Up from the Depths (1979)

User Rating:

1.9/10   

Director:

Charles B. Griffith

Writers:

Anne Dyer (writer)
Alfred Sweeney (writer)

Release Date:

June 1979 (USA)

Genre:

Horror

Tagline:

Your vacation is about to end!!!

Plot:

A giant shark-like creature preys on a Hawaiian tourist community.

Plot Keywords:

Tourist | Shark | Remake | Boat | Sea Monster

Cast

Sam Bottoms	...	Greg Oliver
Susanne Reed	...	Rachel McNamara
Virgil Frye	...	Earl Sheridan
Kedric Wolfe	...	Oscar Forbes
Charles Howerton	...	Dr. David Whiting
Denise Hayes	...	Iris Lee
Chuck Doherty	...	Ed Bennett
Helen McNeely	...	Louellen Bennett
Ken Metcalfe	...	Mr. Holland
Randy Taylor	...	Jimmy
Dave D'Martyn	...	Tourist #1
Clem Persons	...	Maintenance Man
Peter Cooper	...	Nieberg
Katherine Scholy	...	Darleen
Ken Petruic	...	Harry

Runtime:

75 min

Country:

Philippines | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:R

Company:

New World Pictures

Quotes:

Tourist: Oh my God, it's a monster fish!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Aquanoids (2003)

It was worse than you know

I played the photographer in this torpid screecher. One reason the dialog is so stilted, is that somehow the sound track and the written script were lost. Weeks after we'd finished shooting, some of us "actors" assembled in a theater to watch silent clips, try to remember what we'd said, and dub that in. It's ad libbed, and the reason some people sound like others is that we dubbed for more than ourselves. The underwater scenes (I was shooting a topless babe named "Iris Lee" when the monster ate her, then ate me) were filmed in about 25' of water over a South China Sea reef, but the budget did not provide breathing apparatus for me. They gave me a mask and the 2nd stage of a SCUBA regulator with a red garden hose taped to it, told me to "act like I was breathing." At -15', with the most horrendous hangover I ever had. Then, the underwater camera not having been tested, the cinematographer shot everything off frame. When that was discovered, they inserted the red dye in an aquarium "death scene" from "Pirhana" and made do. There are shots of the ominous fin cruising cross-scene; you can see the wake of the outrigger canoe pulling it. There was a guy sitting inside the "fish" guiding it with a joystick; one afternoon he hit the reef, fell out the open side, and put his arm on a lionfish. VERY bad thing, the arm swelled to the size of his thighs and turned black but the Batangas Provincial hospital saved his life. Next day they moved him to a cheaper hospital! There was a lot more stuff, as you'd expect from a movie that opens with a pig intestine draped over someone's shoulders. I rated it 10 because as terrible movies go, it excels. It is so bad I think it deserves to be right down there with the Bush presidency. Chuck Griffiths and most of the actors in the film were great people. Chuck is far more talented than this movie allows him to show, and I'd like to visit with Suzanne Reed and Kedric Wolfe again some day, see how they've gotten along. Joe Cantrell