DeepStar Six (1989) – Review

In 1989 James Cameron released his underwater epic – the one not involving Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet and a big boat – but that year saw him challenged by four other ocean “thrillers|” with the first being DeepStar Six.  This undersea adventure pitted a group of misfits against a menace from the deep and also the stupidity of Miguel Ferrer, but the most surprising thing about this movie is that it wasn’t produced by Roger Corman.

The basic story of DeepStar Six deals with a group of scientists and naval officers who are in the last stages of assembling a giant underwater missile platform, this mix of civilians and military adds a nice bit of tension that almost makes the monster an incidental conflict compared some of the other shit going on in this film. We have project head John Van Gelder (Marius Weyers) who doesn’t want anything to interfere with his schedule of installing this new nuclear missile storage platform – he is the resident stick-up-his-butt character – he clashes with marine biologist Dr. Scarpelli (Nia Peeples) who wants to take a minute to explore a massive cavern system discovered under the site.  She wants to study the potentially primordial ecosystem inside but Van Gelder doesn’t have time for any namby-pamby science stuff so he orders two of his guys to use depth charges to collapse the cavern.

“We’re totally going to die, aren’t we?”

Fleshing out this cast of oddball characters is our ostensible hero and submarine pilot McBride (Greg Evigan) and his somewhat girlfriend Joyce Collins (Nancy Everhard), then there is the gruff but lovable station commander Captain Phillip Laidlaw (Taurean Blacque), secondary submarine pilot Jim Richardson (Matt McCoy), who is having an affair with Scarpelli.  Then there is the facilities chief medical officer Dr. Diane Norris (Cindy Pickett), geologist Dr. Burciaga (Elya Baskin) and the very soon to die tertiary sub-pilots Johnny Hodges (Thom Bray) and Osborne (Ronn Carroll), but most importantly, there is DeepStar Six’s mechanic Snyder (Miguel Ferrer) whose sole jobs seem to be in making the worst possible decision at any given moment.

“I’m actually more dangerous than the monster.”

Needless to say, when the charges are detonated, and part of the seabed collapses, it forms a massive fissure in the ocean floor which allows a prehistoric sea creature to be loosed upon the world. Its attraction to the lights of the submersibles causes it to attack – goodbye Hodges and Osborne – yet the real problems kick in when the crew prepare to abandon the base – the death of several of them a big deciding factor there – but the missile platform must first be secured and this leads to idiot Snyder explaining to the computer the reason for abandoning the missile platform is due to “aggression” but the computer assumes human aggression (i.e. an enemy military force) and not monster aggression. Snyder being dumb as a bag of rocks follows the computer’s recommendation to detonate the missile warheads, which then results in a nuclear explosion that creates a shock wave that damages DeepStar Six as well as the cooling system for the base’s nuclear reactor. We now have a ticking clock as our heroes must fix the decompression system, so they can safely reach the surface, all before the facility explodes or implodes in a watery fireball, not to mention there is that little problem of the monster popping into say hello once and awhile.

Could this be related to Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors?

The plot is as leaky as a sunken ship, but that’s where the fun lies! It’s when the crew must put aside their differences and limited brain cells to outwit the creature, which seems to have more sense than they do, that film kicks into gear – it’s also very important that you never question how a fifteen-foot-long sea monster can navigate through small rooms and even smaller corridors – but as overtly silly as DeepStar Six gets one cannot fault the casting choices as they are good across the board. Sure, we are not talking about A-list actors here but they bring a certain authenticity to their roles and they maintain excellent group chemistry throughout the film’s runtime. It’s in the area of “plot mechanics” that the movie stumbles, from its basic premise to some of the dumbest decisions ever made.

Note: The movie takes place underwater but all of the miniatures are shot “dry for wet” utilizing smoke to create atmosphere, unfortunately, this hides some of the nice production work that this film had to offer.

Stray Observations:

• There is a lot of sexual hanky-panky going on aboard DeepStar Six and I’m betting that kind of fraternizing would be frowned upon considering this is being run by the Navy, but that issue is never even addressed.
• The movie never bothers to explain how an underwater giant rocket silo is any better than a ballistic missile submarine, with one being mobile while the other is stationary and harder to protect, thus DeepStar Six as a concept is pretty moronic.
• I seriously doubt the facilities mechanic would have the proper codes to detonate a nuclear payload but “you do you” movie.
• We get a lot of people talking about “decompression” in this movie but the filmmakers clearly didn’t understand how it works.  At one point Snyder explodes because he goes up to the surface in an escape pod without decompressing, but he’d be fine until he opened the hatch as the interior of the pod would maintain its pressure until breached.
• Making your audience wait 57 minutes to get their first glimpse of the monster, in a movie that clocks in at just over 99 minutes, is not a good idea.
• The monster popping out of the water to give us one final “jump scare” is very reminiscent of the ending of the original Friday the 13th which was also directed by Sean S. Cunningham.

Will this creature come back for a sequel and wear a hockey mask?

One of the film’s strongest points is in its use of impressive practical effects. The underwater sets and creature design while not all that groundbreaking for its time, hold up reasonably well and add to the film’s immersive feel. The tight and dimly lit corridors of the base enhance the sense of confinement and help create an atmosphere of impending doom. Furthermore, the underwater cinematography is commendable, making the most of its limited budget to portray a convincing deep-sea environment. As for the creature itself, while promising in theory, it falls rather short of expectations and the filmmaker’s attempts to keep the monster hidden for much of the film, relying on suspense to create a sense of terror, doesn’t quite work due to the fact that the creature has about five minutes of screen time, which may anger some movie monster fans.

Nobody paid six bucks to see these two declare their true love.

The film follows the familiar formula of a deadly creature lurking in the dark, picking off characters one by one, but director Sean S. Cunningham is saddled with a lower budget than is required to properly pull this off and the script’s lack of innovation makes the plot predictable and may leave seasoned horror fans feeling unchallenged. While the sets constructed for this film are quite good, and illustrate that the filmmakers really knew how to stretch a penny, the end result can’t help being compared to other underwater-themed films like the afmormentioned James Cameron film, The Abyss, and the other sci-fi horror flick Leviathan. And while DeepStar Six was the first of five underwater movies released in 1989 the best that can be said about this offering is that it’s not the worst of the lot.

“It could be worse, we could be Lords of the Deep.”

In conclusion, DeepStar Six is a passable entry in the 1980s underwater horror subgenre as it boasts some commendable practical effects, decent performances and a few genuinely suspenseful moments. However, it ultimately falls short due to its lack of originality, underdeveloped characters and a mostly absent monster. If you’re a fan of creature features or enjoy B-movie style entertainment then DeepStar Six might scratch that itch, but for a more compelling and innovative underwater thriller, there are better options to explore.