I was so pissed off after watching Deep Star Six that I didn’t watch any movies dealing with the ocean for a while. That meant I missed seeing The Abyss until it was rereleased in theaters in the special extended edition (and I did so sort of grudgingly, but am now glad I did see the film on the big screen). This also means I skipped out on seeing Leviathan, now available on Blu-ray through Shout Factory. 1989 was a year heavy with underwater action/horror/sci-fi stuff, and Deep Star Six really did the industry no favors.
Starting off with an underwater mining operations fwith three days left in a 90 day shift we see Peter Weller’s Steven Beck working the command center. Look for a cameo by Luxor Jr. During a crisis with one of the miners having difficulty breathing in their suit we are introduced to Daniel Stern as “Six Pack”, Ernie Hudson as Jones, Amanda Pays as “Willie” and Richard Crenna’s “Doc” among a few other actors you may recognize by face. I was surprised at the star power on display here.
What follows is about 15 minutes of “slice of life” for the small crew, then things start picking up when one of the crew goes missing. Turns out he isn’t missing so much as having discovered a sunken Soviet ship. The safe is recovered and information comes to light that serves as foreshadowing. So yes, it takes about 30 minutes to fully get going with the plot. And the ship’s name is Leviathan.
The first real “jump” moment comes at the hour mark. You have been warned.
I wish I had skipped Deep Star Six and watched Leviathan instead. It is infinitely more enjoyable. While it isn’t distinctive enough to be a notable film, borrowing too much from other recent (at the time) stories, there is still enough in Leviathan to praise. It’s a decent film and I’m glad I got to see it.
Special features are also good. There is a fantastic featurette interviewing three of the people from Stan Winston’s special effect shop talking about the making of Leviathan as well as the industry in general. This is easily one of the more interesting featurettes that I have seen in a long time. There are a couple of other ones interviewing a couple of actors and they are good too. No audio commentary.
Leviathan isn’t a “big” movie and it doesn’t have the highest of production values but it is still a decent entry in the underwater horror sub-genre.