Underwater Creature Features Part I: Tentacled and Lovecraftian Monsters

One of my favorite things is a creature feature, and my favorite kind of creature feature is the underwater kind of creature feature, whether the creatures be sharks, crocs/gators, or Lovecraftian monstrosities. Below is a list of movies that scratch that my deep sea creature feature itch. This will be an ongoing series in several parts. In this first entry, I'll examine three more ambiguous monster movies; these feature creatures that seemingly take their inspiration from Lovecraft's tentacled gods of the deep. Parts II & III will cover sharks and reptiles, and Part IV will be about books.

Deep Rising

Deep Rising is one of my all-time favorite movies; I could probably put on a one woman performance of the whole thing. The plot revolves around a stranded cruise ship - most of its guests are killed in the opening scenes as a giant, tentacle-y creature crashes a lavish party. (Luckily for us, survivors include Famke Janssen.) Soon the rest of our heroes (and villains) arrive in the form of a crew of mercenary thieves (which includes the talented Djimon Hounsou and my personal favorite, Jason Flemyng) and their unwilling escorts (Treat Williams and Kevin J. O'Connor). All hell soon breaks loose as mercenaries and innocents alike must band together to make it off the ship without becoming monster food. Rob Bottin (Carpenter's The Thing) worked on the effects here, so you know you're in for a treat.

Underwater

The most recent movie on this list, Underwater is another one of my absolute favorites. You know how it is when you watch a movie and you like it so much that even after it's over, you're on a high from it, a movie-high? That's how it was with Underwater for me. The movie stars Kristen Stewart as a worker on an underwater drilling station. Surviving an accident that kills most of their coworkers and makes their base uninhabitable, Stewart and our other heroes (including Vincent Cassel and T.J. Miller) have to attempt to walk across the ocean floor in an attempt to reach safety. This situation is intense enough, but unfortunately for them, they're not alone. Some majorly Lovecraftian beasties are down there with them, and they don't plan on letting anyone escape their grasps. These creatures are another highlight of the film, so see this one on a big screen if you can.

Leviathan

Leviathan is a campy classic starring Robocop himself, Peter Weller, as the head of an underwater mining operation being taken over by a mutating monster. This one can get a bit cheesy but is, for the most part, gooey underwater fun, with a good cast rounded out by the fantastic Ernie Hudson, the always creepy Meg Foster, and other fan favorites (Daniel Stern in particular is great as resident douche bag, "Sixpack"). I enjoy Leviathan a lot more than the same year's Deep Star 6, although that one too is worth a watch.

Check back for Part II soon!