Humanoids from the Deep (1980, Barbara Peeters)

FINALLY, the long out of print horror classic Humanoids from the Deep has been re-released by my current favorite company Shout! Factory .  Originally released on DVD in 1999, this film has been out of print for several years but can now be had again finally, on both DVD and Blu-Ray.  I have seen many of Roger Corman's exploitation classics and Humanoids was one that I knew would be right up my alley.  Not only were the Humanoids designed by makeup FX wizard Rob (The Thing) Bottin, but it starred the great Vic Morrow right around the time he started making cheesy Italian films for Enzo Castellari and only two years before his tragic death on the set of Twilight Zone: The Movie.

Humanoids from the Deep is as descriptive a title as it comes for an 80s horror/creature film.  The film is about mutant creatures who live in the water and eventually come on land looking for human women to breed with.  After a suspicious explosion occurs in the water, local fisherman Jim (Doug McClure) suspects something is not right in the town of Noyo, where he lives.  After some dead dogs are discovered, another local fisherman, Hank Slattery (Morrow) accuses Native American Johnny Eagle (Anthony Penya) of the killings.  Johnny opposes the fish canning company Canco, who wants to build in the area, and whom Slattery is in favor of.  They soon find that they have a bigger problem on their hands when the Humanoids start killing people and raping women.

Humanoids from the Deep was one of few films I have seen that actually lived up to the hype I created for it from wanting to see it for so long.  The film had plenty of gory killings, slimy badass monsters and plenty of women losing their bathing suits.  Morrow does a phenomenal job of playing the town jerk, not too far off from his racist asshole role in the Twilight Zone movie.  The rest of the acting (save some of the Humanoid fodder) is surprisingly accomplished and doesn't scream the low budget that some of Corman's other pictures do.  Speaking of budget, nothing here seems ridiculously cheap or cheesy, especially the monsters who kick all kind of ass.  If you're looking for a monster movie with lots of gore and T &A, Humanoids from the Deep is the film for you!

RATING:  8/10