Humanoids from the Deep (1980)

July 11, 2018

Directed by: Barbara Peeters

Starring: Doug McClure, Ann Turkel, Vic Morrow

Tag Line: From the Ocean Depths They Strike ... To Terrorize ... To Mate ... And To Kill!

Trivia: Actress Ann Turkel once said why she chose to do this film: "It was an intelligent suspenseful science-fiction story with a basis in fact and no sex". However, with the filming of additional footage, the sex content changed.







Humanoids from the Deep is the quintessential Roger Corman movie. It is cheaply made, contains gratuitous nudity and gore, and is absolutely brilliant! The movie is one of the first movies to address the potential dangers of genetic modification. It also deals directly with racism, land and water rights, and the exploitation of indigenous peoples. Corman uses his trademark sex and violence to package and sell these important topics. Unfortunately, when the movie was originally released people focused too much on the sensationalism in the film and ignored the social messages. It was attacked as being sexist and mean spirited, which isn't completely an unfair criticism, but much less so when the fact that the director is a woman is taken into account.

The movie is about genetically mutated fish monsters that attack is seaside community, murdering the men and raping the women. The genetic mutations are a result of the local scientists attempt to make bigger, faster growing and more plentiful fishes. As people begin to go missing and people's pets turn up slaughtered several of the town folk turn on the "outsider," Johnny Eagle, a local Native American who has been arguing for the water rights of his people. The film builds with the random attacks on local beach goers and ends in an all out attack on the town's Salmon festival. The town is eventually able to band together to fight off the fish monsters.

The death scenes are well done especially for being done with the zero budget that Roger Corman is famous for. The fish monsters slash apart the men. There is a great scene where a couple who are frolicking on the beach are attacked by a fish monster underwater. The fish monster first attacks the man and we don't see until the woman turns him around that he is missing half his face. Next the fish monster attacks the woman, raping her on the beach. What makes this scene all the more horrifying is that while the fish monster is attacking the girl we can see in the background that the guy missing half his face is still alive and forced to watch this scene unfold but not being able to help. In another scene a guy is seducing his girlfriend in a tent using a ventriloquist dummy. I never know puppets could be such an effective aphrodisiac?!

The climax of the movie is the attack on the Salmon festival and includes some great death scenes. The fish monsters have super strength buy are pretty weak compared to a guy. For some reason a couple of the main characters dump a bunch of gasoline in the water and light it on fire. I cannot figure out what the purpose of this was as the fish monsters were already on land. Meanwhile, across town a couple of fish monsters are trying to attack the main character's wife and baby. This really heightens the intensity of the movie's finale. Will the protagonist be able to save the town AND his wife?

SPOILER: The last five minutes of the movie are the most brutal part of the movie. After the ending music plays to let us know that everything is better we are taken into a hospital room. One of the fish monster's victims is pregnant and about to give birth to... you guessed it... a baby fish monster. Except the baby fish monster exits through the stomach tearing the girl apart.

A very interesting movie with some original ideas. I definitely can see why it is still controversial today. However, the film's messages on technology gone awry should not be lost to the sex and violence in the film.