31 Days of Halloween: Deep Star Six (1989)
When people say the name “Sean Cunningham” people immediately go to Friday the 13th. That shouldn’t be a surprise since Cunningham has been so connected to that franchise it’s easy to forget that he made other movies. He has clung to the franchise for years to the point where he’s fought to keep the rights after the copyrights reverted back to Victor Miller, the guy who wrote the original screenplay. Which, fuck you Sean Cunningham, stop blocking Victor Miller’s creators rights so we can get new Friday the 13th stuff again.
Anyway, enough with the soap box, let’s talk about a somewhat different Sean Cunningham film, 1989’s Deep Star Six. The movie came out at the end of a decade of clones and rip-offs of Ridley Scott’s Alien. People also say this movie is derivative of James Cameron’s own undersea epic, The Abyss, that came out that same year. However, Deep Star Six beat Cameron’s opus by about eight months, but it was totally made to beat other movies to the punch, so calling it a derivative piece of work is fair.
Deep Star Six follows the crew of an undersea nuclear base that accidentally open an ancient cavern unleashing a massive crab monster that proceeds to fuck up their day. The movie is an odd blend of the claustrophobic sci-fi of Alien combined with Cold War paranoia and a Kaiju movie.. I guess? Oh, it also star Miguel Ferrer, you know the OPC businessman who gets Robocop green lit in Robocop? The rest of the cast is a veritable who’s who of who’s that, in that you might not recognize their names but you’ve totally seen their faces in a litany of low budget movies.
The reason to watch this movie is for the amazing monster effects. The creature was made by Chris Walas and later tweaked by Mark Shostrom. Walas created the creatures in Gremlins. Then you have Shostrom who has 3 Nightmare on Elm Streets, 2 Phantasms, on top of so many hit TV shows like the X-Files and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. You’re in very good hands.
Still, despite the great special effects this movie tries hard to be a thrilling but it hasn’t aged very well and so it comes off goofy. The characters, despite working at an undersea nuclear base, are all dressed like grubby extras that would look more at home as extras in a movie that takes place in a road-side diner. This look for the characters was obviously cribbed from Alien, but in defense of the crew of the Nostromo, they were basically space truckers anyway. This esthetic choice for Deep Star Six, however, leaves you wondering who the fuck let these goofballs in charge of a nuclear base.
Also can we talk about how utterly stupid an idea it is having a nuclear base on the ocean floor? Is that even practical? I’m not an expert on nuclear weapons or anything but this seems like a bad idea. Not because it would be dangerous, but because it would be ineffectual as this cute YouTube video I found explains:
I suspect trying to launch nuclear weapons from the bottom of the ocean wouldn’t work very well either.
However, like I said above, this movie was rushed through to beat a lot of much better underwater sci-fi movies that were slated to be released that year. It wasn’t like Cunningham was looking to make an intelligent undersea movie, he just wanted to be the first.
The combination of a stupid plot and great monster effects make for a fun watch. Deep Star Six isn’t high art by any means, but it’s enjoyable. Check it out. You can find it on DVD and Blu-Ray and wherever you can guy digital releases as well. It’s not hard to come by and it comes at a low price point so it’s worth checking out.
