Leviathan

The second of 1989’s major underwater sci-fi pictures that were rushed into theaters before James Cameron’s The Abyss, this modest-budget production from Dino De Laurentiis's nephews is even more of a shameless Alien rip-off than Sean S. Cunningham’s DeepStar Six (released two months prior). The story, basically The Thing Underwater, centers on a group of unionized deep-sea miners working for a heartless, money-grubbing corporation far from above the ocean surface. After the rag-tag crew discovers a sunken Russian ship, they accidentally bring aboard something that could spell doom for them all. Unlike the cheap DeepStar, and the many other ultra-low-budget underwater movies of this year (The Evil Below, Lords of the Deep, and The Rift), Leviathan boasts a solid B-list cast and an A-list above-the-line creative team. George P. Cosmatos (Rambo: First Blood Part II) directs a script by David Peoples (Blade Runner) and Jeb Stuart (Die Hard), with cinematography by Alex Thomson (Excalibur), music by Jerry Goldsmith (Patton), production design by Ron Cobb (Alien), and creature effects from Stan Winston (Predator).  [Winston, who did masterful work on The Terminator and Aliens, turned down his long-time collaborator Cameron’s offer to design the NTI creatures for The Abyss.]

Yet with all that pedigreed talent, the resulting picture is little more than a rehash of scenes from superior pictures, as well as a dozen lesser sci-fi monster movies set in confined locations. Still, the cast does its best to make this at least an enjoyable bad movie. Peter Weller (Robocop), Richard Crenna (Wait Until Dark), and Ernie Hudson (Ghostbusters) head up a strong ensemble where each actor plays a distinctive if clichéd role. Amanda Pays (Max Headroom), Lisa Eilbacher (Beverly Hills Cop), Michael Carmine (*batteries not included), and Hector Elizondo (The Flamingo Kid) each play folks we want to spend time with—while Daniel Stern (Diner) plays a guy we want to get killed off early.

The movie starts out better than it ends up, with a third act that gets progressively less and less suspenseful and interesting as it builds to the universally unsatisfying conclusion all the 1989 underwater suspense pictures had. At least this one has a pretty good crowd-pleaser line from Hudson.