Humanoids from the Deep (1980)
-- Review by Nic Brown--

Producer Roger Corman takes a scaly swipe at environmental issues with his 1980 cult classic Humanoids from the Deep. The small fishing town of Noyo is in trouble. The salmon population has been declining and the catch is way down. To add to the

troubles, a plan by Canco to open a cannery in the town is being opposed by local Native Americans, who believe it will desecrate their sacred lands. Amid these problems, Canco scientist Dr. Susan Drake (Ann Turkel) has been working to alter the local Salmon population’s DNA to make the fish mature faster and grow larger. As is often the case, there are unexpected consequences from this genetic manipulation and soon the town finds itself falling prey to slimy, giant fish men. These monsters are bent on evolving further and to do this they need to mate with human women.

Director Barbara Peters does a pretty good job with the story from writers Frank Arnold and Martin Cohen. Limited by budget constraints, Peters only had access to two complete monster suits and enough bits and pieces to almost make a third. This proved to be a challenge during the film’s big action sequence when the script called for an army of humanoids to attack the town salmon festival. When Peters asked Corman about how she was supposed to film an army of humanoids with only two full suits, Corman reportedly responded by saying “That’s your problem”. Well Peters managed to do a pretty good job with it by using close-ups of the creatures rather than long shots and a whole lot of cutting between scenes. It didn’t help that the suits were slow and awkward to move in, which resulted in most of the victims of the humanoids having to run into the creatures in order to be attacked. Peters also faced another problem. It has also been reported that when Corman saw the final cut, he felt that Peters needed to add more oomph to the film. The “oomph” was to be in the form of more scenes of mutant fish men ripping the clothes off of the female cast. Peters refused to film the scenes because she felt they were unnecessary, so Roger Corman fired her and had another director come in and film the extra scenes.

Budgetary constraints and artistic differences aside, Humanoids from the Deep is an enjoyable horror film to watch. The humanoids, although not the greatest monsters to ever grace the screen, are not bad. With their brains apparently riding unprotected on top of their heads, there are plenty of gory monster head bashings. There are also lots of close-ups victims meeting bloody ends at the hands of the creatures. B-Movie favorite from the 70’s, Doug McClure, plays the fisherman trying to stop the monsters and figure out how much Dr. Drake really knows about the creatures. For her part, Dr. Drake seems far more interested in the creatures as her creation than she is in stopping them from killing or impregnating everyone in Noyo. With an ending that borrows heavily from Alien, Humanoids from the Deep, like many of producer Roger Corman’s other works, is a classic example of a B-Movie horror film, so check it out and remember; don’t order the fish.