Spooktober Day 5 Deep Star Six!!

Day 5 Deep Star Six

I waited to…dive into this one.

There are a few distinct genre I love in horror, and this be one of them.

I love underwater horror and stories taking place on islands, boats. It’s not a surprisingly popular genre. But at the same time I’m cool with that because it means there are for sure a few gems you’ll stumble on once you get into it.

This would be one of them.

Of high production no less too.

We got music from Harry Manfredini, alongside Sean Cunningham directing. Both gave us the wonder and joy that is Friday the 13th.

So we know we’ll get something good from this, right? Right. Yeah. Let’s go with that.

This film also unfortunately gets buried in the, who did it first area.

Films at times tended to rip each other off, and sometimes not on purpose. Like disaster films. When one studio was doing one, another would quickly follow. Or like we learned from Cannon films. Some would rush to release their version of the same film before the competition.

That was the case between Deep Star Six, and a very similar film, Leviathan.

Only Deep Star Six came out first in January, while Leviathan came out in March.

Both had underwater trucker like crews working on a station/rig. Both encounter an unknown entity and horror follows.

However both are entertaining and thankfully different enough they don’t overlap too badly. In fact one is more of an odd rip on Alien, while the other is more undersea terror. Trust me We’ll be hearing more about that one later though. However for now. We dive into Deep Star Six.

What could possibly go wrong, when you work and live underwater. In an experimental naval facility, guarding nuclear weapons, because the not so distant future is a little hectic and we wanna be able to strike from anywhere.

More so what could go wrong when you mix naval personnel with civilians.

Well apparently a lot can under the right circumstances.

More so things go wrong when everything is going right.

See these people are happily finishing up their testing of the facility and completion of the nuclear missile storage platform. Which sounds a lot more acceptable to people versus launch pad.

It’s while nearing completion and a bit of tom foolery that these people accidentally stumble onto a hidden cave system under the platform. Which itself sounds pretty cool to be honest.

So they have a dilemma. Their orders state the platform MUST be build on solid ground, buuut with a cavern under neath. That creates problems. So what do you do when you have one party of scientist wanting to investigate the caverns and ecosystem within. While the other wants to get paid by the military. So they go with option ‘GET-R-DONE’ and are told to blow up the caverns and seal them. Because screw the ecosystem and life underneath.

But what if they are warned a ship reported finding a creature over 10 meters in length? Super duper fast and strong, unknown marine life and lost crews? NOTHING! Less talk, more blow shit up!

So chalk that up as a win for mankind and a crushing defeat for marine life. Off to a great start.

So let the miniatures commence their fun! Which is fun actually. I love practical effects and this film does its best with them. It actually doesn’t look so bad for being as old as it is. But this is also what happens…well what used to happen when movies like this were given actual budgets and good directors with studios willing to give them theatrical releases.

So naturally things don’t go so well with the explosion. In fact it actually manages to take out a good portion of the surface area. Creating what naval personal refer to as an ‘oopsie’.

But this Oopsie creates a win for team science as they now have a perfectly good opening and reason to investigate the cavern as it is now very apparent it is larger than first thought. So off goes investigation bot to take some exploration footage.

Well it attempts doing so but unfortunately gets….lost.

But their little sub is headed off into uncharted territories to recover that bot, all while exploring a pretty cool cave. However sonar is picking up a fast moving…something, that doesn’t like them being there, and it. Is. Huge!

But we don’t see it. Just like they don’t see the sub anymore on any of their sensors.

But this is only the start. A ticked off resident of the cavern decides to aggressively have words with the naval base by ramming itself head on with the “Seatrack”, That’s the pod with our science lady and friends. I suppose it’s also worth noting the main hub is called Deep Star Six. Bet that’s important! No it’s not. Just ties the thing with the movie.

Which funny enough the original title for the film was Alien of the Deep. But Deep Star Six does sound pretty cool to be fair. So here we are. No communication with the now near falling off cliffside Seatrack, which is having a good deal of problems. Like taking on water. Which is not a good thing, when living underwater. Science lady seems shaken but not stirred, and her comrad is having issues with standing on his own. A crushing defeat for mankind, but a win for this guy and a disability check.

So the people of Deep Star Six are concerned and as no contact what so ever, with Seatrack as well as their small exploration sub, AND whatever it is roaming around out there. They decide the best thing to do is head out in another sub and see what’s up.

Which is pretty nifty in establishing some of the monster rules.

Every monster movie and serial killer film. Usually has a set of rules. Something that tells us, and the characters what weaknesses to look for. If they can or can’t attack in certain places, and times. Etc. So while the sub is headed out to Seatrack they happen to encounter the former peaceful resident of the caverns. Charging toward them. They wisely decide to turn off the lights and stop their sub. As soon as they do? The resident creature becomes chill and less enraged. So it takes off elsewhere to do its own thing. Freeing the sub to rescue their friends! We learned something!

So now our friends are ready to rescue their friends and well. Well there are complications. Their sub door isn’t working. So they need to hand crank the door. Surely that’s all of the hardships they’ll face.

We discover one of the men in the sub had his legs crushed in the tumble of their station. So they need to help move him into the rescue sub. All is going well. Until it isn’t. Apparently the navy didn’t put in enough money for good quality gears, as the gears on their door suddenly begin to bend and strip. Which lead to the door, painfully coming down on the waist of their captain.

He's got a broken back, a pending lawsuit, and a hell of a settlement headed his way. But no. Not our captain! He’s true navy blue through and through. He wants to go out like a man. A man crushed by a solid metal door. But out team. Our loyal team are too damn caring and they won’t leave him! NO ONE LEFT BEHIND!

So the captain says ‘Screw this fail team” and alt F4’s out of the game. He hits a button to flood the tubes and they are left with no choice but to watch him drown like a man. And seal the door unless they want to flood their sub.

So with the memory of their father like figure captain, and his torso floating in the back of their mind, and sub. The crew make their way back to the Deep Star Six. Where they begin telling everyone their horrific story. And added horror. They discover science lady is preggo with civilian crewman’s eggo.

A crushing defeat for the single man, a win for the navy woman wanting to settle down.

Does it effect things? Not especially other than bonding our two future parents into a life neither seemed to want, but enjoyed the fun of.

So our crew is ready to call it a day. Captains lost, sub is lost. Baby on the way. It’s Miller time. So a tech guy is told to file a report and request for recovering the sub they lost. After that they should be good to go.

So, while doing his job. Tech man tells the pc, hey. We need to recover a sub and report a loss. Pc is all “Whats the problem bud? You guys mean you lost it naturally? Did it sink from a failure? Ooor did a sea monster get aggressive with it.” Well he wants to do his job right, and I don’t blame him. So he does what most of us would do. He calls to ask for clarification on how the lady would describe what happens. She tells him it was pretty aggressive but not overly aggressive. So he figures coolbeans. Lets tell the pc and let it roll a d20 on what we need to do.

PC bro tells the tech their only solution for an aggressive attack, is the most American response. Brute force! The command from the pc is ‘Detonate missle!” So with the calm and grace of Steven Toast commanding “Fire the nuclear weapons!” he does just that. Detonating a 50 megaton bomb underwater. Near their base. What could go wrong.

Well, underwater, force like that builds up. Creating large powerful waves of energy.

It’s a cool scientific thing and -OH MY GOD THEY”RE GONNA DIE!! AAAAAHHH!!!

A crushing defeat for Deep Star Six, a massive win for nature.

So the bomb goes boom, shockwaves shake rattle and roll through the station, and our crew begin putting their emergency drills to work. It’s a great show of teamwork and the importance of safety drills. Trust me you can never have enough of those. Growing up in California we always did Earthquake drills and fire drills. So when an earthquake hit up here in Washington. I knew immediately how to act. I was inside our training kitchen at college. I hit the emergency gas shut off as flames were shooting 3 feet upward, and hurried to a door frame. Others like me who grew up with these drills directed people under the solid tables and to door frames. I noted no one else was going to push the shut off. So yay for that.

Well these people worked well together, stopped their station from leaking, and secured things enough to begin repaires throughout. Leading to the coolest part of the film, and where our box artwork came from.

Seriously I dig the hell out of the suits they wear in this for underwater work. They look like legitimate water suits for deep sea operations.

So Mr Richards who was sort of our comic relief, is tasked with getting in his cool suit to go out and repair a serious rip in their hull. No biggie. Outside of a ticked off former cavern tenant now unable to return to get his stuff as his former home is now ground zero. So that could present some issues.

Well luckily for us Richards is able to do his job and in record timing, which is pretty good for him considering he’d mostly been the poster child for laziness. However. He alerts all of us, that he’s not alone. There’s an angry cussing creature down there with him and it wants to discuss it’s place of residence.

Well Richards might be an expert at repairs. But he has no linguistic skills. So this naturally upsets the creature. Richards thankfully makes it back to Deep Star Six and very angrily begins stating his wish to be removed from the suit he is in, and as far away from the water as he can get. Well no one is willing to listen until he chills out. But fortunately for Richards, and us. The creature is coming up the airlock and right up the ass of Richards.

Not literally. Thankfully.

Instead it bites on and wiggles itself like a person taking a reverse shit wiggling their ass to try and pinch off, and wiggle free that hanging log. Which it does successfully. Though it means it took the entire lower half of Richards. Which rightfully horrifies the crew, but also results in another woman on the station also getting eaten. Which sort of is fitting because it was a lady whom slept with Richards, so now they can I guess meet up in the afterlife.

A crushing defeat for the humans, a moral victory for the sea monster.

But we do at long last and at the 50 min mark no less, get to finally have ourselves a look at this sea monster. And kudos to the effects team for making one that honestly looked pretty believable. It actually does have some crustacean look to it.

But now our crew is faced with a new challenge. The challenge of being unable to escape until they seal off the airlock. Which thanks to their new tenant, they cannot do. Unless they go back into the airlock room and risk facing it while readying to drain the room.

Which for the most part goes well. I do mean the most part. As they work pretty well on their task.

But unfortunately wake up a sea monster who works 10 hour shifts and needs at least 6 hours sleep. But it can’t get that with all this noise in its new room. So it lashes out. Unfortunately someone DOES die. But it is not the creatures fault. It was human error. So far the biggest threat is humans being human. Something the creature will mention to the landlord for sure.

But who cares! They secured the airlock. That means they can go home! Screw underwater life. It’s topside now!

Or will it be?!

Well unfortunately we need complications.

Which leads me to telling you about the magnificent death from earlier that I glossed over. Just for this little bit. Because it’s important you see.

Snyder, our man who launched the nuke, because the pc told him to do so. He isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed. He’s uneasy and on edge. Well they don’t have weapons down below. Much like the film Alien. So they have him create some. It’s honestly one of the coolest things, and also sickest. They create pressure spears. Spears that when you hit your target, they immediately pump out a large volume of oxygen. Immediately filling whatever it hits to the point of bursting.

So while repairing the airlock and waking of the Creature. Snyder freaks out. Screaming and spinning around, instantly jabbing on impulse one of their crewmen. Who we see painfully express just how it feels having a large bubble of oxygen pumped right into your heart. Before it explodes. This of course, traumatizes Snyder as it only adds to his own personal track record of failures.

Well their nurse decides to give him a shot to help calm his tits down, but he’s still sad as a panda can be. He’s so sad in fact he invisions seeing the ghost of the man he just pressure explode stabbed in the chest. So he decides a sedated mental breakdown is needed and rampages calmly past everyone to an escape shuttle. This is why I held off on this part.

He begins to tally his mistakes and decides no more! He will do one thing right. For once. Which is to ignore the doctor screaming at him about the need for them all to depressurize before going in the escape pod. He damns all logic and reasoning and hits the eject button. Sending himself off and up to the surface. Where we get to see the very real effects of why you need to depressurize. It’s a pretty graphic scene as his veins bulge out and blood begins to push out his body until his head explodes like a melon under a tire in a Troma film.

It’s graphic, gross, and totally rad. It’s worth the look. Top tier death.

Well the crew is once again dealing with an extreme case of the sads. They need to decompress, but they’re running out of time. They have a sea monster roaming the station and complaining about its job and new neighbors being dickheads.

Remember what I said about the monster looking believable? Well don’t quote me on that as they suddenly decide to show us more of the creature and it really was best left in the shadows for the most part. Otherwise it does sort of look like a giant mutant lobster. Which is still pretty gnarly and cool granted. But also. Well. Giant monster. Screw it. I like it still. Goofy ass monster.

So of course seeing it means someone has to die again. And unfortunately it’s our female doctor. But her death is not in vain. She used shock paddles to kill both the creature and herself. So our future parents to be can have time to escape, depressurize and GTFO. Which they do but only after the station explodes.

A crushing blow to the navy, a shaking victory for parenthood.

They narrowly escape the shockwaves of yet another explosion, but they still escape damnit! All is right with the world. Happy music is playing. Their friends are deader than dead. Billion dollar station exploded. Nuclear missles left unprotected. Hundreds of lawsuits await them. What could go wrong!

Well it’s a horror movie for petes sake. So the creature isn’t dead yet. It makes another appearance!

Don’t worry, these two are sweethearts and they can’t be lost. Or can they. Well Our mother. Who I will reminds you all, is one of the first women to pass and become a Navy Seal. Very fit, very combat effective. Also braless and nipples poking out. Is on a life raft screaming unable to do anything. While her sperm donor decides he has to be the hero, because woman apparently couldn’t all do that in the 80’s. He explodes the submarine and we assume himself. Destroying the monster for good and all. Leaving the mother of his child on a raft, stranded in the middle of the ocean. With one paddle on a life raft.

Well he actually doesn’t die. He does live. She also was a badass in the film, but I wasn’t teasing. You actually very clearly see her nipples. Why. Because they’re there. But I digress. The couple manage to live, and now they both can float away into their new life together of crushing legal fees, possible prison time, and state checks to help them with their child.

It’s a pretty by the numbers movie but it’s a good movie. It was one of those horror films made with a fairly good cast. No real big names, but big enough. A fair sized budget and as I said it got a release. Which most don’t now. It was a big budget B movie that was pretty entertaining, sparing with the gore and focused more on the tension. Which was a good idea.

Again as mentioned previously, and in all these reviews. The box art really draws you into it. I remember seeing posters in our video store for this and just thought how cool it looked. A low lit picture underwater, an outline of some sort of base at the bottom, and a floating torso of some sort of suit front and center. It really stood out and delivered on what it promised. We did get the suit in the poster, in the film. Someone did die in it, and we got the name of the film in the movie as well. A win for us renters, and a win for the video store!

Is it too cheesy for people today? Not really no. The fact they waited so long to show the creature keeps it from reaching that level of corny. They didn’t go over the top with anything that happened. The action in the film was to the point and scenes moved pretty quickly. It never felt like it dragged or was disjointed. It was well made, executed and is still entertaining.

It still stands out as a champion in the underwater horror genre. So absolutely I say check it out. You won’t regret owningit, and introducing your friends to it.

Even if the monster looks like a puppet lobster at times.