Monday, October 22, 2012

Humanoids from the Deep (1980)

aka Monster

It's the annual Salmon Festival and hundreds of people are in town to spend money.  But there is conflict brewing as the fishing industry is dying and many of the town folks blame the Native American population, represented in this film by Johnny.

Johnny is against pollution and is fighting against the wishes of a  large company who wants to build a cannery in town.  The towns people believe it will provide jobs in the dying economy but Johnny points out that it will just kill the town sooner since the fish population is dwindling and they'll exhaust it sooner.

Johnny invites a teenage couple to his house for a fish fry, which is the perfect time for the racist fisherman to firebomb Johnny's house. Things go horribly wrong and among the flaming wreckage, the monsters come out and attack the fisherman.  More blame for Johnny!

While Doug McClure tries to figure out what the hell is going on and why people keep disappearing and dying, he meets a scientist who reveals that they've been trying to repopulate the fish colonies by doing genetic experiments on some salmon. Yes, it's always a good idea to genetically mutate something humans are going to consume.

When the salmon are accidentally released into the local waterways near the cannery, they are eaten by other fish who mutate into killer creatures from the sea.  No man or woman is safe, but women are especially unsafe as the mutations want to breed.

When McClure tries to warn local authorities, they don't take him seriously.  How can they?  It's the Salmon Festival! They need tourists to spend their hard earned money to support the towns economy.  Who cares if they die and can't come back next year? Consequently, the creatures attack the carnival and carnage ensues.

The monster costumes are cool - love the days of rubber costumes rather than cgi.  The characters have the typical fashion of this time period, with their down vests and perms.

Watch for the mistake near the end when you can see a stage hand behind merry-go-round with what looks like poster board, fanning smoke towards the scene.  When he sees camera, he stops and walks behind ride.

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