Nancy Everhard

(In French, On Cable TV, June 2020) There were at least three high-profile underwater action/SF films released in 1989, and while DeepStar Six is certainly not the worst of them, it has to settle for a distant second place after The Abyss, beating out Leviathan. Taking its cues from Alien, this film takes us to an underwater research station with eleven cannon fodder candidates, as they free a monstrous sea creature that seems to have a persona vendetta against all of them. Considering its medium budget, DeepStar Six does better than you’d expect in evoking an atmosphere of blue-collar workers stuck in a hostile environment: the sets are reasonably credible, and the film does feature plenty of underwater sequences. The monster is also decently handled by director-producer Sean S. Cunningham (of Friday the 13^th fame) and some of the more horrific sequences are handled with a veteran director’s competence. It does sport an interesting cast if you’re into character actors and/or attractive actresses, with Nancy Everhard, Nia Peeples and the distinctive Miguel Ferrer as part of the ensemble cast. DeepStar Six would be far better remembered today if The Abyss hadn’t existed because the comparison only highlights just how limply DeepStar Six handles promising elements. This is, after all, a film with a prehistoric undersea monster, traitorous humans, hard-shell diving suits, underwater fights and nuclear weapons—it should be much, much better than it is. But it’s not—it’s merely watchable, perhaps even entertaining if you’re hankering for what it has to offer. But it will always be the also-ran.