Director: Sean S. Cunningham
Screenplay: Lewis Abernathy, Geof Miller
Starring: Greg Evigan, Nancy Everhard, Taurean Blacque, Miguel Ferrer, Nia Peeples, Matt McCoy, Cindy Pickett, Marius Weyers, Elya Baskin
Year: 1989
Country: United States
Running Time: 99 min
BBFC Certificate: 15
It’s a funny thing with films, isn’t it? Some years there seems to be something in the Hollywood water that inspires producers to release films that are strikingly similar. 1998’s double… uh, double… whammy of both Armageddon and Deep Impact AND Antz and A Bugs Life is possibly the most famous instance of this, but for a more bumper crop of imitators we can look almost a decade earlier when the hot ticket was underwater sci-fi horror movies. Spearheaded by James Cameron’s epic The Abyss, we also had straight horror flick Leviathan and Roger Corman produced clanker Lords of the Deep. Nestled among this harvest, though, viewers can find DeepStar Six.
Following a team of engineers and scientist researching underwater colonisation, only to find something big and nasty hiding in a deep water cavern system, DeepStar Six was rushed into production when writer Lewis Abernathy found out his friend James Cameron was working on a similarly aquatically themed film, the aforementioned The Abyss. This rushed production doesn’t immediately show in the final film which opens with a stirring score by Harry Manfredini, set over some great looking underwater photography. Indeed, the first act as we get to know our intrepid crew sets up a decently entertaining story, getting things moving quickly and establishing the layout of the DeepStar Six underwater base with some great looking model shots.
Director Sean S. Cunningham (Friday the 13th) delivers a decent looking if not particularly stylish film which attempts to capture the “working man” drama feel of Alien, and the cast carry things pretty well. Greg Evigan and Nancy Everhard are fine as the two romantic leads, playing submarine pilot McBride and his scientist squeeze, Nancy, respectively, while Marius Weyers is nicely slimy as the project lead, seemingly determined to jeopardise his crew at every opportunity. Standouts though are Police Academy’s affable Matt McCoy as McBride’s fellow pilot and best bud, Richardson, and best of all the late Miguel Ferrer as Snyder, the token “highly strung” member of the team who slowly loses his mind throughout the runtime. This is the kind of role Ferrer was great at playing and he chomps down heartily on the scenery at every moment.
Unfortunately it’s when we hit the second act that the restrictions of the films relatively meagre budget start to show. While this is ostensibly a creature feature, something established rather quickly at the start of the film, the creature remains largely forgotten for the first hour or so of run time, turning the film into pretty much a light disaster movie as things start gradually going wrong on DeepStar Six, resulting in a few low key deaths that seemingly are forgotten by the crew a couple of scenes later. For a film that hits the ground running it’s remarkable how quickly it falters and drags its heels from one wet set piece to the next. Thankfully when the creature rears its remarkably well designed, if not slightly floppy head (thank to the legends that are Greg Nicotero, Mark Shostrom and Robert Kurtzman), the film delivers a solid last half hour of carnage and destruction as the remaining crew fight for their life.
There’s a decent enough film here with a very solid soundtrack, great cast and fun effects, but the slower pace in that first two thirds just drags it down. Thankfully it is, overall, quite entertaining despite itself and is likely worth a watch as a late night sci-fi b-movie.
Bonus Features
- Audio Commentary with Horror-Fix.com’s James G. Chandler and Ash Hamilton (2025)
- Audio Commentary with director Sean S. Cunningham and visual effects supervisor James Isaacs (2001)
- Audio Commentary with screenwriters Lewis Abernathy and Geoff Miller (2020)
- Isolated score with audio commentary by composer Harry Manfredini
- “From The Deep” – interviews with Mark Shostrom, Greg Nicotero, and Robert Kurtzman (2020)
- “The Survivors” – interviews with Greg Evigan and Nancy Everhard (2020)
- “Water Damage” – interview with Kane Hodder (2020)
- “Behind The Scenes” – vintage featurette (1989)
- Extended vintage interviews with cast & crew (1989)
- Behind-the-Scenes footage
- Original 1989 EPK
- Stills gallery
- Theatrical trailer
- TV spot
This remarkably stacked release from StudioCanal is quite a treat, boasting commentaries and interviews from across the decades since the films release, as well as an isolated score track to highlight Manfredini’s great soundtrack (which I’m listening to as I write this – it’s well worth hunting down on your music service of choice!). The 4K transfer is also very nice, crisp but not to the point that the original image is smoothed out, leaving a nice enough layer of grain to keep the film’s vintage look.
It’s definitely one to pick up for fans and the interviews with the likes of Nicotero, Shostrom and Kane Hodder (who was stunt coordinator) are a great watch for horror and sci-fi fans. Not an essential film, but definitely a great disc.