There has to be a reason that a humanoid creature evolved so quickly.
Ever since I changed jobs and got my weekends off, one of my greatest joys has been to spend my Saturday nights watching terrible, terrible movies hosted by the good folks at Atomic Age Cinema. I've even managed to strike up a rapport with some of them thanks to the wellspring of bad movie knowledge at my disposal (finally, my work with the Cherry Hill Experiment pays off!), which has resulted in a few trades. I let Baron Mardi borrow a couple things from my collection (The Executioner and the Alamo Drafthouse edition of the 42nd Street Forever series) and in turn he lent me the original Humanoids from the Deep, which was produced by Roger Corman's New World Pictures in 1980. I'd call that a pretty even trade.
For those not in the know, Humanoids from the Deep is a rather notorious film (after all, it's about a species of mutant fish that walk on two legs and attack a coastal community, savagely killing the men and brutally raping the women), so I'm not surprised that it's been long out of print on DVD, but that will soon change now that Shout! Factory has acquired to rights to the New World catalog. Sure, that means perennials like Death Race 2000, Piranha (which would go well on a double feature with this) and Rock 'n' Roll High School will get trotted out again, but Shout! Factory is also keen to bring more dubious efforts like Humanoids, Galaxy of Terror and Forbidden World to home video, to the delight of some and the disgust of others.
Apparently seeking to head off criticism from feminist groups, Corman hired a woman, Barbara Peeters, to direct the film, but that didn't do much to prevent the uproar that it met upon its release. In fact, it's still pretty strong stuff today, but that's because the film, which just barely comes in at 80 minutes, has no time to waste on niceties. For example, the first character to die is the young son of a fishing boat captain, and he's soon joined by everyone else on board when the boat blows up (the first of many things that explode three times). Next on the victim parade is the main character's dog, which is discovered on the beach at the end of a trail of slime. Only then do the creatures kill their first horny teen and rape his buxom girlfriend. And if you're worried that that assault is so brief, there's another one just around the corner a few minutes later. Then there's the climax, which takes place during the community's annual Salmon Festival, which is beset by dozens of Rob Bottin's slimy creatures. If the monster rape aficionados haven't had their fill by the time that's over, then there's no help for them.
It occurs to me that I haven't mentioned any of the actors yet. I should do that. The cast is led by Doug McClure as a fisherman with a loving wife (Cindy Weintraub) and adorable baby who couldn't possibly be put in jeopardy by the creatures at the very end of the film. No, sir. He's joined by Ann Turkel as a scientist who has been conducting genetic research for a not-at-all-sinister company called Canco Inc., which wants to build a cannery in town, Vic Morrow as a bigwig who dominates the local fishing industry, and Anthony Pena as a Native American who wants to block the cannery. But really, who cares about all that cannery business when there are mutant fishmen on the loose, killing and raping? Mutant fishmen!
