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Another product of Roger Corman's New World Pictures, Humanoids from the Deep was part of a wave of Jaws cash-ins stretching from the mid 70's into the early 80's. These included Joe Dante's Piranha (1978), Lewis Teague's Alligator (1980), Jeffrey Bloom's Blood Beach (1981), and most unforgivably, Ovidio Assonitis's (as Oliver Hellman) Tentacles (1976). Humanoids also plays on the psycho sexual horror sub themes explored in Ridley Scott's Alien, though it does this with a complete lack of subtlety (sometimes sickeningly so). Not surprisingly the film sparked a media controversy, as feminist groups voiced their disgust at the films rape scenes. An angle made all the more shocking by the fact the director was a woman. It's since been reported that these sequences were edited into the movie (at the request of Corman himself) after Peters had finished (she went on to publicly denounce the film). So with all this hoo-ha, the key question is, does Humanoids from the Deep cut the mustard? My answer? Oh yes my friends! it most certainly does.
The film is set in a small north California fishing village where a number of beach going young men are brutally murdered, and their girlfriends raped whilst sunbathing. Enter the films hero Jim Hill (monster favourite Doug McClure) we know he's the hero because he sticks up for a Native American, Johny Eagle (Anthony Pena) who's being bullied by the the local rednecks, led by Hank Slattery (Vic Morrow). Jim then sets about solving the mystery of the murders with the help of scientist Dr. Susan Drake (Ann Turkel). She works for the local cannery and fesses up to genetically modifying salmon in order to accelerate growth and improve local fish stocks. It turns out the modified salmon have accidentally been released/escaped into the ocean and mated with a predatory species. The result? you got it, evolved single sex humanoid amphibians that need to mate with young girls to propagate their species. Before Jim and Susan can convince the backward locals however, the randy mutants gatecrash the towns annual Salmon festival wreaking havoc.
Humanoids from the Deep aka Monster (Barbara Peters 1980) Trash rating
The film is set in a small north California fishing village where a number of beach going young men are brutally murdered, and their girlfriends raped whilst sunbathing. Enter the films hero Jim Hill (monster favourite Doug McClure) we know he's the hero because he sticks up for a Native American, Johny Eagle (Anthony Pena) who's being bullied by the the local rednecks, led by Hank Slattery (Vic Morrow). Jim then sets about solving the mystery of the murders with the help of scientist Dr. Susan Drake (Ann Turkel). She works for the local cannery and fesses up to genetically modifying salmon in order to accelerate growth and improve local fish stocks. It turns out the modified salmon have accidentally been released/escaped into the ocean and mated with a predatory species. The result? you got it, evolved single sex humanoid amphibians that need to mate with young girls to propagate their species. Before Jim and Susan can convince the backward locals however, the randy mutants gatecrash the towns annual Salmon festival wreaking havoc.
Humanoids from the Deep is often unintentionally funny, and always hugely entertaining. Rob Bottin's makeups and monster suits are disgustingly good, the creatures themselves looking very similar to The Creature from the Black Lagoon. The film is in essence the same story taken to it's inevitable sickening conclusion, though elements from Alien and Jaws are also clearly evident. When you consider the people involved with this movie, it's not hard to see why it's so much fun. The music was scored by James Horner, Gale Anne Hurd was a production assistant, and of course Bottin and Corman I've already mentioned. Humanoids is an absolute must for Monster and gore fans, the film is a riot from beginning to end, with plenty of splatter (especially the shocking finale) and all round mayhem. The film is one of my all time favourite trash movies, with perhaps the only criticism I could level at it being the rather distasteful rape angle. Still, b-movie lovers need to seek this one out, it's pure gold. Be careful though, the film was remade (extremely badly) as a TV movie in 1996, avoid that one.