Spooktober Day 7 Leviathan!

Day 7 Leviathan

I said we’d get back to it.

So here we are!

The product of that glorious moment when one director says “Hey that’s a good idea. Think I’ll do that too.

But who did it better? Well that’s up to I suppose which you saw first growing up. Or personal taste.

For me Deep Star Six was the better. This one however had a lot on its side.

You have Robocop, Winston from the Ghostbusters, Marv from Home Alone!! And Dr Phillip Winters of Chicago Hope. Also Jerry Goldsmith did the score.

This was a fun cast to say the least.

So what’s happening this time under the water?

Well this time instead of a Naval nuclear missle launch pad and base. We have underwater mining operations.

Which is fascinating itself.

We again are greeted to the alien formula of truckers in. Well underwater instead of space.

So of course this means we have a horndog, comedian, edgy guy on the edge. The foreman holding them all together, and a lady who’s all business. As well as one who’s a little play but also enjoys her work.

We also have a fun almost underused bonus in this film. Col Trautman. That’s right. Rambo’s boss is in this as a doctor. Who is oddly always never around when they need him. He just drinks his coffee, jokes about golf and. Well does as he likes.

I approve.

So as I said, we have an underwater mining facility and crew. Of course getting ready for an end of their term. Living in a very well lived in and pretty believable establishment. With equally cool, and far less bulky suits.

Honestly this film is the closest one to looking like, feeling like, and following the formula of Alien compared to Deep Star Six.

With just enough subtle differences to keep it from fully ripping it off.

So lets begin our journey. And what better way to begin, than with PANIC!!! Yes that’s right. Panic under the sea! A man was having a mild panic attack as he suddenly became aware his oxygen intake was not the best. Which showed us the quickness the crew had in working together, calming the situation and handling things professionally. Without their doctor as well. Which leads to our usual round table “Hey I’m the guy that likes to joke around.”, “Well Im the lady that’s all business and I don’t like you”, “Hey knock it off I’m in charge here.” Introductions of our crew.

Which is played off rather nicely without it seeming forced. It’s a bit sad how some movies can do that. Ruin a perfectly simple ‘we have a love hate family dynamic’.

So after some introductions and a bit of horseplay. We get this story moving along. Two souls who had some slight disagreements earlier, are forced to work together for half a day. Drilling and gathering samples. When one man takes a tumble, his partner has to go find them.

Traveling through a field of tube worms, which honestly does look a bit creepy given their size. Our brave lady, named Williams treks onward to find the overly horny dolt known as Six Pack. What they both end up finding Is something more incredible and cool miniature wise. A sunken Russian ship. The ships name? Well if Deep Star Six didn’t teach you anything. The ships name, translated from Russian is “Leviathan”.

There we go! Movie title worked into the film!

Well as cool as the ship is, we still haven’t located our missing man Six Pack. Who honestly traveled pretty damn far for a guy who screamed falling off the edge of an underwater cliff.

But soon found he indeed is. And just in time given their suits limited air supply.

Found, and toting a container of lost treasure no less.

Which again draws inspiration from alien as we see a decrepit ship, the skeletal remains of its crew. Which is sparing. And the discovery of something unknown. Sort of.

What was fond? The captains personal effects. The logs of all crew members. A flask and bottle of whiskey. A VHS captains log, and a few odds and ends.

What creepiness abounds? Is all the crew files state they died. The VHS tape has the captain discussing how his medbay is full of sick and dying men. The ship was there for unknown purposes(Much like Alien) and the captain was worried about something, but his log was cut off before he could finish. Also? The ship was sunk on purpose. Which we learn from photos of the outside along the front end of the boat. Things are getting spicy now.

They’re also about to get dangerous. 6 members of the crew attempted hacking into their captains storage to get the vodka he confiscated out of storage. Unfortunately when they go to celebrate and have a taste…..the bottle is full of water. Their captain knows better than to trust them. Apparently.

So everyone leaves disappointed. But this is a sea alien movie! We need our chaos!. Plant the seed of terror!

Well thankfully the film does so for us with the most subtle of actions. Six pack and a lady friend sneak off and he decides to share his stolen flask of vodka from the Russian ship. As the drink is poured. The music gives us a ‘dun dun’ sting and close up. Letting us know, something is definitely afoot. Or is it?!

It is. It really is.

And as a new day approaches. We begin to see signs of what is to come!

After six pack had his little drinky poo. He goes to the doctor for ‘the worst hangover’ he’s ever had. Which gave him of all things. Large lesions on his back under the skin. Discoloration, and feeling worse than he ever has.

Not a good sign when your 1 day away from being picked up and your contract is ended.

But this won’t keep the rest of the crew out of work. They’re all strapping in and heading out in their water suits. All while Six pack is suffering chills, unholy large ingornw hairs and skin flaking off his body. All perfectly normal hangover signs.

Of course you know you are doing well when the doctor looks at your skin samples under a microscope and back at you with a look that begs the question, how are you still living?

So get your timers ready. Our first kill is soon on its way.

Actually it’s about 5 minutes off then he’s dead. Deader than dead. Dude just dropped dead and his body was, scarily enough. Continuing to change. The doc ran a test on the skin sample and his computer told him “Hey bud I don’t know what this is, it’s just bad” so with the grace of a scientist confronting a machine made to tell you the location of every Wonka golden ticket. The doctor tells his all knowing PC to take a guess what was going on. So it says “Genetic shit bro. Guys screwed, body is mutating.” So this is a good state of emergency one would think right?

Well the good captain and doctor do the right thing. Which is to contact their boss. Who acta like Saddam in South Park. I will reinact it as best I can for you.

Crew: Hey uh, this guy died of a disease we don’t know or understand. It’s a horrific frightening death, and we believe we are all at risk.

Boss lady: Hey guy, relax. It’s okay. Don’t worry.

Crew: Well. We are actually very worried, it’s not okay. Please rescue us.

Boss Lady; Guy, relaaaax. It’s all good. We’ll help you out in like….12 hours. Peace!”

So they’re left with 12 hours to chill out and not die. Sounds good.

So what else could possibly go wrong? Or right. A few things actually.

For one. The lady who hung out with Six Pack and drank the dank vodka? Well she also is having a similar experience. She’s losing hair. Got the itch, and skin spots. Well she decides she won’t die like him. Oh no. She’s going out on her terms. So she’s found in a shower, naked. Wrist slit. But that’s only the tip of this iceberg. Dead Six Pack? His body has continued changing. Morphing into something straight out of The THING. Literally. He’s a large blob of fleshy muscle and bone that’s bonded and morphed into something nightmarish. SO it’s time to dump the find of the century and get rid of those bodies. Which also goes well.

Until the people carrying the body realize it’s moving. As corpses do. But this one moved a lot. A worrying amount. So they drop the body bags and. First jump scare has arrived. The bag rips open, a man gets slashed and a leg just….slithers off from the body. They naturally freak out of course, and manage to push the body off the platform and into the water. While the leg makes a stealthy retreat…somehow.

Of course they still can’t be rescued as there is according to their boss a ‘raging storm’ above them. But totally, 12 hours and all will be well.

Well the crew is doing their best to handle the situation they’re all in. Some not as well as others. Ernie Hudson is not happy with people acting calm and cool while two of their friends have died and mutated into god knows what. Another crew member was happy just putting a puzzle together. Until the thing that was a leg, now turned slug leaps out and latches onto him, sucking his life out and nomming on his chest. Which understandably has Ernie freaked out. So much so he does a semi smart but scary thing. He doesn’t help his friend who cries out for him to do something. Instead he seals him in the room and rushes to get the doctor. Seriously smart move, but also scary knowing the guy wouldn’t even try anything.

But as Ernie returns with backup. We discover This beast is very quick acting, very fast morphing, and strong enough to tare through solid steel doors.

Scary stuff is afoot.

So now it’s time to arm themselves. With the only weapons they have. Power saws. Flamethrowers and flares.

Which again, hits some familiar key notes. It even manages to do some scenes as well from The THING, as they notice the beast got to the ships blood supply. What it means is anyones guess.

Hey who cares, we got another death! That’s right, our Chicago Hope star, Hector Elizondro was attacked! But saved. Though he doesn’t exactly lookt hat great for having been saved.

We also learn that this beast has, intelligence. It also needs blood to help it grow.

But the movie has to take it a bit dumber. They tell us the creature isn’t intelligence perse. It. Well. Absorbs the intelligence of those it kills. Don’t ask as I don’t think it will help either of us.

Sometimes. Not often. But sometimes, it is nice to have things be simple and unexplained. The less you know the better, the scarier it can be allowed to be. Which granted this thing is pretty creepy. I like that it doesn’t have a defined shape. It’s not a Xenomorph that turns into a crude version of the host it inhabited. But like John Carpenters The THING. It continues to grow and shift. But unlike The THING where it was absorbing people to copy them perfectly. This thing is intent on expanding its body mass. And tentacle reach throughout the ship.

Meanwhile the crew is faced with some hard facts and choices.

Do they stay and fight? Do they attempt to leave through the escape pods? Or do they do as the Russians did and destroy their own vessel. Killing themselves and the monster.

Well the doctor has decided to help make that choice for them as he excuses himself to get something from his lab and. Ends up launching several lifeboats.

A smart cold calculated move by Trautman. An unfair act to the remaining crew.

But don’t worry more death has come knocking. This time taking out poor Hector. It seems that scratch healed quickly and into a morphed mouth. Which his hand also happened to grow. Because hand teeth.

OH HEY! The doctor gets attacked and now must flee. For reasons unknown. Maybe he wanted time for self reflection. Who knows.

Our crew soon learns of the doctors actions and are understandably a bit miffed at this. But thankfully their boss is making contact with them. Mostly to let them know some important things. Such as…

Crew: Please come rescue us, it’s been twelve hours, you know what we’re up against.

Boss Lady: Relax, nothing to worry about. We’ll get you in 48 hours. Trust me. It’s all cool. Just sleep, have some dinner and play a few party games.

So they are mildly unhappy. They also don’t trust their boss for some reason. So they attempt checking weather reports to see if there actually is a storm. Sadly their computers have had all weather reports locked out. Which is a bit odd of course.

Our good lady shipmate decides to do one better and check her company stocks. When she does, surprisingly it hasn’t been blocked off. Unfortunately though, it informs them all that the stocks took a dive, as there was an unfortunate accident and the mining facility, along with its entire crew were all killed in an explosion. So the company has already written them off and placed their cover story. Imagine that, a company aware of a killer organism likely to wipe them all out, falling back on the ‘crew expendable’ portion of their contracts. Much like. Well hell you get it.

So we’re nearing the end of our adventure and the beginning of this films third act. These people have no escape pods. So obviously this will present a problem for them. So their only choice? Get themselves stripped down and loaded up into their suits.

However the alien life form also knows this is likely their plan. So it surprises them during their escape. Which it should not have not. Because well.

See the creature works a few ways. For the most part. It’s a large mass of nightmare flesh that’s spreading through the ship.

That’s the main mass body.

The other part is the doctor, and their friends Hector and Puzzle guy. They all created separate beings. But the doctor creature unfortunately. Has a face. And it’s a horrible face. Like laughably bad face. Imagine a catfish but like a pug with a mushed face.

Now the film differs again from Deep Star Six as that film opted for more of a semi realistic take on things and the facts of living beneath the surface under water. They told us about the importance of depressurizing and what happens to the body. Well that doesn’t matter here.

Their plan of escape was to use the suits. Deploy some sort of air parachute that would help them get close to the surface. Then eject from their suits and make a mad dash to swim to the surface the rest of the way.

Well naturally it works.

Score one for the humans. Hell even Ernie Hudson made it! He even gets to make the first joke in forever. “Where the hells the damn hurricane”

So our three heros float happily on the surface of the water. Waiting for an emergency helicopter to pick them up. But AH!

Got ya. There’s no monster. Instead they’re being circled by sharks that all want a nibble off them.

HA Double got ya. The monster made it to the surface too, and is not happy with them all surviving. He’s mad enough he attacks Ernie Hudson and tries drowning him. Which seems super unfair and horrible.

Meanwhile captain Robocop needs to come up with something better than Roy did in Jaws where he said “Smile you son of a bitch!”, our man Robocop, pride of OCP says, “Say AH mother fucker!” and tosses a flair at the creature that found itself covered in..flammable…you know what just be happy it exploded and they made it out alive. That’s the ticket. Yeah.

So our heroes make it out safely(mostly), then even get taken to the above rig where their boss lady awaits them happily(mostly) and robocop without skipping a beat decks her. Not even a light tap, or a pimp slap. He full on closed fist punches this woman in the face and knocks her the fuck out.

ROLL THOSE CREDITS MOTHER TRUCKER!!!

That’s right. There’s our ending. It just. Ends. On a high note. As most those films did because honestly you just want to get it over with and not linger on anything. They made it. Monster is destroyed(mostly) and they got to hurt the bad lady(mostly).

While in reality given this is a multi-billion dollar company that already made a cover story. These two will be killed or kept hidden a long time. If they do make it out into the public. They will be labeled as crazy, suffering sea sickness and cabin fever. Responsible for the destruction and unfortunate loss of life on that mining station. All while covering the truth. Until they make another mining colony and need their help because they lost contact with the people living there and this time they’ll roll in with space marines and actual weapons. While the two survivors will deal with over coming their PTSD, fear of this creature and emerge triumphant after defeating the alien queen.

Sorry I kind of lost it there.

This movie isn’t all bad really. It had a strong beginning, and middle. But after that. Really once the monster shows up? The film sort of loses what it built. Because it wanted to be like Alien, but different enough to still hold up. The thing is with Alien there was tension because you never knew where the thing was. It would stay hidden, strike suddenly. It had no eyes but you could ‘feel’ it looking at you. The thing was terrifying. Even wen the alien could more freely roam the ship. It still remained scary and sticking to what kept it safe.

This film opted to turn itself into a slasher film. Which don’t get me wrong that’s all fine. Nothing wrong with it. But the film does seem to kind of lose its steam because now that we know it’s out there. It also is in separate forms. It’s actively hunting them down. It just happens so quickly that nothing else is really allowed to happen. Just immediate reaction.

It's like flushing the toilet, walking away and hearing it still running. So you come back, you aren’t sure what’s going on so you check the tank. It’s full of water. So you check the bowl. It’s filling and about to overflow. So you reach for the plunger and begin pumping away. But as you do the water begins to splash out. So now you’ve got a mess on your hands and it’s only getting worse because while you try to avoid getting wet you stop plunging. Which just means more water spilling. On top of the water already spilling from your plunging. It’s all the going to shit(literally and figuratively) but it’s all the same issue and you can either stick to the task and get it done and over with as quickly as you can to clean up. Or you panic and try to lay towels down so your feet don’t get soaked.

The movie let you know what this is now going to be, and you have to stick with it until it plunges itself out and clears the problem. Instead of raising the stakes by trying to prevent another accident on top of the one your dealing with.

It makes sense in my head so trust me.

But just like Deep Star Six the cover on this was really foreboding and I dug it. You had the dark blue of the ocean with a faint light of the surface above you. The suit and air parachute sending th suit forward as a woman clung to the leg of the suit and bubbles trailed behind the suit and girl. With just a hint of shadowed alien limps reaching out to them. It’s really cool and has a lot of promise. Sort of a riff on Jaws, absolutely. But still again. Different enough to be its own thing.

I think people will like it. But I know if you watched this and Deep Star Six. You will be having the “Yeah it was pretty good, but the other definitely was better.” And you’ll have a list of reasons for both. It’s a good discussion film for that alone honestly. As there are some key discussions to be had. Between the cast, the story. The monster. It’s all good stuff, and why I still say you should check it out for sure.