DeepStar Six (1989)

Some arrive while others leave an American underwater platform. It's a mixed use facility where the military is setting up nuclear missiles and civilians are experimenting on long-term colonization. A cavern under the missile site is found but something more is uncovered.Director Sean S. Cunningham's claim to fame is making the first Friday the 13th. This isn't breaking any new ground as much as following a temporary trend in underwater adventures. This pales in comparison to some of its competitors. The actors are second tier character actors. They do functional work but the characterizations are mostly nondescript. Other than an annoying coward played by Miguel Ferrer, the characters need better definition. At the very least, the military personnel need to be wearing uniforms and acting in a more strict manner. The special effects are mostly miniature work. The setting design looks like B-movie leftovers. I'm almost certain that I saw this back in the day but it's pretty much forgotten until I watched it again recently. This is a monster movie where the monster is rarely seen. It's an hour before there's a glimpse of the beast. There is a question of logic about launching missiles from the ocean floor. All of it adds to a lesser underwater adventure.

I honestly can;t believe that some people are giving this movie such a high rating, and even more than someone went so far as to put it above James Cameron and Ridley Scott... anyhow the reviewThe film is very much based around the same sort of concepts as Alien, shot instead underwater... The Alien replaced by a giant deep sea invertebrate. However the storyline is much less developed than the older masterpiece instead moving from disaster to catastrophe each of which contrived for the moment rather than a cohesive whole. There is no attempt to study the creature, nor actively work to vanquish it et.c, instead its just one failure to escape after another in tedious repetition. The monster therefore is not a real character in the storyline, its simply a reason for numerous other disasters to have started happening, indeed its a member of the crew who causes most of the problems in a farce of errors. The crew are killed off piecemeal seemingly without care or reason, which is fine because you didn't care about them really, you were never given a chance to get to know them.That said the effects are decent for their time and the acting is solid if not spectacular, when you take into account the poor script they were working with. however overall, this film is not great and not really worth the time and effort to watch unless there is nothing else on.

The Crew (Greg Evigan, Nancy Everhard, Cindy Pickett, Miguel Ferrer, Marius Weyers, Matt McCoy, Nia Peeples, Taurean Blacque, Elya Baskin, Thom Bray and Ronn Carroll) of scientific ocean floor station "DeepStar Six". Which it is funded by the navy is expected to perform scientific studies as well as install an underwater nuclear missile silo. On a routine job, two of the crew members on the small submarine blasted the cave open. They decided to explore it but they encounter the unknown. When a large mysterious creature attacked the underwater ship and killed the two crew members instantly. Since this creature is attractive to light, this thing decides to attack the crew of the ocean floor station.Directed by "B" movie producer:Sean S. Cunningham (Friday the 13th, Spring Break) made an entertaining, low-budget adventure with some cheap thrills. The cast do their best with this material but it is Ferrer gives the only memorable performance in this cheap feature. Some people prefer this one over "Leviathan" but I think, "Leviathan" is better made, much superior cast and special effects are superior to "DeepStar Six". The look of the creature is not bad, the best thing in Cunningham's direction. He only used the creature in some key sequences and the monster only appears in the movie for a couple of minutes."DeepStar Six" should have had an large budget, what i felt hurts the movie are the underwater sequences are not very convincing. It seems to me that Cunningham worked hard on a low budget and he did his best to cover the flawed production values. It seems that Mario Kassar and Andrew Vanja from "Carolco Pictures" only give Cunningham an $10 million budget or less. I felt the script was good and Harry Manfredini (Best known for "Friday the 13th" movies) gives an good music score, probably his best work. I felt the cast seemed out of place, expect for Ferrer but they did their best.I would love to watch this movie in Widescreen, since the region 1 DVD's are only Full Screen. Maybe in a future Blu-ray release, we can finally watch it in the original Widescreen aspect ratio of 2.35:1.This is a update from March 25, 2013. I track down the Region 2 DVD from eBay. DVD has an good anamorphic Widescreen (2.35:1) transfer and Dolby 2.0 Surround Sound is quite good. DVD also includes an rather dull commentary track by the filmmakers, two featurette, original theatrical trailer and photo gallery.As a "B" movie, it works but fails as a "A" level production. Since "Carolco Pictures" are better known for their big budget productions. As a Guilty Pleasure, "DeepStar Six" is entertaining. It is memorable for Miguel Ferrer's standout supporting performance and an surprisingly good Harry Manfredini score. Certainly an interesting double feature with "Leviathan" for one night's viewing. Super 35. (*** ½/*****).

I'm really surprised that this movie doesn't have a higher rating than what it does. It came out around the same time as "The Abyss" & "Levaithan," but I really think it is a good film by itself. I think obviously that "The Abyss" was the best of the three and "Leviathan" the worst, but "DeepStar Six" is sort of like that middle child that really gets ignored. It really blows my mind that "Leviathan" is rated higher than this movie and probably only because it had a bigger budget.There are uniformly good performances throughout this film and decent enough special-effects, though they are rather dated. The music is well composed and it has a fairly believable story, so why the low ratings?