DeepStar Six (1989)

User Rating:

4.0/10   

Director:

Sean S. Cunningham

Writers:

Lewis Abernathy (story) and
Geof Miller (written by)

Release Date:

13 January 1989 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Drama | Horror | Romance | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

Not All Aliens Come From Space. Save Your Last Breath... To Scream.

Plot:

At the bottom of the ocean, the DeepStar Six has just discovered a new and deadly alien menace.

Plot Keywords:

Underwater | Ocean | Alien | Monster | Nose Bleed

Cast

Taurean Blacque	...	Captain Phillip Laidlaw
Nancy Everhard	...	Joyce Collins
Greg Evigan	...	McBride
Miguel Ferrer	...	Snyder
Nia Peeples	...	Scarpelli
Matt McCoy	...	James 'Jim' Richardson
Cindy Pickett	...	Dr. Diane Norris
Marius Weyers	...	Dr. John Van Gelder
Elya Baskin	...	Burciaga
Thom Bray	...	John 'Johnny' Hodges
Ronn Carroll	...	Osborne

Also Known As:

Deep Six (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

105 min | Hungary:87 min (cut version) | USA:99 min | West Germany:93 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Singapore:PG | West Germany:16 (f) | Australia:M | France:U | Norway:18 | UK:15 | USA:R

Company:

Carolco Entertainment

Trivia:

Writer Lewis Abernathy sold his script at the same time that friend James Cameron was working on his own "underwater monster saga". Despite Cameron's asking that he delay this movie to avoid competing with The Abyss (1989), Abernathy went ahead and was thereby deemed persona non grata with Cameron and associates until they patched together their friendship when Abernathy accompanied Cameron on the September 1995 filming of the wreck of the Titanic for Titanic (1997) (but not any actual dives to the wreck itself).

Quotes:

James 'Jim' Richardson: Well, at least Snyder will get his name in the Guinness book of records. I mean, causing two nuclear explosions in one afternoon has to be some sort of record.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Invasion of the Scream Queens (1992)

USO's: Unidentified Swimming Objects

The name Sean S. Cunningham will automatically always be attached to 'Friday the 13th'…his notorious teen-slasher that messed up the genre for good. Yet, Mr. Cunningham did do a few slightly more ambitious projects. This DeepStar Six is a semi-successful undersea-monster mash with surprisingly good acting, decent special effects and a couple of good old-fashioned scary moments. The film deserves a reasonable rating, slightly higher than all other lame and laughable Ridley Scott and James Cameron wannabes. The plot involves an 11-headed crew that is about to finish up a 6-month research at the bottom of the ocean. When exploring the ocean floor, they accidentally stumble upon a hideous and relentless monster. Like it usually is the case in this type of films, it takes a little while before you actually get to see the monster. By that time, human stupidity already exterminated half of the cast…. Granted, the monster itself is one ugly critter and not at all badly put together by the special effects department.

But…let's not praise this film too much, because it simply remains a rather anonymous 80's monster movie like we've seen them so many times before already. Not one action presented here isn't inspired by or similar to the ones featuring in other films and every character is a flawless stereotype. The performances given by the entire cast actually outshine the roles they're playing. Highlight of them all is Miguel Ferrer who portrays the typical, cowardly crewmember. Constantly complaining and arguing at first and when the monster shows up…he flees to and leaves his colleagues to their own device. Every monster flick stars a bastard like that, you know. As well as the super-intelligent and over-ambitious female scientist and the heroic captain who sacrifices himself in order to save his crew. If you ignore these inevitable weaknesses, you'll certainly have fun. You get what you expect, and that doesn't necessarily have to sound like a bad comment.