Humanoids from the Deep

• (Released as Monster in Europe and Japan)
• Directed by Barbara Peeters (Uncredited Jimmy T. Murakami)
• May 16, 1980

When strange creatures start attacking a small fishing town and raping their women, it is up to the locals to save the day!

What can I say about this Roger Corman production? Humanoids from the Deep is certainly a movie at 80 minutes. But is it a good movie? No. Is it what you would expect from a Corman production? Pretty much. This is a dumb monster movie filled with dumb characters making dumb decisions. And everybody you get is about as two dimensional as possible.

Huge leaps of logic are made and more importantly nobody seems really bothered that fish-like creatures are running around killing and raping people. While it is a concern, but people are more interested in the new cannery and what it can do for the town than they are in the dangerous fish people lumbering around.

In part Humanoids from the Deep is nature’s revenge driven. The fish cannery (owned by Canco) mentioned earlier has come up with a way to genetically modify salmon in order to get them to reproduce faster and mature more quickly. Unknown to the outside world a few of these Frankenfish escaped into the wild. They were then eaten by something else and those animals have now mutated into monsters that look suspiciously like the Creature from the Black Lagoon.

Speaking of the creatures, the designs are pretty good. They are all slimy and Gill-man like. Despite having brains and an apparent level of intelligence at no point to these creatures ever try to remove the seaweed dangling from their bodies. It all looks good, but it is a common trope in older films that makes little sense.

Doug McClure, who starred in his fair share of schlock during his career, is the hero of the story Jim Hill-I guess. And that’s really all you can say about him. Doug McClure was Doug McClure in every part he took. And often enough that worked. Sometimes it didn’t, but he was entertaining enough. Then again in this movie crafting a unique character for the narrative was not necessary.

The local Native American tribe represented throughout the film mostly by Johnny Eagle (Anthony Pena) have a beef against Canco and what they’re doing. Local bigot Hank Slattery (Vic Morrow) has a beef against the tribe for opposing the cannery which he believes will bring about a ton of money and good times to the area. Why or how this fish cannery will bring about economic prosperity is never really explained. Admittedly this is a fishing town, but fish canning has never been financially gangbusters.

There is some unintentional humor in Humanoids from the Deep. In one scene at the local salmon festival there are monsters bursting through the pier and the scientist lady (Ann Turkel) shouts for everybody to remain calm. Really? Fish creatures are bursting through the floor and you want people to remain calm?!

There are a lot of explosions in this movie. At least more than seem necessary. That might be able to be done today even in the crappiest of movies but the casual sexism with the butt shots and butt slaps would not fly. Then again such moments were trademarks of Corman’s involvement. He felt you needed nudity and sex to sell. And I guess it worked because he never lost money on a movie.

The speed of the story never really picks up. It just kind of meanders along. Nothing really builds towards anything. Then again this movie is all about the kills. It’s some creepy monsters killing random help with people who put themselves into danger by their own stupidity. Aside from Doug McClure the acting is meh. Vic Morrow wasn’t a bad actor, but he is just putting in a halfhearted effort here. Or perhaps because his character is essentially a stereotype with little to no depth. Not that you need deep characters in a horror movie, but you need a little something to them.

But you’re not watching this movie for complexity or sophistication. Especially when it came out and who produced it. And it delivers what it delivers in spades in all the things that would attract individuals to this movie. This is focused on the lowest common denominator. It never tries to be or act like more than it is. This is aimed at a very specific group of people and not at the general public. Yet it forces you to watch trying to figure out how low it will go.

Humanoids from the Deep is a guilty pleasure of a monster horror movie. It’s not good, but it is also extremely watchable. One of those things you will enjoy but feel guilty about watching and then think that it wasn’t so bad and go back and do it again.