Picture it, 1989. George H.W. Bush had just been sworn in as President becoming only the second incumbent Vice-President to be elected to the Oval Office. Batman mania was spreading across the nation. The Berlin Wall was going to be torn down by year’s end. And everyone was dancing to “Walk the Dinosaur.”
It was also the year filmmakers decided to focus on the oceans of the world and all that we have yet to discover. Sean S. Cunningham had already released Deepstar Six while “that sumbitch Reagan” was busy packing up his socks and underwear. It focused on members of the U.S. Navy who find themselves terrorized with an sea crab monster. Then, James Cameron was going to show us his fascination with life under water with The Abyss about undersea alien creatures who may or may not be friendly. The Little Mermaid proved that Disney’s animation still had some juice in it after the Don Bluth rebellion. There was also other lower-budget movies Lords of the Deep, The Rift and The Evil Below that pretty much feel into obscurity the same day they were released.
And in the Spring of 1989, there was Leviathan, about an undersea mining crew discovering that something is lurking in the shadows with them at an underwater facility on the ocean floor. The movie would feature Peter Weller in between the RoboCop movies and Ernie Hudson finally getting a meatier role than what he received in the first Ghostbusters. The best way to describe Leviathan is as a cross between Alien and The Thing but in the ocean. It mixes body horror with a creature feature along with the haunted house motif.
Six miners, a geologist and a narcissistic medical doctor are in the underground facility nearing the end of their three-month work schedule. Steven Beck (Weller) is a geologist who has been hired by the Tri-Oceanic Corp to supervise the operation. Dr. Glen Thompson is the medical doctor assigned but seems not to take his job as seriously as he views it as a step down.
The miners get along as much as they can. However, Buzz “Sixpack” Parrish (Daniel Stern) is the trouble-maker of the group, letting his sexist thoughts flow freely and harassing the young Tony “DeJesus” Rodero (Michael Carmine) who has an oxygen malfunction with his diving suit at the beginning of the movie. It’s never suggested but “Sixpack” might be a little racist. Justin Jones (Hudson) is the defacto leader of the miners while G.P. Cobb (Hector Elizondo) is the elder shop steward of the miners.
Elizabeth “Willie” Williams (Amanda Pays) and Bridget “Bow” Bowman (Lisa Eilbacher) are the women who do just as tough a job as the men. However, they are the constant victims of Sixpack’s vulgarity. On the second to last day of their operation, Sixpack discovers a Russian submarine, Leviathan, when an accident knocks him down a ocean ravine. Willie goes after him where she finds Sixpack has recovered a safe that they search through when they return to the underwater operation base.
There’s a video tape and some dossiers on personnel that Doc concludes all read the crew were deceased before the submarine sunk to the ocean floor. Quickly, Sixpack pockets a flask he finds while there’s also a bottle of vodka that Beck takes in his possession. However, Bow sees Sixpack pocket the flask and gets a sip of vodka from him later. The next morning, Sixpack is sick with a fever and Doc discovers lesions on his skin that he tries to examine. But when he tries to consult other physicians via the Internet, they can’t determine what it is either.
Beck suits in in Sixpack’s driving suit to help the other miners finish their goal. But Sixpack dies while everyone’s out. And Bow is starting to feel ill as she goes to the sick-bay but discovers her hair is failing out at a huge rate. She goes in and sees Sixpack’s body changing and slits her wrists in the shower. But her body fuses with Sixpack’s leading Doc and Beck to convince the others to dump their bodies out in the ocean. However it begins to make movements and slashes Cobb along the chest.
They’re able to dumb the body but don’t see that a limb is severed and stays only to regenerate and grow, attacking DeJesus. And Cobb begins to notice changes. as a mouth with sharp teeth forms in his hand and attacks Doc. At the same time, Beck and Doc are trying to convince the company’s CEO Ms. Martin (Meg Foster) to send a rescue vessel.
You can pretty much guess what happens next. Leviathan isn’t the best movie of its kind despite being written by David Peoples (Blade Runner, Unforgiven) and Jeb Stuart (Die Hard, The Fugitive). George P. Cosmatos is the director but there has been some questions following his death over how effective a director he was. It’s been reported he basically left the second-unit crew and the visual effects team to their own devices to film their scenes. Stan Winston and his studio had designed the creature because it had the shortest schedule aside from Deepstar Six and The Abyss. Winston has also just finished directing Pumpkinhead and was wanting to get back to designing visual effects and creatures.
This is basically a creature feature with a more A-lister of a cast. However, Hudson and Cosmatos didn’t get along during filming as Hudson called Cosmatos one of the most politically incorrect and offensive people ever. Cosmatos didn’t get along with Winston nor Stern and some arguments almost got physical. Unlike The Abyss, they didn’t have to film underwater. Instead they used camera trickery, lighting and slowed down the filming to make it appear they were underwater on the ocean floor.
Just like Alien, the movie works the best when we don’t see the main creature, which despite the work and design by Winston who was a legend in the business, looks outrageous. Hudson said it looked like a big chicken. I understand what the filmmakers wanted by showing the creature is like a of collection of marine life (eel, lamprey, catfish) and look like there’s some human qualities in the creature. But the build-up is more terrifying than the third act where everyone is running around.
This movie was released a few years before the Soviet Union collapsed. So, it has that Cold War-era feel that the Soviets in desperation conducted experiments on their naval sailors. Then, the officers decided to sink the submarine hoping no one would discover them. The Chernobyl disaster was still fresh on people’s minds so there’s the element of messing with nature that is common in these movies.
Leviathan isn’t the best horror movie out there. But it does have some charm to it as the idea that you’re underwater with no where to go and don’t fully understand what is happening.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 