Tourists and islanders residing at a nice resort have been randomly disappearing, and local authorities can not seem to figure out how or why. Suddenly, the....the....
Okay. During the seven years that I have been doing this marathon, I have never quit watching any of the flicks that I consciously pick to be featured. 1979's Up from the Depths, which is yet another "natural" horror flick that exists solely because of Jaws' success, came the closest out of any of these to finally breaking me down. Every time that I got up to accomplish something productive for the day, I had to do my absolute damnedest to convince myself to come back to it. I got up to eat macaroni and cheese for lunch (healthy food, how does it work?), grab a prescription for a sick family member, and do a large load of laundry. Each moment could be considered a "distraction" from my reviewing process, but I cared so little about returning to finish this sorry excuse for a production.
Trying to pick out the biggest flaw found during Up from the Depths' running time is like trying to choose which puddle of vomit you wish to lick. Maybe its worst aspect was the extraordinarily lazy and laughable acting or the dialogue that seems like it was written on a bar napkin in the span of four hours. I felt so terrible for top star Sam Bottoms (Apocalypse Now, The Last Picture Show) having to be stuck with such dreadful material and dialogue, but in my opinion, he didn't get the worst end of the stick. Nope, that unfortunate honor belongs to director Charles B. Griffith (a longtime ally and cohort of B-movie giant Roger Corman), who also wrote notable cinematic releases like Death Race 2000 and the original Little Shop of Horrors. According to interviews that were conducted before his passing in 2007, the entire experience of writing, shooting, and finalizing Up from the Depths was a real nightmare, and he felt that Corman gave it to him as punishment (for what I'm not sure). The idea to retool and re-release the flick as a comedy came up as well, but it seems as though the man did not get his wish.
Trying to pick out the biggest flaw found during Up from the Depths' running time is like trying to choose which puddle of vomit you wish to lick. Maybe its worst aspect was the extraordinarily lazy and laughable acting or the dialogue that seems like it was written on a bar napkin in the span of four hours. I felt so terrible for top star Sam Bottoms (Apocalypse Now, The Last Picture Show) having to be stuck with such dreadful material and dialogue, but in my opinion, he didn't get the worst end of the stick. Nope, that unfortunate honor belongs to director Charles B. Griffith (a longtime ally and cohort of B-movie giant Roger Corman), who also wrote notable cinematic releases like Death Race 2000 and the original Little Shop of Horrors. According to interviews that were conducted before his passing in 2007, the entire experience of writing, shooting, and finalizing Up from the Depths was a real nightmare, and he felt that Corman gave it to him as punishment (for what I'm not sure). The idea to retool and re-release the flick as a comedy came up as well, but it seems as though the man did not get his wish.
A very tiny part of me feels rotten for not giving this a proper summation of my thoughts, but seeing how little effort they clearly put into Up from the Depths, I feel that I should return the favor myself by only giving half a shit when discussing it. Aside from the sheer cheapness of the entire thing (this creature's design could have been improved by just having it be a hand puppet ala Lamb Chop), its most interesting fact comes from the revelation that it played on a double bill alongside of David Cronenberg's The Brood. So yes, let this sink in for a bit: a movie that was recently handpicked to be part of the esteemed Criterion Collection was featured alongside of a picture that is currently ranked at 2.6 on the Internet Movie Database. If there was ever the cinematic equivalent of a Minus Five Stars match (shoutout to Bryan Alvarez of F4W), this shamefully awful, boring, tedious piece of crap would be it. A Blu-Ray of the feature is (unfortunately) readily available for purchase from Scream! Factory, and as luck would have it, the film comes packaged with its very loose remake titled Demon of Paradise. And no, I will not be reviewing that aforementioned picture. I think I need a break from ocean-dwelling creatures, thank you very much.
Though I have absolutely no desire to ever revisit this turd again in the foreseeable future, it did get me thinking about something else that came up from the depths. In fact, for tomorrow's entry, the star of said film is thirty stories high, breathing fire, and has its head in the sky......
Though I have absolutely no desire to ever revisit this turd again in the foreseeable future, it did get me thinking about something else that came up from the depths. In fact, for tomorrow's entry, the star of said film is thirty stories high, breathing fire, and has its head in the sky......
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