Entry Twenty-Three: Leviathan (1989)

Leviathan (1989)

Dir: George P. Cosmatos

"How long can you hold your breath?"

1989 was one of those strange years when Hollywood picks a theme out of a hat and all of the studios rush to beat each other to the theatre with their entry.  In '89, the theme was "underwater alien/monster" movies; in addition to this, we got James Cameron's The Abyss, Sean Cunningham's Deepstar Six, Corman's Lords of the Deep and the De Laurentiis production Endless Descent.  Cameron's picture is definitely the prestige winner, but I think Leviathan might be my favorite.

A crew of undersea miners led by Beck (Peter Weller, Robocop, Naked Lunch) discovers the wreck of the titular Russian freighter and brings several salvage artifacts aboard their rig, including a flask of what seems to be vodka.  After trouble-making discipline case Six-Pack (Daniel Stern, CHUD, Home Alone) and perky Bridget (Lisa Eilbacher, Beverley Hills Cop) drink the liquid, they both come down with flu-like symptoms.  Bridget kills herself after she witnesses Six-Pack mutate into a fish-like monster.  Beck and Doc (Richard Crenna, the Rambo trilogy) discover that the Soviets had intentionally torpedoed Leviathan after a botched biological weapon experiment.  When the monster begins killing/absorbing the rest of the crew, Doc jettisons the life pods to prevent the creature from reaching the surface and corporate stooge Martin (Meg Foster, Masters of the Universe, They Live) refuses to send a rescue mission for fear of bad PR causing company stock to drop.  It's up to Beck, along with fellow survivors Willie (Amanda Pays, TV's Max Headroom and The Flash) and Jones (Ernie Hudson, The Human Tornado, Ghostbusters) to find a way off of the mining station while evading the seemingly unstoppable monster.
  
Leviathan is most assuredly a B-movie that, by virtue of coming along at the right time, was graced with an A budget.  It's fantastic cast is a veritable who's-who of 80's character actors, it's got great, goopy effects by Stan Winston and production design by Ron Cobb (Alien, Aliens).  It's script is HIGHLY derivative; it's nearly a scene-by-scene rewrite of John Carpenter's remake of The Thing, with the evil corporation from Alien thrown in.  This is surprising, since it was written by David Webb Peoples, who has a mostly sterling track record (Blade Runner, The Blood of Heroes, Unforgiven, 12 Monkeys).  The biggest problem with the film, however, is director Cosmatos (Rambo: First Blood, Part 2, Cobra, Tombstone).  Both Ridley Scott with Alien and John Carpenter with The Thing were able to cannily use pacing, lighting and carefully-framed camerawork to create a real sense of tension, dread, isolation and claustrophobia in their respective films.  Cosmatos does nothing of the kind here; his point-and-shoot, workmanlike direction robs the film of menace, everything is just a bit too bright and he can't QUITE seem to figure out how to light/frame Winston's effects to make them not look rubbery.  Still, there's a lot of pleasure to be had from the cast, the gross-out effects and Peeple's slightly off-kilter dialogue (Weller's character often speaks like a burned-out hippie, saying "man" and "bummer" a lot).  Did I mention the movie ends with Weller punching a woman in the face?  "Say 'Ah!' motherfucker!"