Movie Review: "Creatures from the Abyss" (1994)

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Movie: "Creatures from the Abyss"
Director: Massimiliano Cerchi
Year: 1994
Rating: R
Running Time: 1 hour, 26 minutes

A group of friends boating off the coast of Miami run out of gas and get caught in a storm. Stranded, they come across what appears to be an abandoned yacht.  On that yacht, they find the remains of a biological research facility, some rare prehistoric fish in jars, and a barely coherent scientist. They stay on the yacht in order to keep out of the storm and stay safe. What they don't know is the scientist isn't the only one on the boat. Also, some of the fish weren't dead, and not only that, but they are amphibious, sex crazed, killer mutant fish ready to unleash their terror on the unsuspecting group of friends. 

"Creatures of the Abyss," aka "Plankton," was originally made in 1994 but released in 2000. Let us tell you, the 1994 in this movie shows, and how. It is a cheesy, low budget, schlock horror film with some terrible voice dubbing. And we mean terrible voice dubbing. As bad as it is, this adds some unintentional humor right off the bat. The plot is pretty outrageous and the acting is outright terrible. The actions of the characters within the film make little to no sense and yet they do them anyway. The scientist is a superfluous character and adds nothing to the film except a single one-line joke late in the film. All that being said, it is still a fairly entertaining movie, albeit random, that has some good comedic elements. It's so bad, and this just adds to how fun this movie can actually be. It's less scary and more disgusting. The fabricated fish look pretty decent, and there are a few good gross-out scenes and a couple of gory scenes as well, which make it entertaining to watch for horror movie month. There are some terrible computer graphics here and there. And finally, we get to see some outrageously over the top puppet work and stop-motion animation sprinkled throughout the movie. With how ominous the movie tries to be in the horror genre, the soundtrack doesn't fit, but is still another fun element, given its electro-pop synthesizer beats and overly dramatic tones.

Overall, this is a cheesy throwback movie but isn't scary at all and you see the ending coming a mile away. This still doesn't take away from its entertainment factor, though, which is the most important aspect of any film.

My Rating: 6/10
BigJ's Rating: 6/10
IMDB's Rating: 4.5/10
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: ---%
Do we recommend this movie: Sure, why not?
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One year ago, we were watching: "The Devil's Backbone"