Humanoids from the Deep (Monster) (1980)

Originally, this wasn't supposed to be the review that you're reading today. I'd actually planned on doing the It's Alive series as part of Schlocktober 2 but, upon re-watching the original film, I came to the conclusion that, while I'm not that big on it, it's not nearly bad enough, be it in one way or another, to qualify. And thus, if I wasn't going to do the first one, I obviously wasn't going to do the sequels or the remake either. So, that series will have to wait for another year but, fortunately, I had plenty of replacements to choose from, one of which was this flick, another cult classic that I, sad to say, am not a fan of. I've known about it since I was fourteen, when I read about the title monsters in The Horror Movie Survival Guide, in the section on man-made monsters, "Creations." The first time I ever saw an image of them was a few years later, in another satirical book, A Field Guide to Monsters, although the picture they used was far from the best. It wasn't until Mike Matei talked about it on Cinemassacre during the period when James Rolfe was off making the Angry Video Game Nerd movie that I saw anything of Humanoids from the Deep that truly piqued my interest, as I could see how cool the monsters actually looked, at least for the most part. That was also where I learned it was a Roger Corman production, as well as about the controversy concerning the more explicit footage he had shot and put into the movie without the director's apparent consent, which was discussed more in the DVD special features. And above all else, I understood that this was most definitely an exploitation movie, as Mike showed some of the scenes of the Humanoids raping women and said himself at the beginning of the video, "This is a guy movie. It's filled with monsters, tits, and explosions." Regardless, it did seem like an entertaining flick, especially the full-on monster rampage during the third act. So, when I came upon the Shout! Factory DVD at a convention in early 2013 (which uses the uncut European version with the alternate title of Monster), I was more than willing to give it a shot.

But, when I got around to watching it, I wasn't taken with it at all. I couldn't get into any of the characters, as they're so bland, even for this kind of movie, and there are also so many of them, especially in regards to the teenagers and young adults, that I tended to lose track of who's who. I wasn't interested in the story about the townspeople, the cannery that was to be built there, or the conflict between Vic Morrow's character and the Native American who's against it, and found myself marking time, waiting for the monsters to really start showing up. And even then, while I enjoyed the look of the monsters and it was fun seeing them cause all sorts of bloody mayhem, especially during the climax, I really didn't like the moments where they raped the women; human or monster, I hate that kind of stuff in general. It may have had a number of notable people getting their start on it (like Gale Anne Hurd, Rob Bottin, Chris Walas, and James Horner), as well as decently-shot location work, but I can also tell it suffered from lack of time and money, as the editing in many action scenes is often really choppy and repetitive, and there are also some moments of blatant ADR work. This is another one where, if I'd seen it when I was a younger, nostalgia might've won out, but that's not the case, and I've given it several chances over the years, hoping it would grow on me, as I always hate being on the outside looking in while everybody else celebrates a beloved cult classic (the biggest example being the Evil Dead movies). But, I have to be honest: I'm just not into it, despite this being the type of flick I do tend to enjoy.

Fishing off the coast of the small Northern California town of Noyo has become scarce as of late, and some residents, particularly Native American Johnny Eagle and his people, feel that the building of a new cannery by Canco Incorporated will wipe it out completely. However, the majority of the townspeople are for the cannery, feeling it will bring prosperity to the town. Among them is Hank Slattery, whose support has led to tension between himself and Johnny, against whom he's also racially prejudiced. One day, while several boats are out, one ends up snagging some sort of strange creature in its net, and as they struggle with it, the boat is accidentally destroyed in a massive explosion. Jim Hill and his younger brother, Tommy, witness this and contact the Coast Guard. That night, at his cabin, where he lives with his wife, Carol, and their infant son, Shawn, Jim talks with the local sheriff about what happened. As they talk, their dog, Baron, senses something outside and Jim lets him out after it. Down by the water, Baron is attacked by a bizarre, humanoid-fish creature. The next morning, with no sign of Baron, and after they find some slime on an overturned garbage can, Jim and Carol follow a trail of it down to the beach. There, they find Baron's mutilated body, while on the docks, Slattery and his group of friends find the bodies of more dogs, although Johnny's is left unharmed. That night, at a local dance where Canco president Charles Borden, his assistant James Edwards, and Dr. Susan Drake are formally introduced to the community, Johnny shows up with his dog's corpse and accuses Slattery, leading to a fistfight out in the parking lot. Though the sheriff breaks the fight up, the next day, Slattery heads out to Johnny's house and overhears him talking to some of his friends about taking the situation to court. Knowing this may ruin their chances for getting the cannery, Slattery convinces his posse that they need to take care of things themselves. Unbeknownst to them, this is the least of their problems, as the humanoid creatures begin attacking and raping unsuspecting people down by the seashore. Even worse, come the night of the town's annual salmon festival, the creatures will have all of the victims they could possibly want.

Originally, Roger Corman had offered Humanoids from the Deep (or Beneath the Darkness, as it was filmed), to Joe Dante, but he turned it down, feeling he'd already done this sort of movie with Piranha. Instead, Corman went with Barbara Peeters, who'd worked on a number of New World films in various capacities, and was herself no stranger to directing exploitation cinema, with her directorial debut being The Dark Side of Tomorrow (later re-released as Just the Two of Us), about two housewives embarking on a lesbian relationship. She'd also directed a biker flick called Bury Me an Angel and Summer School Teachers, both distributed by New World, and an exploitation comedy called Starhops. When she took on the job of directing Humanoids from the Deep, Peeters had been out of the film industry for a little while due to an illness and no one else would hire her. (Some scenes were actually directed by Jimmy Murakami, who directed Battle Beyond the Stars, possibly because of Peeters' illness.) It would prove to be the last feature film she'd direct, and the last time she'd work for New World due to how angry she was at Corman for the re-shoots he ordered to make it more explicit than her initial cut. She mainly worked in television afterward, directing episodes of Cagney & Lacey and Remington Steele, and later set up a production company, which she eventually moved to Oregon in 2008, concentrating on producing commercials and documentaries.

In the special features on the Shout! Factory release, Corman said he told Peeters that the monsters were to, "Kill all the men and rape all the women," but, while all of the male death scenes were visceral and graphic, the rape scenes were far more subtle and suggestive. Feeling that the movie needed those more exploitive elements, and when Peeters herself refused to do it, Corman had James Sbardellati, the assistant and second unit director, and the man who would later direct the first Deathstalker, shoot the new footage (pretty appropriate, if you know anything about that later movie). The controversy came about when this footage was put in without the knowledge of Peeters or many of the people who worked on the film, with their only seeing it at the preview. This especially didn't sit well with Peeters and actor Ann Turkel, who both tried to have their names removed, but to no avail (Corman told Peeters that he'd remove her name if she paid for having the credits redone, which she refused). Despite how furious she was at the time, Peeters later made her peace when she saw the flick on cable and felt it was "a fun little movie."

This is another movie where the character who's supposed to be our lead, Jim Hill (Doug McClure), is mostly passive and reactionary. In fact, he has a lot less screentime than you'd expect from somebody who's listed as the star, and is fairly under-developed. We see Jim at the very beginning, when he and Tommy head out to go fishing, and he seems to be a pretty well-liked guy among the townspeople, including Hank Slattery, who always calls him "Jimbo." And while he himself is all for the cannery, he's still friendly with Johnny Eagle, despite his opposition. When Slattery and his posse are beating up on Johnny outside the dance hall, Jim steps in and evens the fight up. And the next day, when Johnny thanks Jim for stepping in, the two of them trade good-natured barbs about their respective injuries. But, at the same time, when Johnny tries to bring up the conversation about the cannery again, Jim, not wanting any more conflict than there already is, tells him, "Johnny, I'm for it, you're not. There's nothing more to say." But, other than that and his being a good husband and father, Jim is pretty two-dimensional. And when it comes to the actual threat of the Humanoids, while he does witness the destruction of another fishing boat early on and gets Tommy to call in the Coast Guard, and later tries to make the sheriff understand that it didn't seem like an ordinary accident, he's mostly a bystander until the climax. In fact, he only learns what's actually going on because of his connection to Dr. Susan Drake. He first takes her on a fishing trip shortly after she and the other Canco representatives arrive in town, during which both he and Tommy become a bit suspicious of her motives when she quickly snaps some pictures of something large that they temporarily hook. Speaking of Tommy, after he's badly mangled by one of the Humanoids when it attacks him, his girlfriend, Linda, and Johnny, Jim is one of the few who listens to Johnny's claims about it being a kind of sea monster. He goes out to find it, accompanied by Johnny and Drake, the latter of whom, in her expertise, leads them to a spot on the shoreline where some of the Humanoids have gathered together in a large mass. After that, and upon learning exactly what the creatures are, Jim spends the rest of the movie helping kill them when they attack the festival, then heads back to his home to save his wife and son.

Speaking of his wife, Carol (Cindy Weintraub), while she doesn't have much of a role for the most part, aside from being Jim's beloved spouse and mother to their infant son, Shawn, as well as being just slightly jealous of Jim showing Drake around, she really comes into her own during the third act. Having gone to the hospital with Tommy after he was attacked, Carol goes back home to take care of Shawn, and is initially unaware of the mayhem that breaks out at the festival, or that some Humanoids are prowling around outside the house. But, when she gets out of the shower and hears what's going on over the radio, she grabs a knife, scoops up Shawn, and locks up the house and draws the window curtains. And then, when the Humanoids start breaking into the house, Carol puts Shawn in a closet, grabs that knife, turns the lights out, and manages to fight off not one but two of them, using both the knife and everyday objects like a lamp and cleaning fluid. She stabs the crap out of one that manages to get inside, virtually disemboweling him, and is in such a frenzied state when Jim shows up that she nearly stabs him as well! As much as I may not like those scenes of the Humanoids raping women, I do appreciate that not all of the women here are portrayed as helpless victims, either.

The character of Dr. Susan Drake (Ann Turkel) is kind of like a more benevolent version of Dr. Mengers, whom Barbara Steele played in Piranha. As with Mengers and the mutant piranhas, it's eventually revealed that Drake had a hand in creating the Humanoids, using an experimental growth hormone on salmon that escaped into the ocean and were preyed upon by larger fish that, as a result, evolved into these creatures. However, unlike Mengers, who does everything in her power to keep the two protagonists from telling the press about the piranhas, Drake wanted to warn the authorities about the escaped salmon but Canco prevented her. Since then, she's been trying to find evidence of what that event may have led to, and starts to understand the magnitude of it when she gets a glimpse of one of the Humanoids while out on Jim's fishing boat. In fact, she already has an idea, as she draws a rough estimate of what the creatures look like and shows it to Johnny Eagle not long after he's shown up with a brutalized Tommy and talked about their being attacked by a sea monster. Drake joins Jim and Johnny in searching for it, using her expertise to deduce where the Humanoids nest. After coming upon the spot and killing the creatures, they bring back one of them, as well as Peggy, a girl who was attacked and raped, and Drake deduces their exact nature after examining the specimen. When James Edwards of Canco says that the company president wants to keep things quiet until they "review" the evidence, Drake loses her patience, yelling at him, "What the hell are you talking about?! I've been trying to tell you people about this for a long time, and you've pushed it aside! Well, look at it, Edwards! It's right in front of you! You stupid ass, look at it! And you still say my theory's incorrect? My theory is not incorrect, and I'm not going to keep quiet any longer, and these people have a right to know. And I'm gonna tell them." Upon realizing the festival is danger, Drake helps Jim and Johnny warn the townspeople, only for the Humanoids to then attack. During the chaos, Drake and Jim spew gasoline into the bay and set it afire to keep the Humanoids from escaping back into the ocean, making it easy for them to be wiped out. However, the movie ends with Drake playing gynecologist and helping Peggy deliver what turns out to be one of the Humanoids' offspring.

Two years before he was killed while making Twilight Zone: The Movie, Vic Morrow's character in Humanoids from the Deep, Hank Slattery, is similar to the role he would play in that film's first fateful segment. A beer-drinking bigot who's never far from his little posse, Slattery has it in for Johnny Eagle, both due to his opposition against the cannery and also because he's Native American. He makes this clear from the opening, when Johnny shows up and comments about how he doesn't like the idea of the cannery. Slattery comments, "Well, that cannery means progress for towns like ours. And progress means money. See, you and your people, you don't understand that. But I'll tell you one thing: you're not gonna stand in our way." Johnny retorts, "That's what Custer said, Slattery," and Slattery says, "I know. You won the battle, but we won the war." Tensions rise between them further when every dog but Johnny's is killed, and Slattery and his guys, thinking it was Johnny's way of sending a message, kills his dog as well. This leads to a fight between Johnny, Slattery, and the others, which Jim and Tommy get caught up in when they try to break it up. In the end, the sheriff fires two warning shots to make them quit, but because Johnny announced that he's going to use legal means to stop the cannery from being built, Slattery sneaks over to his riverside house the next day and overhears how exactly he's planning to do it. He heads back into town and tells the guys about it at the bar. Feeling that Johnny has a chance at succeeding, he tells them that they need to take care of it themselves, "Any way we can." That night, while Johnny has Tommy and Linda over at his house, Slattery and the guys use a motorboat to get close enough to where they can lob a Molotov at them (which somehow manages to blow up the house rather than set it aflame). They leave right before the Humanoids attack, and the next day, as they're talking about what's happening to their town, Slattery tries to pin Linda's death, which happened while she was driving Johnny's truck into town for help, on Johnny himself. He also tries to insinuate that Johnny is the reason why Tommy is so badly injured, especially when Johnny talks about it being the work of sea monsters. But that night, at the festival, Slattery and everybody else get all the proof they need.

As much of a douche as Slattery is, Vic Morrow is definitely the best actor in this flick, and does manage to have some charisma about him. Whenever he calls Jim "Jimbo" or when he makes small-talk with some of the other townspeople, like when he's walking through the bar and says, "How ya doin', boys?", you get the feeling that he could be a really likable guy if he weren't so prejudiced. Even if he has a legitimate reason for being against Johnny over the cannery, which he feels will bring prosperity to Noyo, that

doesn't excuse his nasty attitude towards him and his Native American heritage. Besides that crack he makes about the white man winning the war, Slattery also uses terms like "brave" in an insulting manner and, at one point, says that Johnny, "Is off makin' it with a buffalo." The fact that he's almost always with his group, which Johnny calls him out on during the fight at the dance, suggests that Slattery really is too much of an insecure coward to fight his own battles. Regardless, what's amazing is that he doesn't get his expected comeuppance during the climax. In fact,

they show that he's not all bad when, in the midst of the chaos, this boy comes up to him and asks him to help his sister, who's holding onto the side of the wrecked dock, as a Humanoid is trying to pull her down into the water. He not only agrees to help but succeeds in saving the girl, putting his own life in danger in the process. And just when it looks like he's going to go out as something of a hero when another Humanoid gets a hold of him, Johnny, of all people, kills the creature and pulls Slattery up to safety.

While Johnny Eagle (Anthony Pena) isn't 100% innocent, as he does sometimes act a little too antagonistic in his attitude about the cannery, especially at the beginning, you can still hardly blame him for hating Slattery over his racism and his own dog being killed after everyone else's. Also, besides his worry that the cannery will completely destroy the local fishing, he wants to preserve the land for his tribe and considers taking legal action to do so, though he tells Tommy and Linda that he's doing it as a last resort. Speaking of which, Slattery and his guys are the only townspeople he has any apparent problems with, as he's friends not only with Tommy and Linda, but with Jim as well. Thus, it doubly sucks when, after his house is blown up, he's suspected of being behind Linda's death and attacking Tommy by, among others, the sheriff. Fortunately for him, Jim and Susan Drake listen to his story about their being attacked by fish-like creatures and he joins them in searching for them. Along with Jim, Johnny learns what these things are and where they came from, and both realize that the festival is in danger. They arrive with the dead Humanoid's corpse to prove what they're talking about to the townspeople, though it quickly becomes a moot point when the Humanoids emerge and attack the festival. Like Jim and Drake, Johnny does his part in helping kill the monsters, most notably when he not only aids Slattery in saving the little girl but then saves the man himself from being killed. After that, he even helps Slattery up out of the water and the two of them, in their final onscreen moments, have an uneasy, silent exchange.

As I said in the introduction, I tended to lose track of the teenage and young adult characters who fall prey to the Humanoids, as there are a good handful of them, they're often introduced randomly, and they can be kind of hard to distinguish from each other. It's akin to a problem I have with all of the teenagers in Jaws 2 but, while I enjoy that movie a lot more, I will say that Humanoids from the Deep doesn't have nearly as many to keep up with. The most notable of them, for a very sick reason, is Peggy Larson (Lynn

Schiller), whom you first see in her house, half-naked and getting ready for the dance, when she hears something prowling around outside. That leads into the expected sequence of her wandering around the house, jumping at everything that moves or every sound she hears, culminating in her boyfriend, Jerry Potter (Meegan King), sneaking up behind her and scaring her. The two of them then go to the dance, but rather than join everyone else in the building, they opt make out in the back of the car. Unfortunately for

Jerry, he gets caught up in the fight that breaks out in the parking lot, earning a punch to the eye when he looks out the back window to see what's going on. The next day, they're hanging out at the coastline, along with Linda Beale (Denise Galik), Tommy's (Breck Costin) girlfriend, when they go off by themselves. Finding a secluded cove, they play around and attempt to get it on, when Jerry is killed by a Humanoid and Peggy runs ashore, only to be grabbed and raped by another. This comes back around at the end of the movie when, after she's found

barely alive by Jim, Johnny, and Dr. Drake, she gives birth to one of the Humanoids' monstrous offspring. In the earlier scene,, Linda, despite sensing that something might be wrong after Peggy and Jerry disappear, opts to go with Carol to meet Jim and Tommy's boat when they come back in following their outing with the Canco people. Being friendly with Johnny, Tommy and Linda go with him to his house on the riverside, ostensibly so they can partake in some fish that Johnny caught but also so he and Tommy can discuss the cannery. But they get caught up in Hank Slattery and his posse blowing up Johnny's house and then, they're attacked by the Humanoids. Tommy is attacked down by the water and nearly killed, though Johnny manages to save him. Linda, who tries to drive Johnny's truck into town to get some help, isn't so lucky. Some Humanoids get onto the truck and attack her, causing her to drive off a bridge. Tommy is taken to the hospital and, while he's said to be fine, he's out for the rest of the movie.

By far, the most random young adults are this couple, Billy (David Strassman) and Becky (Lisa Glaser), who are camping out on the beach and fooling around with Billy's ventriloquist dummy named Chuck, making all sorts of sexual innuendo with him. When you first come upon the tent, you hear this exchange: "Hey, honey, why don't you take it off? Let's see some skin." "Nothing comes off till I see it." "Okay. How's this?" It cuts to inside the tent, with a close-up on Becky, who says, "Oh, come on. Show me more than

the head," and we see that she's talking to Chuck, whose head is partially covered by a sleeping bag, as Billy says, "Well, the head's the best part." Becky starts getting naked and Billy makes Chuck act like he wants out of the bag so he can see it for himself. He takes him out, then makes him say, "Hey, honey, want to see my woodpecker?" She asks, "Will I get splinters?", and he answers, "Don't worry, baby, I've been sanded," then adds, "Hey, baby. I betcha never made it with two dummies. Like they say, two heads are better than one." (Meanwhile, I'm thinking, "Jesus, this is juvenile.") Billy then puts Chuck away and is about to get busy, only for a Humanoid to slash his way through the tent and kill Billy (during this, Chuck's eyes are still moving, as if he's actually alive and watching the whole thing). Becky runs across the beach, completely naked, but comes across another Humanoid, who pins her down and has his way with her.

At the salmon festival, there's a booth run by Mike Michaels (Greg Travis), a very peppy, and hormonal, radio announcer who's running his show there and is also sharing the booth with local beauty queen, Ms. Salmon, or Sally (Linda Shayne). When the Humanoids show up and start attacking, he's among the first who realizes what's going on and uses his radio show to alert the rest of the town, including Carol over at her and Jim's house. Eventually, one of the Humanoids comes after them, tearing his way through the booth. Mike tries to protect Sandy but gets brutalized, and the Humanoid chases Sandy out of the booth. Even though her top gets ripped off as she's running, she doesn't just act like a helpless victim; rather, she flings a rock at the Humanoid, then grabs another and bashes him in the head repeatedly, before running off.

Even though he's only at the beginning and is among the first to get killed, I kind of like the character of Deke Jensen (Hoke Howell), who goes out fishing on a boat with, among other people, his young son, Jackie. He has a nice rapport with Jim and Tommy when they show up on the dock, with Deke claiming that his itching beard is a sign that they're going to have a good run of fishing. Jim tells him, "But don't shave that shaggy mess until we fill our hold, okay?", to which Deke enthusiastically says, "You got it!" Once they're out on the ocean, Deke is often frustrated with Jackie, who's more interested in reading his comics than running the winch or refueling it like he's supposed to. They proceed to suffer one mishap after another, unaware that the biggest threat is a Humanoid they've caught in their net, which pulls Jackie into the water as they're trying to pull it in. The creature then pulls Jackie down into the depths, killing him, and Deke freaks out at this, to the point where he's about to jump in after his son, with one of the others onboard having to hold him back. They all get killed when Smitty, the man piloting the boat, trips and fires his flare-gun, igniting some gasoline that got spilled across the deck and blowing the boat to smithereens.

When I looked up the cast on Aveleyman.com, I was surprised at how many fairly prominent characters are played by people who are seemingly unknown. That does often happen with extras or bit players who sometimes don't have any dialogue, especially if they're residents of the actual shooting location who were persuaded to be in the movie for the heck of it, but characters here, like Charles Borden and James Edwards of Canco, the town mayor, and even Sheriff Frank, are played by unidentified actors. I was

especially surprised that that was the case with the sheriff, who doesn't have a huge role but still appears in a handful of scenes and has dialogue with Jim and Slattery, among some of the other major characters. And even though Edwards only has one truly significant scene (or two, if you count the fishing trip, where's being an utter sycophant towards Borden), it is a major one, as it's when Dr. Drake gets angry at him when he's still trying to refute her theories, despite the dead Humanoid she, Jim, and Johnny brought back and which is lying right in front of him. This local band, Jo Williams and Her Whitewater Boys, who only appear in a couple of scenes and have speaking parts in just one, and the screenwriter, Frank Arnold, who appears briefly as this old man whom Drake talks to the scene after Johnny, Tommy, and Linda get attacked, actually have credits, but not those people.

Visually, Humanoids from the Deep has that familiar soft, grainy look of a number of low budget exploitation movies made during that period, including a number of the lower-end slasher flicks, like The Prowler. The cinematography by Daniel Lacambre, while definitely not award-winning, does make the actual location work, shot at the real town of Noyo, as well as Mendocino and Fort Bragg, look fairly nice, particularly whenever it's focusing on the harbor, the coastline, or the isolated river country where Johnny Eagle lives. There are also some

instances of underwater photography that, again, aren't amazing, but are above average for this kind of movie. That said, I do sometimes have problems making out what it is I'm seeing during both the occasional day-for-night scenes and many actual nighttime scenes, both of which can get quite murky. But my major technical issues have to do with the editing, which is often really quick and choppy, and is clearly trying to work around major problems with what they had to work with. Sure enough, editor Mark Goldblatt notes in the special features how, when he

assembled the movie together, he realized that some of the big action scenes and creature attacks were missing necessary coverage and so, he and Roger Corman decided to make sure it was cut really tight. These issues are most notable in scenes like the fight at the dance, which starts out with the punches and blows being quite visible when Hank Slattery is beating on Johnny, but when Jim intervenes, the impact is gotten across primarily through the sounds of the punches, as Jim is either punching offscreen or

in major close-up while the other person's back is right up to the camera. In fact, when Jerry gets accidentally punched during the chaos, the editing doesn't make it feel like he got hit all that hard. Also, when the sheriff fires his gun into the air to break up the fight, you only hear the gunshots, and when it cuts to him warning Johnny and Slattery to knock it off (the shot you see here), he's on the left side of the screen rather than the center, and puts his gun down and away so fast that, until recently, I didn't think the

actor actually had one. Speaking of laid in sound effects, in the scene the following day, when Slattery sneaks out to Johnny's house and overhears him talking about the lawsuit he plans to file, you only get a distant shot of the two guys he's talking to when they pull up to his house. After that, the shot focuses entirely on Slattery himself, with their offscreen dialogue being obvious ADR. In fact, because of the crispness of the sound, I thought they were standing in the yard, talking, while Slattery was trying not to be noticed on the edge of the porch. But now, given how he stands right next to the window, it makes me wonder if Johnny and his friends are meant to be inside the house.

When it comes to the actual scenes with the Humanoids, I think the editing is pretty good for the most part, especially during the climactic attack on the festival, where it does feel like there are dozens of them when, in reality, Rob Bottin only had enough money to make three suits (and two of them are said to have only looked good from certain angles). However, that said, there's no getting around that you do eventually catch on that you're seeing the one particular suit over and over again, due to its very long arms. There are also some Humanoid attacks,

like when the Hills' dog Baron gets killed, that are done in such a kinetic series of quick close-ups that you barely have time to process what you saw. In addition, I noticed some moments where they reversed a shot that had already been used, like at the beginning, when Jackie comes to the surface after falling into the water, only for a Humanoid to pull him back under. And when Linda gets attacked in the truck while trying to make it back to town, with one Humanoid falling across the hood and onto the road,

it looks like they slightly reversed the roll in the next shot to make it seem like he's still moving while lying on the ground. They tend to repeat certain shots, too (Johnny's house appears to blow up three or four times), and there are some blatant continuity errors, like people disappearing within cuts and, during the festival, the shot of the Humanoid collapsing the dock is something that looks like it was shot during the day, despite this sequence being at night. I'm not trying to pick on the movie, as I know that low budget filmmakers are often forced to work with what they've got, even if it's not very much, be it money, manpower, or footage, but in this case, those issues are quite noticeable.

When it comes to coastal settings, I'm personally more a fan of stuff that takes place either in Southern California, states like Florida and Alabama, or down in the tropics, as opposed to way up in Northern California. But, that said, there's no denying that this is still a nice setting for a horror film. It's a sleepy little fishing town, one of those places where everybody knows each other, with local gathering places like the dance hall, the bar, and the wharf and docks around the harbor, which is where the salmon festival takes place. There are also pockets of people

who live in more isolated spots, like the Hills' cabin out in the woods and Johnny Eagle's riverside home that he often goes to and comes from via motorboat. The countryside and coastline, in general, are quite lovely, with the dense forests, rocky and sandy beaches, and nice little coves, like the one where Jerry and Peggy go off for some alone time, only to get attacked. However, it's almost always cloudy and overcast, giving it something of a dour kind of mood, even when people are hanging out around the beach.

Also, the scene where Johnny takes Tommy and Linda down the river to his house has that yucky kind of feel of it being very late on a gloomy, rainy day, which I'm very familiar with. And there are certain scenes, like when Baron comes across the one Humanoid that kills him and when Jim, Johnny, and Dr. Drake find the mass of them on the shore, that are filled with a mist that gives them something of an otherworldly feel.

I'll also say that, despite the low budget (roughly $2.5 million) and the issues they had to skirt around during editing, some of the setpieces are fairly impressive, like the scale of Johnny's house getting blown apart and Linda going off the side of the bridge when the in the truck, which explodes into a huge fireball when it hits bottom. And as I'll go into more detail on later, the most impressive is the climactic attack on the salmon festival. Even if the scale of it is an illusion created by really skilled editing, it still feels like there's a lot going on and at various spots, and those

big, wide shots from a very high angle make it feel very big, especially when the bay is filled with gasoline and set aflame. The same goes for the scene of the attack's aftermath at the end of the movie, which is shot almost entirely in one long take following Jim, Carol, and Shawn as they walk past the devastation, and final wide one where you see everything in smoldering ruins.

However, those compliments and my affection for the Humanoids themselves, which I'll get into, aside, I'm still not a fan of the movie as a whole. As I've already gone into, except for maybe Dr. Drake and Hank Slattery, I really can't get into any of the characters as, even for this kind of movie, they're either woefully underdeveloped or faceless cannon fodder for the monsters. Moreover, the attempted human drama about the cannery and the racial conflicts that break out because of it ultimately doesn't amount to much, nor does the expected jab at corporations and their

shady business practices, making you wonder why they even bothered (while I don't absolutely love it either, at least Piranha wove its commentary more successfully into the story). I've read that a number of scenes that expanded upon these subplots and fleshed out the characters fell by the wayside as a result of the extensive editing and re-shooting that Roger Corman ordered, as he felt the movie should get to the point as quickly as possible. In my opinion, even though he got it cut down to a very short running time of 79 minutes, it's still a flick that's hard for me to sit through, as I find myself waiting for the Humanoids to appear so I can get away from these cardboard characters and a story that doesn't interest me.

As others have noted, the additions of those rape scenes clash with what Barbara Peeters actually shot, as it does feel like two very different sensibilities at work. Also, they're another reason why I'm not big on the movie. While I don't think they're meant to be titillating in and of themselves (at least, I hope that wasn't part of the motivation behind them), I still feel they're in bad taste. I know that Corman and New World Pictures' bread and butter were exploitation movies filled with either tits, gore, or both, and if you seen a lot of my other reviews, you know I'm not a

prude by any means, given some of the movies I enjoy, but I'm not a fan of rape scenes. Whether it's human on human or monster on human, it's still horrific sexual assault and violation and it makes me really uncomfortable (yeah, don't expect to see reviews of Deathstalker, I Spit On Your Grave, or any other sexually violent movies on here anytime soon). Say what you will about a lot of the slasher flicks during this era, but at least the killers weren't, for the most part, trying to rape the women, even if some of them did have very Freudian motivations. Yes, I'll

admit that I am more comfortable with the Humanoids' gory deaths and their attacks against the men; because at least they're so over-the-top that you can have fun and not take them seriously. The movie is also sometimes just really crass in general, like in that set-up with Billy and his ventriloquist dummy making those jokes and innuendos with Becky, Mike Michaels patting this roller-skating lady's butt at the festival (which you get a big close-up of), and how

Ms. Salmon loses her top when being attacked by a Humanoid and has to fight him off with her boobs flopping around. Again, I know. It's an exploitation movie meant for hormonal teenagers. Rather than get on a soapbox, I'll just say that I don't find any of this funny; just eye-rolling. 

Getting to the Humanoids themselves, I'll say right off the bat that, being such a lover of Creature from the Black Lagoon, I have a soft spot for any decent monster design that pays tribute to the Gill-Man, as these obviously do. Second, I think they're pretty cool-looking monsters in and of themselves. The costumes were clearly made on a low budget, as they tend to come off as rubbery in close-up; certain aspects of the design, like the long, floppy arms of the main suit and the big, brain-like heads, are kind of goofy-looking; and the suit-actors do tend to

awkwardly stumble around in them. But, overall, I like the concept of these slimy, seaweed-covered fish-men with webbed, clawed hands and feet, long tails, a row of spines down their backs, and mouths full of sharp teeth. Like I said, you do realize with that one suit that you're seeing it over and over again, and the other two are either shot only from certain angles or are kept onscreen very briefly, but at the same time, the illusion of there being dozens of them is effective. They come off the best when they're seen at night,

particularly during the festival attack, and the scene where Jim, Johnny, and Dr. Drake find them massed together on that section of coastline is rather uncomfortable and icky in its concept. Their high-pitched screeches are more than a little unnerving, especially when they're screeching while raping women, and while it's little more than a knockoff of the Chestburster from Alien, the ending where the Humanoid offspring bursts out of Peggy's stomach is quite horrifying, despite how rubbery that puppet is.

The Humanoids' origin is the typical science experiment gone wrong, where these salmon were given an experimental growth hormone, only for them to escape into the ocean when the tank they were in was destroyed by heavy tides. Coelacanth fish fed on the salmon and the hormone caused them to quickly evolve into the Humanoids, becoming amphibious as opposed to totally aquatic. Dr. Drake theorizes that their enormous heads mean they have huge brain capacity, but may not be able to use all of it. However, she does feel that they've grown intelligent

enough to see mankind as a competitive species, as well as to decide to mate with women in order to keep their evolution going. (Animalistic or not, the idea that they would go after really young girls, like when that one tries to drag this girl down into the water at the festival, is creepy, to say the least.) Moreover, they prove to be aggressive and formidable opponents for one or two unarmed humans, but at the same time, the festival attack scene shows that their true strength is in their numbers, as a large group of people are able to overwhelm and kill one Humanoid.

In addition to Rob Bottin's creature work, the movie is full of gruesome makeup effects. We get a hint at the beginning, when the Humanoid drags Jackie down into the water and it becomes filled with blood, and shortly after that, both Jim and Carol, as well as Hank Slattery and others, find the mangled remains of their dogs. When Jerry and Peggy are attacked in the cove, Jerry gets the entire left side of his face is slashed off, and later, Billy gets his back sliced open when he and Becky are attacked on the beach. Tommy also gets badly mangled when he's attacked but ultimately

survives. Of course, when the Humanoids attack the festival, there's a whole slew of gory deaths, with people getting brutalized and gutted, one guy getting his head ripped clean off (an effect that was missing from early American home video releases), Mike Michaels getting slashed across the torso to where his ribs are exposed, and so on. And the movie ends with the gory spectacle of Peggy giving birth to that offspring that bursts through her stomach. There's plenty of violence against the Humanoids themselves, though, as you see them getting shot, stabbed (often in the head), gutted, harpooned, and even set on fire.

The first attack sequence happens less than five minutes in, when Deke Jensen is out on his boat with his young son, Jackie, and two other men. As Deke has Jackie bring in the fishing net with the winch, confident that they've got a big catch, you get your first glimpse of one of the Humanoids, as his webbed hand claws at and gets tangled in the net. They then run into trouble when the winch motor runs out of gas, and when the boat's pilot, Smitty, tries to start the engine, he has to break it to Deke that he can't get any

oil pressure. As the Humanoid struggles in the net, he exerts pressure on the boat's mast, threatening to break it. Deke tells Jackie to forget about refueling the winch and to help him and the other mate, Harry, pull the net in by hand. When Jackie does so, he unknowingly knocks the gas can onto the deck and it pours fuel everywhere. The three of them get into a tug-o-war with the Humanoid and, try as they might, his strength eventually breaks the mast, knocking Jackie overboard. Deke grabs something for him to hold onto so he can pull him in, as Smitty radios for

help, when Jackie is suddenly pulled back under the water. A huge amount of blood rises up from the depths and coats the surface, sending Deke into a frenzy. He tries to jump in after Jackie but Harry stops him, saying there's nothing he can do for him. Smitty loads a flare-gun and runs out to fire it, only to slip on and discharge it at the fuel-soaked deck, immediately blowing the boat to smithereens. Jim and Tommy Hill see this from nearby and Jim has Tommy notify the Coast Guard.

That night, while Jim and Carol are talking with Sheriff Hank at their cabin about what happened, their infant son, Shawn, suddenly runs out of the room, crying. Then, their dog, Baron, senses something outside and starts growling. Jim lets him out to investigate and he comes upon some knocked over trashcans beside the house. Sniffing around them, he follows a slimy trail through the misty woods and comes upon one of the Humanoids. The two of them promptly attack each other, though Baron is no match

for the creature. It cuts to the next morning, where Carol comes outside to give Baron some food, only for him not to come when she calls. There's a predictable and cliched scare when she walks up to his doghouse, only for a cat to randomly come running out of it. After being startled, she calls Jim outside and they find the trashcans, as well as a slimy residue on one's side. Like Baron did the night before, they follow a trail of the slime into the woods, calling for him. The trail leads down to the shoreline, where

they find his mangled remains. At the same time, Hank Slattery and his boys find their dogs slaughtered on the docks, but notice that Johnny Eagle's dog is unharmed. It cuts to that night, at Peggy Larsen's home, as something prowls around outside and looks in on her as she's getting ready for the dance. She's startled by a loud bang outside and this has her cautiously walk about her house, searching for any sign of an intruder. She jumps and yelps at anything that moves or she bumps into, and then the phone suddenly rings. After answering it and learning it's

Linda Beale, calling to say that she and Tommy will be there soon to pick her up, Peggy hangs up and grabs a meat-fork as a weapon. Walking to the front door, she sees the knob start to jiggle, as well as a shadow through the window above it, when Jerry Potter, who got in through the side door, scares her from behind. He nearly gets stabbed for his trouble, and once Peggy calms down, he tries to get down to business with her, but she rebuffs him, saying Tommy and Linda are going to be there soon. (Like Mike Matei said in his video, she completely forgets that something was prowling around outside her house just seconds ago.)

The next major scene is when Johnny Eagle shows up at the dance, holding his dog's body, and accuses Slattery of killing him. After he puts the dog down on the dance hall floor and threatens to sue to keep Canco from building their cannery, Slattery has one of his guys, Dickie Moore, grab Johnny from behind and pull him out of the building. Slattery follows them outside, where Johnny challenges him to a fight, despite Moore restraining him from behind. At first, Slattery acts like he just wants him to go without

there being any trouble, but then, he knocks him to the ground. While Johnny manages to get a kick and a punch in, it's still two against one, when everyone inside the dance hall comes outside to see what's happening. Ignoring people yelling at him to knock it off, Slattery continues beating on Johnny, including when two of his guys hold him up so he can punch him in the torso. Jim then steps in and starts throwing some punches of his own, causing the fight to spread across the parking lot. One guy gets knocked into the back of the vehicle where Jerry and Peggy have been

spending the whole time making out, and when Jerry peeks out to see what's happening, he gets knocked in the left eye for his trouble. For a moment, Jim and Johnny, with Tommy's help, manage to fend off Slattery and his boys, only for one of them to jump Johnny from behind (when it cuts to the wide shot of this, Jim and Tommy are no longer standing right next to Johnny, as they were in the previous shot). Johnny easily manages to fling him to the ground, then rushes at Slattery to deliver another blow, when Sheriff Hank fires a couple of warning shots into the air to make them break it up. 

The next day, while Jim and Tommy, have Dr. Susan Drake, Charles Borden, and James Edwards of Canco out on their fishing boat, Linda, Peggy, and Jerry are hanging out in a small cove, when the latter two go off by themselves. They're both so wrapped up in each other that neither of them notice the inhuman footprint in the sand that they walk past. On the boat, Borden hooks something on his pole, but struggles to bring it up, saying it's extremely heavy. Looking over the side, Tommy and Drake get a glimpse of whatever

it is, until Borden's pole gives out and it drifts back down, with Drake taking multiple pictures. Meanwhile, Jerry and Peggy find an isolated spot and start playing around in the shallows, splashing each other wildly, and Jerry diving below the surface and then springing up at Peggy. However, their splashing soon garners some unwanted attention, and within an instant, Jerry disappears beneath the water. Sure he's fooling around, Peggy yells for him to quit being an ass and, sure enough, he pops back up out of the

water, yelling like a creature. They start making out, with Jerry reaching around and touching her buttock through her bikini bottom, but when she playfully pulls away from and turns to where her back is to him, he's suddenly dragged hard under the water. Beneath the surface, he's mauled by a Humanoid, with blood filling the water, while Peggy thinks he's just fooling around again. However, when he shows back up and she approaches him, she finds that the left side of his face has been sliced off. Screaming, she quickly wades back to the shore, only for a

Humanoid to grab her and drag her across the sand. Jerry helplessly watches this before he succumbs to his injuries, and while, back at the main cove, Linda decides to go with Carol to meet the fishing boat, Peggy is stripped and raped. And then, at dusk that evening, Billy and Becky are attacked on the beach, as a Humanoid rips through their tent and slices open Billy's back. Becky runs across the beach, naked, only to run into another Humanoid. He grabs and throws her to the ground, and before she can scurry away, he pins her down and has his way with her.

Elsewhere, Johnny Eagle takes Tommy and Linda down the river to his home. They briefly stop at one spot that's important to Johnny, when they hear the sound of another motorboat behind them. Knowing it may mean trouble, Johnny quickly powers the boat further down the river, unaware that they're being followed by Hank Slattery and two of his guys. They reach Johnny's home by nightfall, but they're being watched from the river by a Humanoid; at the same time, Slattery and his guys drift their way up the river

to launch a sneak attack on Johnny's home. Just as they've started cooking, Slattery's boat drifts up to the dock and he lights and tosses a Molotov that blows Johnny's house up in an instant. Johnny and his friends manage to dive for cover, as Slattery and the other two make a quick getaway during the explosion. Once it's subsided, Johnny and the others try to put the fire out. He sends Linda into town via his truck to get help, while he and Tommy battle the flames with the hose. Hearing the sound of a Humanoid over by

the dock, Tommy, thinking the saboteurs are still hanging around, grabs a gun and fires into the darkness. As he stands on the dock, the Humanoid reaches up and grabs his leg, tossing him into the water. He tries to swim back to the dock, but the Humanoid rises up in front of him and drags him beneath the water. Again, he desperately swims back towards the dock, grabbing his rifle and using it to fend the Humanoid off. He beats the monster repeatedly, then turns around and crawls back onto the dock. Another Humanoid rises up, grabs his head,

and slams his face repeatedly against the dock. By this point, Johnny sees what's going on, grabs an axe, and flings it at the Humanoid, getting him right in the head. He falls back into the water and Johnny rushes to Tommy's aid, only for another one to pop up out of the water and grab him. Falling back onto the collapsed dock, Johnny grabs Tommy's rifle and shoots the monster dead, then sees to Tommy.

On her way into town, Linda is shocked when a Humanoid that somehow managed to get on the truck's roof smashes the windshield with his hand. He reaches in and grabs at her, as she screams and smacks his hand away. In her panic, she hits the gas, then hits the brake, sending him flying off the roof, across the hood, and rolling along the road up ahead. Just as he's about to get up, she runs over him and continues on, but as she does, another webbed hand touches the window behind her. This second Humanoid smashes through said window and grabs Linda around her face and neck. As she struggles with him, she loses control of the truck and goes off a bridge, crashing and exploding down below.

The next day, after reports of the deaths come through, and Johnny brings Tommy into town and he's taken to the hospital, Jim teams up with Johnny and Dr. Drake to find evidence of the monsters. First, they go back to the spot where the dock and house were, where Drake takes some pictures and then speculates where the creatures may make their actual home. They then head out into the ocean, and after spending some time searching, Drake notes how the coastline appears to be dotted with caves. They take a

motorboat out to it and walk through one of the small caves, reaching a cove on the other side. Coming across an especially steamy spot, they stumble upon a number of the Humanoids are they're massed together. Drake starts snapping pictures, when one of them gets up and approaches, clearly not happy about being spied on. At first, Drake tells Jim, who's brandishing his rifle, not to shoot the creature just yet, but when he gets too close for comfort, Jim fires. The Humanoid stumbles back from the shot, only to then

charge at them. This time, with Drake's encouragement, Jim shoots him several times, sending back into the surf, which is quickly filled with his blood. Another Humanoid comes up behind Drake, who's too busy taking pictures to notice, but Jim puts him down with a single shot, and fires at another that comes from the side. He gets knocked to the ground when the Humanoid comes at him, but while he's on his back, he manages to shoot and kill him. Johnny, meanwhile, battles another in the surf, and comes close to getting clawed to death, but Jim

manages to save him with a handful of shots. With all of the Humanoids seemingly dead, Drake continues taking pictures and comes upon an apparent human body buried beneath a mass of dirt and kelp. They find it's Peggy, who's still alive but in shock. As they're uncovering her, and as Drake takes some more pictures, another Humanoid pops up behind her, but Johnny kills him with a harpoon gun.

Following the scene where Dr. Drake explains to Jim and Johnny what the Humanoids are, they realize that the annual salmon festival is in danger. As the festivities there are swinging into high gear, it's revealed that Carol has returned home from the hospital after looking after Tommy. She puts Shawn into his crib while she goes to take a shower. Not long after Slattery and the gang arrive at the festival, so too do Jim, Johnny, and Drake. They toss a body-bag containing the dead Humanoid onto the dock, and Sheriff Frank unzips it, revealing the creature in all its

glory. Naturally, everybody who sees the corpse is taken aback by it, and Drake tells them that they know where the creatures come from, but don't know how many there are. Just as Jim informs Peggy's shell-shocked father that they found her, a living Humanoid bursts up through the dock. Drake tosses Johnny his rifle and he quickly kills the creature, but more of them erupt through the wood and pull themselves out, sending the crowd running in a panic. As Mike Michaels, at his booth with Ms. Salmon, first realizes that something is wrong, more

Humanoids appear in the water, with one grabbing a woman and pulling her down into it. They begin stalking amongst the fleeing crowds, with one going after Kitty, the rollerblading woman whose butt Mike patted earlier. The monster grabs her, throws her to the ground, and is soon on top of her before she can get away. A guy in a booth tries to flee, only for two Humanoids to catch him, while another beneath the dock messes with the support pillars, causing the ramp leading up from it to split in two. A number of

people fall into the water, with one man immediately getting attacked. A woman tries to climb up the ramp, only for a man up top to fall into the water, sending a keg tumbling down at her that knocks her into it as well. Jim climbs onto his boat with Drake and tells her to start pumping gas into the bay. At that moment, Mike realizes what's going on when a man gets brutalized right across from his booth. He reports what's happening but, for the moment, Carol Hill is unaware at her cabin, as she's still in the shower; she also doesn't know that there's a Humanoid lurking outside.

While Jim and Drake try to fill the bay with gasoline as quickly as possible, the Humanoids continue their rampage, disemboweling and even beheading one guy. More and more emerge from the water and come on land, with one getting on the merry-go-round and attacking someone while he's still in his seat, leaving his mangled body circling the ride in his seat. Another focuses on Ms. Salmon, or Sandy, attempting to rip into the booth and get at her, while Mike tries to protect her. By this point, Carol has gotten out of the shower and hears the chaos over the radio, with Mike

still managing to report what's happening. However, he gets thrown to the ground and his torso is sliced open, and as he bleeds out, the Humanoid chases Sandy out of the booth. At the cabin, Shawn sees one prowling around outside through the sliding glass door and cries. Carol grabs a knife and comes to his rescue, only to find that he's safe. She picks him up and takes him with her into the next room, barricading themselves in the cabin, while the carnage continues at the festival, with Sandy managing to fend off the one Humanoid, despite losing her top to him.

One kid gets lucky and tosses a flaming spear at a Humanoid, managing to set him on fire, after which he flails around and tumbles down into the water. From the boat, Jim does what he can, shooting one Humanoid, while the kid who burnt the previous one runs into Slattery, asking him to help his sister, Amy, who's still hanging on the dock. Slattery has the kid take him to her and he reaches down at her, while a Humanoid has a hold of her foot and is trying to pull her down into the water. Just as he jumps up to get a

better grip, Johnny manages to kill him with several well-placed shots from nearby. With that, Slattery jumps down into the shallow water between the two halves of the dock and pushes Amy up towards her brother. At that moment, Drake ignites the fuel-soaked bay with a flare-gun, while Slattery, after managing to save Amy and send her and her brother off, gets attacked himself. Fortunately for him, Johnny shoots the Humanoid dead, as Drake shoots another flare to ignite more of the fuel. Johnny then

helps Slattery, whose foot was badly clawed, up to safety. Despite the fire, the Humanoids continue attacking, though the people are now fighting back more effectively. As they're mooring the boat, Drake herself gets attacked but Johnny manages to save her with several shots. While Drake and Jim flee the docks, the mortally wounded Humanoid drags himself back into the water. Upon learning that Carol is back at the cabin, Jim goes to her, while the townspeople begin to get things under control, with a group surrounding one Humanoid and beating him to death.

Jim tries to get in touch with Carol while on his way to the cabin, unaware that she and Shawn are being attacked by Humanoids who are attempting to get inside. When one of them smashes his hand through a window, she puts Shawn in a closet for his own safety, then grabs a knife and turns off the lights. The Humanoid pulls back outside and Carol cautiously walks through the kitchen, seeing him milling around outside through another window. She hears a bang on the wall to her left when she enters the living room and runs to the front door, when another Humanoid

smashes his arm through it. She repeatedly stabs him in the hand and arm, eventually prompting him to withdraw, when the other smashes his way through the living room window and steps inside. He stalks her through the house, as she grabs everything she can get a hold of to try to fend him off, including a lamp. When that does nothing, and he backs her into the kitchen, she grabs some cleaning fluid and sprays him in the face with it, and then, while he's blinded, stabs him repeatedly in the torso until he's basically disemboweled. After he collapses to the floor, Carol,

covered in blood and still brandishing the knife, hears the sound of something else outside. When whatever it is tries to get in, she rushes to the door, flings it open, and tries to stab. It turns out to be Jim, who manages to stop her long enough to make her realize that it's him. He's relieved that not only is she okay but that Shawn is, too. Come morning, the three of them head down to the smoldering remains of the festival, where they meet up with Hank, who's scratched up and almost catatonic. Jim does manage

to learn that Dr. Drake went back to her lab, but that's about it, as Hank wanders off in a daze. Jim and Carol then decide to go back home, figuring that everything is under control. And then comes the final scene, where Drake is delivering Peggy's baby, only for the thing to burst through her stomach, revealing itself to be one of the Humanoids' offspring.

The late James Horner was another big-name talent who got his start with New World Pictures, with Humanoids from the Deep being among his very first scores, along with Up from the Depths, The Lady in Red, and Battle Beyond the Stars. His music here, while hardly indicative of the great work he would do in the future, and not amazing in and of itself either, does the job fairly well. It's used mainly for atmospheric purposes, like the low-key, foreboding main theme, which plays over both the opening and ending credits, and is heard sporadically throughout the film itself. The music he came up with for some of the monster attack scenes and such is also far from amazing, but it does what it's meant to do. In fact, there are some major sequences that aren't scored at all, chief among them being the festival attack scene, which instead lets the cheerful sound of the music play against the carnage that's happening around it. For me, though, the most memorable part of Horner's score is when, after Jim, Johnny, and Drake have encountered the Humanoids, it transitions back to Drake's lab with this very childlike, tinkling theme that's not at all what you would expect to hear.

It occurred to me that I'm probably disappointing a lot of people this year with some of the films that I'm talking about not being a fan of, and I promise there will be some more that I do like coming up, but, sadly, Humanoids from the Deep is another one I'm not into. It's certainly not without its merits, as it has a nice setting, with some lovely location work; a couple of actors like Vic Morrow and Ann Turkel doing what they can with the material they're given; some cool-looking monsters, despite their clearly having been designed on a low budget and tight schedule; plenty of gory makeup effects; an okay score by James Horner; and a fairly entertaining climax. However, what hurts it for me is how unmemorable and disposable a lot of the characters, instances of murky cinematography and choppy post-production work that's trying to compensate for limited resources, a subplot that proves completely superfluous in the grand scheme of things, and lots of instances of inter-species rape, as well as some juvenile humor, that I could do without. I like plenty of Roger Corman's flicks, both those he directed and simply produced, and this is also the type of movie that typically appeals to me, but they can't all be winners, and for me, this one isn't.