Review of Leviathan (1989) by Walker S — 26 Apr 2013

Tri-Oceanic Corp has hired a crew of undersea miners to do a 90 day mining operation on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. The head of the corporation, Miss Martin (Meg Foster), has employed Steven Beck (Peter Weller), a geologist, to assist in mining operations as well as command the undersea mining station. While outside their vessel in a pressure suit, brash worker Sixpack (Daniel Stern) trips and stumbles upon a wrecked ship. Because he didn't respond to hails over his radio, Williams (Amanda Pays) goes to look for him and finds him excited over a "treasure" chest he has found. The research specialist and local physician, Dr. Thompson (Richard Crenna), sees that it is a Russian ship and identified the ship as the "Leviathan" from it's markings. When checking on records of Leviathan, the crew discover that it is still marked as an active ship on duty in the Baltic Sea. Meanwhile, Sixpack and the rest of the crew open a safe from The Leviathan and find several crew records relating to deceased crew members, as well as a video tape from the doctor of Leviathan. Among the materials, Sixpack finds a flask of Vodka. There being no alcohol on their own ship, he hides this for his own use later. Bowman (Lisa Eilbacher) figured out Sixpack had hidden away the Vodka and persuades him to share it. That night, Dr. Thompson and Beck review the videotape of the Russian doctor of Leviathan and believe his medical log was cryptic over the crew's poor health condition describing his infirmy filled with sick crew members and that "something's off" before the tape suddenly ends. They also went through the video tapes of Leviathan and noticed the hull was possibly hit by a torpedo. The following morning, Sixpack awakes feeling sick, with lesions throughout his back. The doctor is unable to offer any explanation for why Sixpack ended up like this. He asks the computer for an opinion, and it respondes with a "guess", suggesting "genetic alteration." Sixpack dies eight hours after first feeling sick, but the doctor and Beck hide the news of his death to avoid a panic amongst the crew. Beck and Thompson understands that something strange is happening related to the Leviathan. The question is how they can stop it...

In the wake of "The Abyss" this Alien/The Abyss/The Thing rip off came out a year later. Directed by George P. Cosmatos and with a pretty ok ensemble this is, well a lot better than "Deep Star Six". It´s a claustrophobic B-horror piece that as said rips off all sorts of things from the mentioned movies, but I reckon that´s ok in my eyes. I reckon the minus is the (as in "Deep Star Six") creature in the movie, which is maybe a bit too campy and not so well made (even if they worked pretty hard on it from what I know). At least when reseeing it so many years later. Had forgotten about the lovely Amanda Pays and nice to see Lisa Eilbacher as well. Not too bad, but not overwhelmingly great either.