Mike (Clay Rogers), Bobby (Michael Bon), Margareth (Sharon Marino), Dorothy (Laura di Palma), and Julie (Ann Wolf) are as insipid a bunch of horror movie characters as you'll ever see. With Mike representing the only working brain they have among them, they end up taking a motorized raft out into the ocean. However, their gas was left behind, and they are soon stranded out there, while a storm rages. Then they encounter a vast yacht which is part pleasure ship, but mostly a biological laboratory. The air headed group is ultimately terrorized by the marine life on the vessel.
"Creatures from the Abyss" is crude in pretty much every department, including script, acting, and effects. The dialogue is lousy, yet sometimes very funny in its lousiness; one of the gals comments that the fish on display "have an evil expression". You won't care about the characters, and will thus likely enjoy seeing them subjected to a variety of comeuppances. All of that said, this 1990s Italian product does often get by on sheer outrageousness. It's rough going for a while - VERY rough going - but the viewer eventually gets rewarded with some priceless, over the top creature effects gags. Best of all is a classic case of coitus interruptus when one of the two participants begins mutating. The effects may be crude, but they ARE plentiful, and they're frequently fun.
All of this nonsense is set to a silly electronic score credited to Elikonia Group. Production design and lighting are adequate for a production budgeted at roughly $250,000. Among the young actors, Rogers comes off the best, but this is basically because his egghead character isn't as annoying as the others. And, for those who are interested, Wolf does bare her breasts.
The capper is that the automated systems on the ship are given electronic voices, which chatter away in the most inane way possible.
Overall, this is worth at least one look if you're enticed by the prospect of unearthing obscure cheese.
Five out of 10.
