Featured Creature: The one that got a review of the soundtrack before the movie

 

Title: Deep Rising aka Octalus

What Year?: 1996 (filming)/ 1998 (release)

Classification: Mashup/ Anachronistic Outlier

Rating: That’s Good! (4/4)

 

In the course of my reviews, one thing that hasn’t happened often is the sense of recovering old territory. I normally have no trouble deciding whether something is of enough interest to review within what I’m working on at any given time. Once I have made that decision, I have almost always either set it aside or come back to it when my needs have changed enough to make it relevant. With this review, effectively a runoff from my Halloween lineup, I have finally reached a movie that I have covered before without finishing what I had to say, simply because I previously covered it outside of any of my review features. Now it’s time for the rematch, and this one definitely deserves another look, because as I said before, it’s awesome. Here is Deep Rising, a movie that got a post from me just for its soundtrack.

Our story begins with a text crawl about the unexplored depths of the ocean (except by the actual Captain Piccard), and the many ships lost at sea, followed by a menacing POV that moves from wrecks on the ocean floor to a flashy cruise ship. In short order we’re introduced to a rogues’ gallery of characters on the cruise ship and a junky ship on course to intercept, including a businessman named Canton, a temptress named Trillian, a tramp captain named Finnegan and a band of mercenaries who are taxing his no-questions-asked policy. We soon learn that the mercenaries are out to loot and sink it, but their own ship is heavily damaged in the process, and the cruise ship is deserted apart from Trillian, even though the lifeboats are still in place. After several of the mercs disappear, the businessman gives them the story: The ship has been invaded by predatory worms called Ottoia (otherwise believed to be 500 million years old and 6 inches long, which was big for the time) from 8 miles under the sea (about a mile deeper than the Marianas Trench, allegedly). To get out alive, Finnegan must stay one step ahead of the ravenous creatures on the already sinking ship. But the monsters may be more than the sum of their parts, and some of the rogues still have plans of their own!

Deep Rising was a 1998 release from Disney affiliate Hollywood Pictures, written and directed by Stephen Sommers. The film was shot in 1996, but received a delayed release for effects and other post-production work. The film starred Treat Williams (see Dead Heat) as Finnegan and Famke Jansen as Trillian, with Kevin J. O’Connor as comic relief Joey. The lead roles were reportedly offered to Harrison Ford and Claire Forlani (see Mystery Men), but only Forlani accepted before backing out prior to filming. The supporting cast included Wes Studi (also Mystery Men?), Cliff Curtis (The Meg) and Djimon Honsou (Amistad???) as the mercenaries. Creature effects were provided by Rob Bottin and ILM, while Jerry Goldsmith composed the soundtrack. The movie was an unquestioned commercial failure, earning a box office of $11.2 million against a $45M budget. Roger Ebert dismissed the film as “an Alien clone with a fresh paint job”, also noting possibly coincidental similarities to the films Anaconda and Hard Rain. Sommers directed The Mummy the following year, featuring O’Connor; 1999 also saw Curtis appear in the similar film Virus. Jerry Goldsmith continued to compose to the time of his death, with his last credit being for Looney Tunes Back In Action in 2003.

For my personal experiences, the real home truth here is that in my experience, reviewing my favorites rarely if ever works. Ask me to put together a “best” list, even from the cult-movie category, and it would really be downright boring (though at least Dawn of the Dead would be right at the top). It’s the obscure and notorious movies that suit my purposes on this blog. For this particular movie, I have known it from of old, from TV to VHS to the heavily-watched Blu Ray 2-pack I picked up the last time I was on the route to my first job. Yet, even a literal bomb like this feels a bit too “mainstream” by my standards, unprofitable, criticized and controversial but by no means neglected, let alone forgotten. When I chose to review the soundtrack, it very much reflected my priorities. I wanted to honor a composer I greatly admire; I felt no comparable need to praise a film that’s  already more popular and well-regarded than anyone could have dreamed when it came out. Now that I am coming back to it, I’m still not sure how far I can go without simply repeating what others have said many times over.

If there’s one thing I can say about this film, it’s that it’s all about small details. From the start, it’s a character-driven story with enough patience to push its set pieces back to the halfway mark. In the process, we learn the mannerisms and foibles of the rogues, especially Finnegan and Joey. (Studi’s hard-edged merc is the possibly underrated standout.) As things do get moving, the established atmosphere of dark humor, anxiety and dread continues to build through any number of little things: A dropped shoe; an incongruous bit of muzak, recapitulated later; a blast of steam; a jittery flashlight beam; a fatefully ejected clip; not to mention any number of one-liners. (My favorite: “If the hull’s impregnable, why are my feet wet?”) This approach is further reflected in the monster, beginning with old-school fleeting glimpses and building up  to the closeup of the eye of the central beast (I’m sure based on the ethereal Vampiroteuthis), which seems to function like the heart of a man o’war to the colonial tentacles that are the worms.

With that said, I still find it hard to give a further explanation of the film’s strengths, or for that matter its weaknesses. The most obvious issues lie in the wonky pacing of the first half, which as noted is fairly balanced against strong dialogue. Even here, there are moments of pure adrenaline, especially when the mercenaries climb their way onto the ship. It would also be easy to take issue with the pseudoscientific exposition, as I have in fun; in fact, I find it audacious enough to allow that it is informed exaggeration and willful hokum rather than the usual Hollywood laziness. Once the worms appear, the story is literally running and gunning, with an intriguing balance between the creatures and their prey. The terrifyingly rendered worms can be destroyed, and in some cases distracted, but once one appears, there are always more, pursuing until they catch their prey or encounter an obstacle they can’t tear through. It all keeps things running smoothly up to the finale, which I have come to find oddly awkward over time. It’s every bit as fun as it’s meant to be as the remaining protagonists race a jet ski through the flooded corridors while the ship goes up like a mesquite log soaked in gasoline and stuffed with gunpowder (I can’t help thinking Forlani could have done this better than Jansen), but it doesn’t quite fit with what is on the whole a subtle and surprisingly serious movie.

That leaves the “one scene”, and that in itself is exactly why movies I like this much are rarely suitable for my reviews. Out of wealth of material, the one that recommended itself independent of any other point I would want to make is just after the crew boards the cruise ship. They’re still together with Finnegan along as they burst into the casino, an environment already introduced at the opening of the movie. It’s a grim and foreboding scene, all the more so after seeing it in vibrant life, with tables overturned, chairs smashed and money, cards and chips scattered heedlessly. Even the actual mercenaries are too unnerved to gather the cash and go. As they survey the room warily, there’s a sudden crash, and they all open fire with their odd mini-Gatling guns. Finnegan finally calms them down enough to see that it’s just a light that fell from the ceiling. They are all superficially cheerful with relief… which is when at least two of them start shooting again. It’s a nuanced, amusing sequence that doesn’t break the mood of the story, and like every really good example, it represents what the movie does right rather than what could have been.

In closing, I truly have nothing more to add, unless it’s repeating what I said the first time I posted about this movie. Deep Rising is a truly definitive example of a movie that came out either too early or too late, and as such exactly what I mean by an Anachronistic Outlier. It has a distinctly “old-school” feel, even for when it came out, yet like many such films, it still anticipates developments that were well ahead, including the “modern” superhero movie. As I also discussed in detail, it was ultimately a film that the studio “system” wasn’t able or willing to market. The final result is a mirror image of the ill-fated ship: Founded in misjudgment, hopelessly bankrupt, and grandiose even in its death. Maybe it never stood a chance in its own time, but it has stood the test of time better than any number of by-the-numbers blockbusters. That would be enough to get my respect even if I didn’t already love it.