It’s really no secret that I love Horror movies. I enjoy a lot of different movies and genres and the like, well with the exception of modern American horror movies but that is a rant for another day. Most the people that know me know that I particularly enjoy the Giallo, Slasher and Zombie genres. But there is another genre of horror that has a place in my heart and that is the Monster or Creature sub-genre, however the hell you want to label it. From the long line of Kaiju films featuring the likes of Godzilla and Rodan to Mothra and Gamera. I don’t know what it is but watching men in big rubber monster suits stomping around on miniature sets is so damn fun and entertaining. Then there are those crazy “nature runs amok” films featuring a wide variety of insects and animals, from spider movies like KINGDOM OF THE SPIDERS to ant movies like PHASE IV to movies about rampaging reptiles like ALLIGATOR. I’m sure you’ll read about some of these films in future columns.

There’s also a sub sub-genre, if you will, of films that feature sea creatures or underwater terror and that is where this particular movie that I’m about to talk about comes from. I’ve mainly chosen to write about DEEP STAR SIX because I just recently bought the DVD and I’ve finally been able to go back and revisit this favorite of mine when I was younger. Sometime around 1991 my parents had borrowed a tape from my step-aunt that had a couple of movies on it. I can’t recall what movie was on it that made them borrow it, but some time later I fast forward through the tape to see what all was on it and came upon this crazy monster flick and I was instantly hooked.

I guess I could tell you what this movie is about. A crew of scientist and Navy personnel are sent down to the bottom of the ocean to install some missile silo’s. Of course they are near the end of their mission and the dude in charge of installing the silo’s, Dr. John Van Gelder, starts rushing things cause he doesn’t want to miss his quota and lose his funding. So when he is told that there is a cave or something underneath where he wants to place a silo at he just tells the people to blow it up and get working. The cave is a lot bigger than they thought and when they blow it up it pretty much destroys the whole sea bed where they are wanting to work. After they lose a probe that was sent down into the depression, two members of the crew go down in their sub-like vehicle to retrieve it who are then quickly taken care of. As you might have guessed the cave was the home of some deep sea monster and now that it’s home is destroyed it is on a rampage and won’t stop till all the pesky human home wreckers are taken care of.

You won’t believe who directed this little gem, I know I had no idea who directed it until I got the DVD and noticed that none other than Sean S. Cunningham of FRIDAY THE 13TH fame. There are no big stars in this, but there might be a couple of names you might know like Nia Peeples and Miguel Ferrer. The person I always remember in this movie is Greg Evigan. Now I’m sure everybody is wondering who in the hell is Greg Evigan? Well, if you grew up in late 80’s you might remember a TV show called MY TWO DADS which starred Greg Evigan, Paul Reiser, who coincidentally enough went on to play in a monster flick himself, ALIENS and Staci Keanan from STEP BY STEP fame. Unfortunately ol’ Greg hasn’t done much in the world of horror since, although I did notice him on some Sci-Fi Channel movie awhile back but without his trademark beard he’s hard to recognize. Good ol’ Miguel Ferrer plays a total asshole in this, which he sure does do a lot in movies. It’s nice to see him get what he deserves later in the film.

As with most monster flicks this isn’t the greatest movie but it is highly enjoyable. There are some nice kills and some decent gore. The one that I remember the most involves this air gun like thing that looks like a spear and when you jab it into something it inflates that object. Needless to say someone got a little careless and instead of jabbing the monster he jabs a fellow crew member and well bad things happen obviously. What I really like about this movie is the monster itself. We don’t get to see it a whole lot but when we do it looks fucking awesome. Know what else makes it so awesome? Well since this was the days before CGI it’s an actual practical monster! It’s nice seeing this mechanical, animatronic monstrosity terrorizing these poor hapless people. Even all the numerous underwater scenes are done with miniatures and things like that, which makes it heads and shoulders above anything done in today’s CGI infested world.

So, if you’re tired of all the CGI dreck that is shown on the Sci-Fi Channel like every weekend and want to check out a real monster movie that uses miniatures and mechanical things as opposed to all the needless shoddy CGI to get their story across then I would suggest looking into this movie. You just might be pleasantly surprised. Oh and Mr. Greg Evigan, if you ever read this, and I certainly hope you do, please…please hook me up with your daughter!! She’s smokin’ HOT!