ALIEN FROM THE ABYSS (1989)
Label: Severin Films
Region Code: A
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 91 Minutes 42 Seconds
Audio: English or Italian DTS-HD MA Mono 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Fullscreen (1.33:1)
Director: Antonio Margheriti
Cast: Charles Napier, Luciano Pigozzi, Marina Guilia Cavalli, Robert Marius
Alien from the Abyss (1989) aka Alien from the Deep is a late-80s sci-fi actioner from the prolific Italian exploitation director Antonio Margheriti (Battle of the Worlds). A quick glance at the artwork will tell you that this is another in a long (long!) line of 80's Italian Alien knock-offs but it's been thrown into the Magheriti genre meat-grinder with a few scoops of action, a double-dose of jungle adventure and some schlocky alien-creature thrills that makes for a breezy and fine-tuned link of Italian sci-fi trash sausage.
Environmental activists Jane (Marina Guilia Cavalli) and cameraman Lee (Robert Marius) book passage on a freighter to a remote island to document and expose the environmentally unfriendly E-Chem Corporation who are dumping toxic waste into an active volcano. The E-Chem facility is overseen by the overly angry Colonel Kovacks (Charles Napier, Maniac Cop 2) and an army of mercenaries whom patrol the island and scare off would-be visitors. A scientist at the facility Dr. Geoffrey (Luciano Pigozzi, Blood & Black Lace) warns Kovacks that the mixture of molten lava and toxic waste is sending a plume of pure energy into outer space. At about the same time they're tracking a fireball that falls from the sky into the ocean. Whatever could it be? Perhaps an enormous alien-creature-robot with a giant black lobster claw, maybe?
The environmentalists get the incriminating footage they seek but find themselves on the run from the seething Kovacks and his bumbling mercs. Lee is taken prisoner inside the facility and Jane escapes by hiding in a helicopter and in a rather awesome scene she jumps from the helicopter in slow-motion (of course) and into the river below, its a terrific stunt. She continues through the jungle pursued by armed mercs who of course can't shoot for shit, they're worse than Stormtroopers. Along the way she encounters a gun wielding snake hunter named Bob (Daniel Bosch) who definitely adds a fun Romancing the Stone (1984) flavor to the proceeding. They take cover in a cave where venomous snakes aide their escape by taking out the mercs. The two lay up in Bob's jungle shack and hatch a scheme to rescue poor Lee from the E-Chem facility; which is made more difficult by the arrival of the gigantic alien-creature-robot with a huge freaking black lobster claw that erupts from the ground Tremors-style and snatches victims, crushing them with it's giant claw but more often than not only disfiguring them with some nasty green secretion that seems to spread some sort of infection. It seems that perhaps the victims are mutating but it's not quite clear as the film didn't really carry through with that idea.
The film is a cheapie and the effects are low-rent but I thought the creature design was pretty awesome all things considered, looking to have been constructed using leftover lengths of plastic tubing according to poorly xeroxed H.R. Giger instructions. That enormous claw in not unlike the giant ape hand in King Kong Lives (1986) in it's utterly schlocky awesomeness, for a long time it's the only part of the creature you see as it swings into frame from time to time. It sucks that the creature doesn't make an appearance till nearly an hour into it but there's enough gun play, explosions and jungle chases to keep the momentum moving forward till the creature arrives. While the consensus seems to be that this late-period Margheriti film is not one of his better ventures I think it's mighty entertaining film from start to finish. The acting is pure b-movie badness but it's cheesily entertaining and Daniel Bosch as the gun toting "snake-squeezer" is a total scene stealer. A lot of the film doesn't make sense if you think about it, so just don't think about (duh), but it's an action-packed sci-fi romp, it doesn't need to make logical sense. It's chock full of ridiculousness, like when our heroine Jane is randomly exposed to the creatures mutating secretion only so we can put her into a decontamination chamber aka The Wet T-Shirt-inator 2000 - there's not plot movement here just the opportunity to strip our star down to her wet t-shirt. You just cannot NOT enjoy this kind of silliness, at least I can't, not when you get tons of action, exploding miniatures, flesh-melting gore, and an almost kaiju-sized creature fucking shit up!
Audio/Video: Alien From the Abyss arrives on region-free Blu-ray from Severin Films, presented in 1080p HD framed in the original 1.33:1. aspect ratio, scanned in 4K from the OCN, with the Alien from the Deep title card. It's quite significant upgrade over the 2011 One 7 Movies DVD. The source is in great shape with only a few small scratched and faint vertical lines popping up, grain looks organic, color and skin tones look natural, and black levels are solid. Depth, contrast and clarity are also much improved over the previous DVD. Audio comes by way of English or Italian DTS-HD MA Mono 1.0 with Optional English Subtitles. It's not gonna blow you away with its mono-channel glory but its solid; dialogue, score and effects are well-balanced, though there are a couple of scenes with some slight warble and muffling, but while annoying its never ruinous. The One 7 Movies DVD had the same issue, so it might be baked into the source. Unlike the One 7 Movies release the English track comes with English subtitles, which I appreciated.
On top of the much improved A/V Severin add some terrific new extras, all of them in Italian with English subtitles. We start off the 13-min From The Center Of The Earth – Interview With Edoardo Margheriti, the son of the director talks about shooting the film hurriedly, his father not being happy with the alien creature design, but also what he liked about the flick. He also gets into his father's earlier sci-fi output, and his preferred way of shooting special effects in-camera as opposed to miniatures and post-production effects.
The disc also includes the North American premiere of the 2013 documentary The Outsider The Cinema of Antonio Margheriti which runs 62-min and covers Margheriti's entire career with some great interviews with critics, historians, producers, directors and stars who worked with him and/or admired his work, as well as several archival interviews with the late director, plus the 14-min Son Of The Outsider – Interview With The Outsider Director Edoardo Margheriti, and a 3-min Trailer for the film with the Alien from the Deep title. The single-disc release arrives in a black keepcase with a single-sided sleeve of artwork, the same key art is featured on the disc.
Special Features:
- From The Center Of The Earth – Interview With Edoardo Margheriti (12:52)
- The Outsider – The Cinema of Antonio Margheriti (61:32)
- Son Of The Outsider – Interview With The Outsider Director Edoardo Margheriti (13:31)
- Trailer (2:45)
Great cinema it ain't but an action-packed b-movie fromage of the highest caliber is certainly is, Margheriti amps up the entertainment value with some fun set pieces, plenty of low-budget action, exploding miniatures and some slimy bio-mechanical gore. It's definitely cheese but it's the kind of cheese that goes great with a few cold beers and nachos, so grab some brewskies and settle in for some schlocky sci-fi awesomeness. Severin's Blu-ray looks terrific and is loaded with extras, this is a must-own for any fan of schlocky Italian creature features.
Screenshots from the Severin Films Blu-ray:
Extras:
