Today's Mini-Review: Deep Rising

Rating: ****/*****, or 7/10

Starring: Treat Williams, Famke Janssen, Anthony Heald

Directed by Stephen Sommers

USA: Calimari Productions, 1998

Before Stephen Sommers sank his teeth in remaking The Mummy (and soon after milking it dry with various unwarranted sequels and spin-offs) and before going totally overboard with the remaining classic Universal Horror monsters with the lackluster Van Helsing, he had already shown his affinity for monsters with this delightful big budget B-movie. Assembling a diverse cast, including several notable character actors that would later be seen in more ambitious fare, Sommers brings us an excellent action chiller set on a luxury ocean liner on her maiden voyage that has the misfortune of being boarded by a band of ruthless brigands. Their trouble is something even more insidious beat them to their target and swiftly proceeds to move against them as well.

Treat Williams (a veteran of all kinds of TV and movie work, just not of the memorable kind) stars as smuggler captain Finnegan, who has taken on the thankless job of transporting a group of dangerous testosterone dominated mercenaries (think Aliens, except these are bad guys) to the Argonautica, a gargantuan cruise ship and playground for the rich and wealthy, that has just embarked on her first trip across the South China Sea. Offloading the volatile, loudmouth band of privateers – among them Djimon Hounsou (Gladiator, Blood Diamond), Wes Studi (Avatar, Hell on Wheels) and Jason Flemyng (Stardust, X-Men: First Class) – should be all in a day's work, but unfortunately all their plans are shot to hell when it turns out something far more sinister and deadly already boarded the boat and ate most of the passengers and crew. Stumbling upon a few survivors, including sexy con woman Trillian (Famke Janssen), the gang must soon alter their intentions as they are faced with ghastly sea monsters that mean to slither their grotesque tentacles all around their bodies to suck 'em dry. At least the revelation that the mercs planned on torpedoing the ship after they got away with the money allows them some firepower to retaliate and save their skin, provided someone is left alive to blow the boat sky-high. It's soon a matter of 'no honor among thieves' as it turns out nobody here can be trusted, not even in the face of getting devoured by slimey sea serpents, of sorts. Amidst pirates and sleazy cruise ship managers it's hard to step up as the voice of reason, but Finnegan attempts to do so anyway and at least succeeds in convincing Trillian to bail out while they still can, also making for some semi-romantic tête-a-tête between them that thankfully never gets in the way of the real fun but actually gives them both the necessary rogue-ish character. Unfortunately, Finnegan's contractors won't let them walk away and are set to complete their mission, even all through the maritime monster infestation that threatens to kill them all. Working their way through the vessel, Deep Rising's plot soon develops along the old fashioned 'ten little Indians' line, but the pleasure to be had proves none the less of it.

Unlike most of Sommers' monster movies soon to follow, Deep Rising feels like an actual entry into the horror genre, instead of catering to the 'PG-13 happy' crowd of Hollywood execs who want to make their films as accessible to most demographics as they can, which led to all his subsequent movies merely playing with horror conventions but instead devolving into typical FX driven blockbuster spectacle. Nevertheless, Sommers' willingness to throw in CGI where the budget allows him can already be felt in this film as the creatures often look overly digital (not surprising, considering digital effects were still largely new territory around this time) and particularly towards the climax end up being overused, but still the movie contains its fair share of suspenseful and gory moments. If you ever wondered what a half-digested human being looks like, here's an answer for you and it is kinda disturbing to behold. Despite the uneasy reliance on digital FX to allow the monsters to do their horrific killing, in terms of sheer fast paced action interspersed with moments of aptly timed comedy delivered by a cast that seems to thoroughly enjoy itself, Deep Rising proves to be about as entertaining as they come without feeling the need to be more than just solid popcorn enjoyment. There's a reason the film's finale comes with an hilarious open ended note – without the usual sequel pretensions – that underscores that everything that came before should not have been taken at all seriously, in case that was not perfectly clear from the onset of the film. In the annals of 'delightful movie pairings', Deep Rising's 'modern pirates versus sea monsters' deserves to be worthy of some credit.

Ultimately this effective horror extravaganza failed to attract an audience and became a typical box office bomb. Rather undeservedly so in my mind, as I consider this a vastly underrated, hugely entertaining action/horror flick. If you like dynamic action on the high oceans and you don't mind a bit of sea monsters slaughtering humans throughout, this is about as good as it gets. And if out of that sentence only the 'action' part appeals to you, Deep Rising definitely doesn't sink in its efforts.