The Rift (1990) User Reviews

Co-production Spanish-US with international cast and submarine adventures

[ma-cortes · 5/10 · 11 January 2010]

The underwater sub called Syren 1 is disappeared at a depth of 30.000 feet , and his designer named Wick (Jack Scalia) is sent down by NATO (main chief played by Edmund Purdom) to investigate it . The mission on board a sub called Syren 2 is commanded by a stiff captain (R. Lee Ermey) , the crew is formed by a misfit group (Ray Wise , John Toles Bey , Emilio Linder , Ely Pouget , Frank Braña) and a scientific (Deborah Adair) , former Wick's love interest . Tracking a black box signal , the submarine heads to the deep rift where they find several surprises and dangers . The danger below is now the danger within . 'You Can't Hold your Breath & Scream at the Same Time'

This Sci-Fi/fantasy movie packs a blending of various films , as the deep rift with astonishing monsters (Leviathan , Deepstar six) , a crew saboteur (Alien) , a giant mother of creepy monsters (Aliens) and abysmal underwater mystery with weird beings (Abyss) . Acceptable interpretation and good acting by Lee Ermey , as always , who brings nice performance as a stiff-upper-lip commander , his usual role . The passable secondary cast is full of Spanish actors , such as : Frank Braña , Luis Lorenzo , Tony Isbert and even Pocholo Martinez Bordiú , grandson of dictator Francisco Franco . Cheesy but enjoyable special effects and creatures by Colin Arthur (The Neverending story) . Scale models and functional maquette work by Emilio Ruiz del Rio and Francisco Prosper . Atmospheric and colorful cinematography by Juan Marine , Juan Piquer's ordinary cameraman . Thrilling and adjusted musical score by Joel Goldsmith , Jerry Goldsmith's son . It's produced in middling budget by Francesca DeLaurentiis , daughter of the great Dino . Francesca hired David Coleman to rewrite a 250 pages draft by Colin Wilson . At the beginning the yarn was set in outer space in an earlier draft of the storyline but then was subsequently deemed an underwater setting , providing more stirring and fantastic scenarios . After producing Leviathan (1989) for about $40 million , Dino De Laurentiis , albeit uncredited, decided to finance for his daughter Francesca this medium budget version of his own bigger budgeted movie .

The picture was professionally directed by Juan Piquer Simon (Slugs , Pieces , Extraterrestrials visitors , Supersonic Man), and also producer . The principal shooting for this film lasted eight weeks . Moreover , an additional editing for fourteen weeks was spent by shooting the special effects being carried out by Colin Arthur and Emilio Ruiz Del Rio . Rating : Average but entertaining.

R. Lee Ermey ditches his Drill Seargent role for Navy Commander ......

[merklekranz · 5/10 · 15 November 2010]

R. Lee Ermey is the only reason to watch this soggy underwater submarine sci-fi film. He has a starring role, and his presence for the mercifully short 79 minute running time helps maintain some interest. "Endless Descent" is loaded with the usual crisis of the minute clichés, and races along with little character development, and really makes little sense. The crew explores an underwater cave system, while being attacked by a nice assortment of evolutionary accelerated critters. Meanwhile a toxic plant specimen is overrunning the submarine. Throw in a traitor on board, and you pretty much have the plot, or lack thereof. Except for the presence of R. Lee Ermey, this is entirely forgettable nonsense. - MERK

Classic "Bad Scifi"/Horror

[Tinmancr · 6/10 · 5 July 2017]

Saw this as a kid 20 years later still like it. Not likely you will find this but if you do watch it. I've seen a 100 low budget flicks like this it is in the top few percentile. Has a weird cool 80s/90s movie feel mullets and all! Also full of above average gory special fx. If you like Carnosaur, critters or Leviathan you gotta see this.

cheap............but I liked it.

[chrisjan · 4/10 · 15 December 2005]

If you like poor SE, (some) bad acting and a total lack of credibility, this is a movie for you. So a really cheap looking movie, but I liked it anyway. Why? Because I like those kind of movies. I can't help but smile when I see these kind of movies....... What were the producers, actors, director and SE people thinking when they made this film? Don't expect an "Abyss" or "Alien", just a (very) low-budget horror/adventure movie.

There is one nice "splatter"moment when a guy's head is shot off, but for the most, the horror is pretty tame. The final monster is pretty cool too.

It's only 73 minutes long, so you can t go wrong there. Maybe you can pick it up at your local videostore or watch it on TV. I'm sure you will have a good time watching it.

But don't say you weren't warned.............

Good scary monsters

[arcdanku · 12 September 2004]

I liked the film overall. OK, I admit the acting (except for Lee Ermey at the end) was uniformly bad. The idea of a land ledge deep down in the ocean was pretty neat. Sure there were stupid mistakes, but hey this is a movie. Look, late at night I prefer mindless monster movies. Another good thing was they didn't try to make Jack Scalia too much of a macho hero. And they didn't make too much romance. When you're facing unheard-of-before monsters who has time to say silly romantic lines we see in so many other movies? There was some smartness in the plot, although I would have liked some more genetics mumbo-jumbo. The starfish monster was pretty good. I'd give it 5/10.

Captain, yellow submarine is ready for rip-off!

[Coventry · 4/10 · 29 October 2005]

I love Juan Piquer-Simón! He's my absolute favorite bad-movie director and, throughout his whole career, he incompetently tried to cash in on simply every successful contemporary trend in the horror and fantasy genres. After the big hit that was "Superman", J.P made his own and hilarious "Supersonic Man", he picked in on the violent slasher-movie madness with the insane "Pieces" and he really over-trumped himself with "The Return of E.T.", the unofficial and downright laughable sequel to Spielberg's SF-blockbuster. "The Rift" is obviously inspired by the series of profitable underwater monster movies like "The Abyss" and "Deepstar Six". From start to finish, you can amuse yourself by spotting all the stolen ideas and shameless rip-offs of these (and other) classics. When a completely new and fancy type of submarine vanishes near the deep Dannekin rift, a second mission with U-boat designer Wick Hayes on board is sent out to investigate what really happened to Siren One. In the dark depths of the ocean, the rescue mission discovers an underwater cavern where the government secretly experiments with mutant sea-creatures. The monsters are quite aggressive but there's also the danger of a government enemy among the crew members... "The Rift" is a forgettable film, but it nevertheless has some ingenious – though very dodgy – monster models. Fans of blood and gore won't complain, neither, as the beastly attacks are quite gruesome and merciless. The acting is very wooden although many of the cast names can definitely do better. It's advisable that you simply enjoy the clichés and gory effects in the "The Rift" because, if you start contemplating about the screenplay, you'll find that it makes absolutely no sense.

It's One Part Good And Three Parts Bad.

[ryon-2 · 5/10 · 12 September 2004]

The Rift is a "high-art" concept that combines the movie Aliens with Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and you get... well, you get a film that's worse than any old Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea episode, that's for sure.

There are some truly creepy moments in thismfilm, but those are buried by many shoddy special effects, badly stereotyped characters like the frightened Hispanic cook and the overly cocky, leering and jiving Black guy; and lastly a really weak ending that's supposed to be like the one at the end of Alien but doesn't quite measure up to anything like Alien.

And to add to this sorry mix, Ray Wise's character is supposed to be like the Ash character in Alien, but while his character is human in this film Wise's acting is no less robotic as he goes through the film with his little secret "sly" smiles to show that he's not who or what he's supposed to be.

But despite all of it's flaws, it's not too bad of a sci-fi/horror film. It just could have used one, maybe two more script revisions to have polished it up.

Laughable,but quite entertaining piece of trash.

[HumanoidOfFlesh · 5/10 · 28 April 2004]

Juan Piquer Simon's "La Grieta"/"Endless Descent" is a pretty amusing piece of sci-fi/horror schlock.The film offers plenty of entertainment,if you like multiple monsters and gory death scenes.The plot is pretty silly,but the film has some tense and exciting moments.The creature effects are pretty good and occasionally quite imaginative and there is a nice amount of blood and gore.The acting is mediocre as we can expect,but it's nice to see veteran actors like Jack Scalia and R.Lee Ermey on screen.Overall,"Endless Descent" is not as good as "Pieces" or "Slugs",but it's much better than incredibly stupid "La Mansion de los Cthulhu".So if you are a fan of low-budget sci-fi/horror you can give this one a look.Recommended.My rating:5 out of 10.

It really is bad

[Karri_Koivusalo · 2/10 · 29 April 2005]

It's difficult to find anything worth of praise with this movie. It's not the worst picture ever made, but that's not saying a whole lot. The plot is quite incoherent and unbelievable; it seems that the producers wanted to make a space movie, but decided to make it underwater to cash in at the success of The Abyss. In some scenes it seems as if the story indeed was set to outer space initially; the sub has a landing gear, the technicians are worried of a rip in a rubber diving suit at the depths of several kilometers, where the pressure would crush the diver and the suit like an empty beer can.

The movie starts out okay, with planning of a recovery of a lost naval sub. After that the movie takes a plunge along with the Siren 2.

Effects are so-so. The navigational screens are all done on Commodore 64 (remember, this is 1990, not 1983), the sub is controlled like no other sub ever; instead of control consoles, the officers have keyboards with which they enter long number sequences to control various functions of the ship. The interior of the ship isn't too convincing either.

The final scenes leap from awkward to absurd. Welcome to the fifties, you can check your suspension of disbelief at the door.

I fail to see enjoyment factor here. The movie is neither good nor hilariously bad MST3k-style (until you get to the final scene), it's like eating a slightly bad apple.

Pick this movie up, you won't regret.

[drloomis311 · 6/10 · 15 January 2003]

I thought this was a fairly scary movie mainly because there was a lot to it that had you guessing. It was based on this virus or whatever and it spawned all of these different kinds of creatures and really messes up victims in countless different ways. I've seen alot of negative feedback, but I thought it was entertaining and on another positive note, I thought R. Lee Ermey was good in it as well. Pick it up.

In water, no one can see you cry

[nti_darren · 2/10 · 6 November 2020]

This film sucks on every level. Directing sucks, story sucks, actors suck, creatures suck, sets suck. It's just awful across the board. I didn't realize this film even existed and was the third underwater/monster movie of 1989 (Leviathan and Deep star 6 being the other two). The other two movies mentioned are like Citizen Kane compared to this one. Watch those two for a cheesy, but somewhat fun underwater monster movie. Dont watch this one...you'll never get that hour and half back in your life. It was free for me on Amazon, and i still want my money back.

underwater chiller holds its own

[johnc2141 · 8/10 · 11 January 2011]

After James Cameron's the abyss,there were many imitations like deep star 6,leviathon,lords of the deep,this one is the best of them.with some good actors led by Jack Scalia,Ray Wise,R Lee Ermy,and Edmund Purdom.a submarine meets its fate and a rescue crew must find out why and what happened.i re watched this recently and found it quite enjoyable again.the use of miniature sets and special effects are handled very well.before cgi of course.R Lee Ermy steals the show as the gruff hard as nails captain of the siren 2.the sub assigned to the rescue.the monsters are plentiful and very realistic.hard to believe this was made by the same people who made the trashy awful slugs a year earlier.this is a Saturday matinée movie much like atomic submarine was in 1960,but flashier and with more action.it holds its own,believe me.8 out of 10

Well acted/low budget sci-fi horror

[danhyndman · 7/10 · 30 June 2006]

This is a well-acted, low budget science-fiction/horror movie set in the deep ocean. It involves a submarine crew on a rescue mission and a secret government project which has gone terribly wrong. The crew are stereotypical, but likable, so the viewer is genuinely concerned about their fate. The stand-out performers are the great Lee Ermey (as the submarine commander) and Ray Wise (as a seemingly obsequious science officer). B-movie action hero, Jack Scalia, also gives a strong performance as the brilliant, but iconoclastic, lead.

The special effects, which include a wide variety of aquatic monsters, are certainly low-budget but never laughable or too fake looking. The obvious use of submarine miniatures are somewhat unconvincing.

The film is rated R for a considerable amount of gore and strong language. There is little or no sexual content.

This underwater thriller is reminiscent of sci-fi films of the late 1950's/early 1960's, such as It! The Terror from Beyond Space and Angry Red Planet (two other films which I would also recommend).

It is also somewhat similar to DeepStar Six, another underwater horror film which was released at about the same time.

Beyond Horror

[Jaybeyii · 1/10 · 26 April 2020]

Despite amateurish acting, cheesy special effects, a painfully awkward script, and an impossibly awful plot, this turkey isn't even watchable for its camp values. This hot mess ignores the basics of going underwater. They even have an open hatch for the diver (in a standard dry suit, no less) to exit! The equivalent of opening the door to a space ship in a 50's B-grade children's show. If I had to guess, the producers had to launder a barrel of coke money.

"You can't hold your breath and scream at the same time."

[Backlash007 · 21 August 2005]

Endless Descent (aka The Rift) is the afterbirth of 1989's underwater explosion of The Abyss, Leviathan, and Deepstar Six. Just as you expect from an apparent bandwagon jumper, it's not as good as those prior flicks. It also takes some time to get going. It has the feel of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea for the most part of the film (and the sub effects are just as hokey). It doesn't turn into a true B monster movie until they finally get out of the damned submarine. Then we get some giant killer seaweed, rubber mutants, and a nice head explosion. I might add that the head explosion was the highlight of the movie. Jack Scalia leads a cast of mostly unknowns and no one here shines. Even R. Lee Ermey and my man Ray Wise seem to be phoning it in. The director's other films include the horrible Pieces and the unwatchable Cthulhu Mansion. So viewer beware.

It's been awhile since I've seen a film this bad.

[jiangliqings · 1/10 · 19 November 2000]

ZERO stars out of ****

Endless Descent has absolutely no redeeming values, whether it's the ridiculously bad acting, the laughably awful special effects, the incompetent direction, the stupid script, or the gratingly annoying musical score. It's the kind of pitiful production that makes me wonder how a movie like this could even have the slightest consideration for being greenlighted by a studio in the first place.

I don't think I'm going to delve into the plot other than to say it's about a bunch of people who are trapped under the water and have to kill a lot of fake-looking creatures.

Let me go more into detail as to what is so awful about this flick. First of all, the acting is simply horrendous. Jack Scalia is ten times worse than Sylvester Stallone, a feat that is hard enough to accomplish as it is. The supporting performances aren't really any better. And what is with actor Luis Lorenzo, the guy who plays the cook, Francisco. He has a high-pitched voice and an accent that sounds appropriate for a comedy, not a sci-fi horror film.

The special effects are even worse. The creatures range from weird-looking eels to giant starfish and "mostquitoes." The effects look like something you would see in a muppet movie, and I don't believe I need to delve further in this issue.

Director J.P. Simon has slight cult status because of all the terrible films he's made. I'm sure some will enjoy Endless Descent in an Ed Wood type of way, but I don't even think it's that good. Everything he does is shoddy, especially the camerawork. The man cannot direct a movie, that's all there is to it.

This was the last of four films that took place underwater, and it sure does make Leviathan and Deep Star Six (Both bad films in their own right) start to look masterful in comparison. Either way, just stick with The Abyss.

Aliens Rip-Off

[bonesnbraids · 2/10 · 19 June 2006]

An awful B movie at best with video quality similar to Dead Alive. I challenge anyone who is a "Aliens (James Cameron 1986)" Movie fan to count how many times either lines or almost entire sequences were ripped off from the first two Alien movies to make this classic piece of garbage.

Cast members such as R. Lee Ermey and Ray Wise were the only two actors with any talent and the lead "Jack Scalia" was really absolutely horrible. I think they cast him for his massive cleft chin. I was also annoyed with the stereotyping of the only black male on the set John Toles-Bey who must look at this movie and just wonder. Look him up sometime as he has done a lot of interesting movies.

But on this movie: The script as I said earlier was a rip-off of Aliens tweaked and turned into a submarine "thriller". It included such lines as "I got a bad feeling about this" and "Kill me" as one crew member is infected by one of the mutants and his belly starts doing the "alien hop" just before it pops out of his stomach. There is also a rip-off of the classic "get some!" via Bill Paxton. We also have a bunch of navy grunts running through caves with creepy crawlies popping out of walls. Even the explosions of the mutated creatures is very similar to the popping of aliens as they charge marines in the movie "Aliens". And the kicker is that some of the mutants spit acid (as opposed to having acid for blood). There are many more major examples. So if you want to see this script done well watch the first two classics Alien and Aliens (With Sigourney Weaver). You'll have a more enjoyable time.

The plot could have been interesting and done better if not for confusing sequences in the start of the movie and generally poor editing. Camera shots were pretty dull and honestly it wasn't very hard to stop watching it and walk around the room to get a snack or check email. Many of the interactions between characters made little or no sense and went nowhere more often than not. The whole command structure between crew and Capt. was poorly done. I'm not even sure if there are Captains in the military that have full control over nuclear subs. In general this just shows that there was little research done for background information to make the movie seem at least a little respectable and there are many other similar examples (like dive depth etc..).

If you like horrible movies or are a big fan of Alien and Aliens and want something to just laugh and shake your head at then this movie may be for you. As for me this one is going back on the shelf...permanently.

Black on black

[dominionlimo · 4/10 · 6 June 2022]

Almost all the underwater scenes outside the ship are so poorly lit that is almost impossible to see what's going on. The darkness is near total inside the creatures' cave. Deliberate obfuscation such as this may be an attempt by the director and/or cinematographer to hide weaknesses in the set or creature effects.

Cheesy over the top performances

[vossba-99945 · 2/10 · 2 October 2018]

The acting is so bad you can't get into the movie. Even worse than the acting is the screenplay, it's like it was written by a 10 year old. This thing should be re titled How to Ruin Your Career in 83 Minutes.

How to write hip dialog

[pmicocci-18908 · 1/10 · 4 August 2021]

Have your characters give snappy, aggressive challenges or replies at every turn, to show either how corrupt or how kick-ass they, depending on their role.

And they managed to shoehorn in a "malfunction" line by Ermey, even if he didn't say "major" before it.

Enjoyable if highly flawed effort

[kannibalcorpsegrinder · 7/10 · 14 November 2018]

After hearing of an accident, a man is tasked with joining a Navy expedition to investigate the wreck of another submarine only to find that the cause of the disappearance is due to a series of sea creatures living in a special underwater rift and must find a way to get back to the surface.

This was a decent and enjoyable enough creature feature. One of the more enjoyable areas of this one is the fact that the overall setup of this one allows for a rather fun adventure storyline. The exploits of the crew onboard the submarine, with all the different storylines and situations that are brought up at that point, provide the launching point for the adventures to be had as they head out to sea which provides this one with some rather creepy sequences that manage to merge the horror with the adventure-based sci-fi style of scenes. The other rather likable aspect in the film is the few amounts of creature action present throughout here. The first inclining that we get here, with the giant cloud-like creature attacking the sub and dragging it down into the depths starts this off rather nicely while the most mileage in the film comes out of the exploration of the underground cave. The shots of the creatures coming out of their tunnels, snatching and grabbing others or getting blasted to pieces by their weaponry is quite fun, offering some rather fine gore and miniature work as the fun action and great sets bring out some enjoyable moments. Even without the monster action, the first half carries a watchable pace to it, causing this one to hold up nicely over it's few flaws. The main issue to be had with this one is the fact that the time of the film's release forced this one into being far less interesting than it could've been. The idea of confronting a race of deformed sea creatures in a special underwater cavern really could've been cheesy fun, but the idea of forsaking that in favor of a series of back-and-forth political debates and submarine strategies for the situation before even getting to the creature feature action. This is shoehorned into the film based on the time it came out, as the back-and-forth nature of the need for his involvement and the backstabbing nature of what's going on keeps this one from really doing much with the main creature feature action. As well, the other big detriment to be had is the fact that there's just no real sense of satisfaction to be had in the finale which is especially rushed and lacks the kind of impact it really could've. By adding in all the human drama and the action/adventure style twists introduced during this part of the film, there are just no stakes in the end when it finally unveils the true nature of the threat as the lack of interest in what's going on just really ends up doing nothing for the film. Coupled with the somewhat shoddy production values and a carbon-copy feel to the majority of the material, these here are what end up keeping this one down.

Rated R: Violence and Language.

In case you missed out on Leviathan...

[paul_haakonsen · 5/10 · 17 December 2023]

I have actually never even heard about this 1990 movie titled "The Rift", prior to stumbling upon it by random chance here in 2023. I was immediately intrigued by the movie's cover, and needed no convincing to sit down and watch it, as I hadn't already seen the movie before.

Writers Juan Piquer Simón, Mark Klein, David Coleman and Colin Wilson put together an enjoyable and entertaining script. Sure, one can argue that "The Rift" is a rather generic movie for this particular genre, but it made for a watchable and enjoyable enough viewing experience. And one can definitely also argue that "The Rift" is a movie rather similar to the 1989 "Leviathan" movie.

With the likes of Jack Scalia, R. Lee Ermey and Ray Wise on the cast list, among many others, then you're in capable hands as the Siren II sub takes the audience deep beneath the waves, where an extraterrestrial entity dwells.

Visually then "The Rift" was actually quite okay. It wasn't impressive effects that will knock the feet from underneath you, but the effects throughout the course of the movie served their purpose well enough and were actually fair to behold.

If you enjoy sci-fi horror action, then "The Rift" is well-worth sitting down to watch.

My rating of "The Rift", from director Juan Piquer Simón, lands on a five out of ten stars.

Fun schlock

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 24 October 2016]

An experimental submarine gets sent on a rescue mission to find out what happened to a previous similar sub. Things go nightmarishly awry when the rescue sub crew discover lethal genetic mutations deep under the ocean.

Director Juan Piquer Simon, working from a silly script by David Coleman, keeps the enjoyably inane story moving at a brisk pace, maintains an engaging earnest tone throughout, generates a reasonable amount of tension, and delivers a satisfying smattering of gooey gore. The sincere acting by the game cast keeps this picture humming: Jack Scalia as rugged maverick designer Wick Hayes, R. Lee Ermey as the hard-nosed Captain Phillips, Ray Wise as shifty navigator Robbins, Deborah Adair as Wick's feisty ex-wife Lt. Nina Crawley, Ely Pouget as the sassy Ana Rivera, John Tales as likable smartaleck Joe Kane, and Tony Isbert as no-nonsense pilot Fleming. The modest (not so) special effects possess a certain hokey charm. Joel Goldsmith's robust score does the rousing trick. Juan Marine's slick cinematography provides a fairly polished look. A tacky hoot.

Take the plunge.

[lost-in-limbo · 6/10 · 25 April 2010]

Remember James Cameron's "The Abyss", well that started a short-lived craze for dangerous Sci-fi/ horror underwater features in the late 80s and branching from that came some monster efforts in the vein of "Deepstar Six" and "Leviathan". Director Juan Piquer Simón (known for the outrageous slasher "Pieces" and enjoyably nasty "Slugs") cash-in "Endless Descent aka The Rift" falls more in the latter crowd. It amusedly knows what it is and keeps to its strengths. Sometimes laughable, but it works.

A high tech experimental submarine Siren One has disappeared in a rift and Wick Hayes the creator of the design is asked to return to be part of a team in Siren II in the search of the missing sub. As they dive deeper they come across a black box transmission, but also encounter underwater life forms that might just be more to it than what they were prepared for.

After getting off to a slow start setting up the situation, it eventually builds itself up rapidly by rallying up some intense moments, bloody surprises and imaginatively elastic monster designs (largely underwater plant life and roaming tentacles) that really make an impression the further along the film goes. The comprised special effects are neatly realised, adding in some cheaply punishing jolts but still having creativity within them. Obviously a low-budget and quickly produced enterprise, and clunky story takes elements from other films (Galaxy of Terror comes to mind) which took away any sense of narration surprises, but clichés / and predictability aside Simon does a decent job putting them together in a fairly entertaining, if daft mixture. His tightly measured direction works in its favour creating a compact, but arrestingly threatening atmosphere, along with Joel Goldsmith's spine-tingling music score that complements the terrors waiting in the unknown.

The acting is far from great and a junky script doesn't help either, but having the likes of dependable stars as R. Lee Emery, Ray Wise, Jack Scalia, Deborah Adair and small parts from Edmund Purdom and Garrick Hagon give it a lot stability. John Toles-Bey plays the token wise-cracking character with the stunning Ely Pouget in a ripe, no-bull turn.

It might not match the professional gloss of the other mentioned underwater features, but it's definitely my favourite of its ilk. Generic, but fun.

Run-of-the-Mill Cheap SF, so Nope!

[Sperry23 · 2/10 · 27 October 2022]

Cutting to the chase: It's like an Irwin Allen film but without the quality.

Bluntly, it suffers from a mediocre script, poor acting, and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea special effects. This does not even take in to consideration that there is a complete ignorance of science.

One glaring error (among many) is a diver wearing a standard Dry Suit, exiting the sub through a moon pool, open to the sea, at depth of over 30,000 feet. Nope. Ain't gonna happen.

The submarine sets are of a similar design quality of Plan 9 From Outer Space's flying saucer interiors. Nope.

Your willing suspension of disbelief will be seriously challenged. BUT, if it's what you like, then enjoy. Otherwise, consider something along the lines of Green Slime, Leviathan Awaits, or any of a dozen other now-so-bad films.

As always IMHO and YMMV.

Cheers.