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Humanoids From The Deep (1980)

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Overall Rating 57%
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Genres / Traits: Creature Film Horror Sex Horror Fish


Scientific experiments backfire and produce horrific mutations: half man, half fish, which terrorize a small fishing village by killing the men and raping the women. --IMDb
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Review by Crispy
Added: November 2, 2007
So, my uncle came in all excited one day saying he found some great movie at FYE for two bucks. We all sit down with our popcorn and are treated to such an insanely awful flick we still talk shit about it to this day. You see, the little gem that he picked up was actually C.H.U.D., a serious snoozefest if ever there was one, while the movie he was thinking of was this one. In his defense, Humanoids From the Deep is a fairly solid monster flick despite its fair share of problems.

Speaking of problems, our maritime village, Noyo, has quite a few themselves. Like most ocean side communities, its chief means of income is fishing, and things couldn't be better. A company has chosen Noyo as the perfect site for its newest canning factory, which will do wonders for the town's economy. Not only that, but this company has hired a scientist to genetically engineer the salmon to grow bigger faster. All horror fans know where this is going and the town is soon under attack by ferocious fishman monsters that kind of look like a cross between the creature from the black lagoon and a Crite. With seaweed hanging off of it. However, there's been a lot of tension in Noyo lately since the local Native American, Johnny Eagle, is actively fighting the cannery and a rather uppity group of hicks have gone to great lengths to show him his efforts are unappreciated. With the two going back and forth, the village misses the red flags. Once the young, nubile women in the village start disappearing though, they realize the kind of trouble they're in. You see, not only are these creatures content to tear them apart without mercy, but they want a little 'action' as well.

I couldn't make this shit up if I tried.

You guys know your own tastes. You already know if some rape-happy, violent fish monsters are going to entertain you or not. Me, I'm all for it, but obviously this is far from a perfect movie. The version I got was recorded off the HD Monster channel, meaning it's been cleaned up and restored and everything. The sound was still barely audible. It's one of those ordeals where you have to turn the volume up to understand what they're saying, but you really can't hear over the resulting fuzz. Granted, it's not the worst I've ever seen, and it's not like the dialogue is a major factor here, but it's still aggravating. And of course, no amount of cleaning is going to get rid of the shitty acting. With that said, we're all used to it in these '80s horror flicks, and like the sound problem, I've seen so much worse. The only real flaw here is the pacing. You see, the first half of the movie, director Barbara Peters tried to take the 'slow-and-suspenseful' approach. The attacks would be from the creature's point of view, and we'd maybe see a hand or something. Obviously, this approach flopped. There's a place for this type of horror (see Halloween for a textbook example) and Humanoids From the Deep is not it.

It does recover though and in a big way. The last twenty minutes or so is probably one of the greatest scenes in Bad '80s horror history. You can't help but have a blast as Peters finally turns the movie into what it should have been doing the whole time, which is making a no holds barred battle between man and fish-mutant. And as an added bonus, said mutants have quite the fondness for breasts, and claws that can easily tear a man's face off are also nimble enough to rip off a woman's bikini top without leaving so much as a scratch. Implausible? Yeah, but I'll forgive them.

I know a lot of people will be turned off by the rape factor here, but it's not as bad as it sounds. Don't get me wrong, I fully believe that any man low enough to force himself into another is deserving of more pain than he can imagine, but I also have a strong grasp on fiction vs. reality. The rape scenes here consist of a mutant throwing a chick onto the sand, getting a hump or two in for good measure, and that's the end of it.

Like I said, you already know if you're gonna dig this one or not. Its slow start notwithstanding, this is everything you look for and more when hunting down those '80s monster movies. The last few scenes alone warrant a viewing, and the final seconds in particular are an incredible 'HOLY HELL!' moment. 7.5/10
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