject themselves to this snooze-fest. The creature effects are absolutely stunning. The main creature was mostly designed by Chris Walas (The Fly, The Fly 2, Gremlins) before being turned over to Mark Shostrom who assisted on a number of highly regarded special effects films. The amount of talent on the special effects team was not lost in this movie. There is even a pretty awesome gore scene involved here. It's all just too little too late, and can't save the overall finished product.

I can't really think of many reasons to recommend this movie to anyone. It's a shame because the creature effects really deserve high praise. There are a handful of scenes I recall asking myself "Was that even necessary?" They even reveal a subplot about the female lead being pregnant with the protagonists child. It's mentioned once and never spoken of again! I'm assuming it was supposed to be a catalyst for their love story, but it wasn't needed since it's completely plausible for two people to come closer in times of danger. Scenes like this could have been cut completely and left us with a more digestible film. Instead we're left with the dragged out bore that is "Deep Star Six".

Body Count: 6
Side Note: It was cool to see the actor that played Bob Morton in Robocop take on the role of the only semi interesting character in the movie. His death scene was pretty memorable too.