Entry 126: Endless Descent (AKA The Rift-1989)

Endless Descent (AKA The Rift-1989)

Dir: Juan Piquer Simon

"You can't hold your breath and scream at the same time."

 

Jack Scalia (Fear City, TV's Dallas) stars as the improbably named (and even more improbably coifed-seriously, this guy has an 80's lion's-mane pompadour that would make Overboard-era Kurt Russel green with envy) Wick Hayes, a genius nautical engineer.  When an experimental submarine he helped design disappears on its maiden voyage, Wick is strong-armed by the government into joining the crew of another submarine dispatched to recover its black box.  The crew of stereotypes Wick accompanies includes a take-no-shit southerner captain (R. Lee Ermey, Full Metal Jacket, the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake), a jive-talking comic relief black guy (John Toles-Bey, Trespass, Waterworld) a sexy-but-frigid woman (Ely Pouget from the underrated Death Machine), a snooty Frenchman (Emilio Linder, Pieces, Monster Dog), Wick's ex-wife (soap actress Deborah Adair) and...um...Ray Wise (Robocop, appearing here the same year he first played Leland Palmer on Twin Peaks).  Arriving at the last known location of the previous sub, the crew must deal with mutated, enlarged algae and a gigantic, murderous cephalopod before they discover a naturally-pressurized underwater cave.  Within the cave, they discover giant, mutated fish, aborted human/amphibian hybrid fetuses and giant brain-like mollusks that consume human flesh.  It turns out that the first sub was involved in illegal government weapons testing, and (in a very Alien-inspired subplot) that the current crew has a traitor in their midst ordered to ensure they don't return to report their findings...I did mention Ray Wise was in the cast, right?  Oh yeah, the algae they encountered earlier is also capable of spreading a fungal virus to any humans who touch it (think Stephen King in Creepshow).  Can Scalia and Adair defeat Wise, avoid the fungus, escape to the surface AND rekindle their romance?  I wouldn't bet against it!

Endless Descent was the last of the cycle of underwater monster movies unleashed in 1989, a cycle that also included The Abyss, Deepstar Six, Corman's Lords of the Deep and Leviathan.  Actually, Leviathan producer Dino De Laurentiis also backed this much lower-budgeted flick on the side (he's uncredited).  It's a C-movie, to be sure, but it IS a lot of fun.  The sets are cheap-looking, but the creature effects (provided by folks who'd worked on Alien and The NeverEnding Story) are surprisingly decent and the gore is explicit and plentiful (including a GREAT half-decapitation).  The performances are mostly just serviceable, but Scalia acquits himself well as an action hero (even if you never QUITE buy him as a savant-like engineer) and Wise gets to indulge in some joyous scenery-chewing once he's revealed as the villain.  Director Simon also made the amazing slasher flick Pieces and legendary, MST3K-fodder E.T. knockoff Extraterrestrial Visitors (AKA Pod People).  On a technical level, this is probably his best film, though it isn't QUITE as much fun to watch as Pieces.

Hey, I know I don't post this quite as often as I used to, but I'm working on it!  I WILL be back in three days for my 2-year anniversary entry, which will probably be pretty much like every other entry.