Humanoids From The Deep, 1996

STARRING: Emma Samms (Dr. Drake)

Samms is best known for replacing Pamela Sue Martin as Fallon on Dynasty and its spin-off The Colbys. She has also appeared in the popular series' General Hospital and Models Inc.

Robert Carradine (Wade)

Perhaps best remembered for his roles in the Revenge Of The Nerds movies, which he became a producer of in the 90’s. He’s also appeared in a wide range of movies and TV serials such as The Tommyknockers and Escape From L.A. Most recently he has played Hilary Duff’s dad on the hit kids TV series Lizzie McGuire.

with Justin Walker, Clint Howard (The Deputy) & Danielle Weeks

STORY: Strange things are happening near a lake where chemicals are being illegally dumped. Men are being brutally murdered and women are disappearing. Wade (Carradine) runs the factory whose chemicals are being dumped by his lazy employees. One day he arrives at the factory to a mass protest by environmental activists. Even his own daughter is against what the factory is doing. On a date with one of the protesters she goes missing!

Only a rogue ex-government scientist, Dr. Drake (Samms), seems to know what’s going on. According to her the attacks are being carried out by genetically modified prison inmates who’ve escaped from a top secret research centre. Can Wade and the Doctor stop the deadly humanoids from the deep?...

THOUGHTS: When you decide upon watching a movie entitled Humanoids From The Deep you know you’re not tapping into a well of creativity or an undiscovered gem that will challenge you very reasons for being…

This extremely dumb movie was pretty entertaining by my standards. Although, sadly a little shy of going for the comedy jugular which tacky the title might suggest. This movie has been re-made a couple of times under the careful eye of b-movie god Roger Corman. This, the most recent adaptation has a few things going for it. Firstly, the effects are pretty decent for a cable movie and the soundtrack still sounds pretty decent more than 10 years on. I particularly liked the track that played over the end credits 'I'm All Messed Up On The Inside'!

The wardrobe mistress should, however, be shot! There is absolutely no excuse for dressing Emma Samms in a knee length, fungus green padded coat with an elasticated waist! She may have been horrible in Dynasty, but that coat with was just too much for one low down soap opera queen to suffer!

There were a few great lines too, one of my particular favourites was uttered by the Deputy:

Deputy: “There’s a regular Al Bundy on the loose!”

Co-worker: “Ummm… don’t you mean Ted Bundy?”

I don’t know how Emma Samms kept her face straight when she explained how the prison inmates had had their DNA spliced with salmons! The movie degraded into an Alien clone about half way though with a cave where the women were being used as husks for mutant babies, the rip-off was completed with a few chest-buster scenes, favourited by far too many low down sci-fi horror movies since the late 70’s. All-in-all it was pretty enjoyable and not a bad way to waste an evening.

CAN I BUY IT? It has been available on DVD, but it's now deleted. You can pick it up dirt cheap in the UK still, but others may have more difficulty. I managed to catch it on Zone Horror, the home of crappy scary movies in the UK.