The Evil Below

This movie was total rubbish. A typical 1980s flick. Over the top n moronic.

There was no action no suspense n no tension. I would class it as a drama of sorts. Definitely not a horror.

The acting was terrible n the characters were benign n wooden.

The story was ridiculous n the plot was so outrageous.

Everything about this movie was bland n so lacking in charisma.

The ending was really really lame n so predictable.

I can not recommend this movie at all even if you like maritime mayhem.

My review was written in July 1989 after watching the film on Raedon video cassette.

This routine South African-lensed thriller about legendary evil scares up little interest in its video release.

Comfortable team of Wyane Crawford and June Chadwick go diving for a treasure ship that sank in 1683. They encounter rivals for the booty, as well as shark attacks and lots of local talk about "the devil walks on this island". Incoherent nightmares pad out the running time. Lack of a decent budget puts the kibosh on this one.

It's ho-hum low adventure. Crawford is okay in his typical ne-er-do-well action role.

They sure loved their aquatic Sci-Fi/horror tales at the end of the 80s! In less than two years, no less than six similarly themed movies were unleashed upon cult-loving audiences. Of course, of all those, only James Cameron's "The Abyss" is a REALLY good film, and the other five vary from mediocre to abysmal. "Deepstar Six" and "The Rift" are titles I proudly rank among my guilty pleasures, but together with the horrendous "Lords of the Deep", this "The Evil Below" is the worst of the worst.

It's an indescribably tedious and uninteresting story of a hermit boat captain in the Caribbean teaming up with a mysterious woman to search for a sunken 17th century Spanish galleon named El Diablo. The ship supposedly still hides great treasures, but it's protected by supernatural forces and whoever tries to enter it unleashes a curse. Or something like that, at least, I must admit I wasn't paying attention the whole time. This is clearly more of an adventure flick than a horror movie, and it's even worse if they are boring. None of the characters, good or villainous, are worth mentioning and even the underwater footage isn't the least bit remarkable.

When I found this movie some years back in the discount bin for €1,50 I decided to give it a go. I have to admit it's cool cover art lying amongst generically looking DVD covers really caught my eye. The movie itself turned out decent, it isn't anything special nor is it a complete failure like some people may have pointed out.

The story revolves around a nearly bankrupt Captain named Max Cash who lives on a fictional island called San Sebastian. His surname says it all! He comes up with all kinds of fascinating stories about the sea just to stay in business. He hooks up with a beautiful blonde who is interested in his services and wants to rent his boat to do some treasure diving. As the story progresses they encounter stormy weather, bad luck, some clues, a mysterious individual, rivalry an eventually start romancing.

The pro's include: a good story, some funny wisecracking dialogue and at least one realistically looking fight scene.

The con's include: The slow pace of the movie, even though it got released in 1989 it looks pretty early 80s (this may affect some viewers) and it's misleading horror genre.

To all adventurers out there! Watch and learn about treasures of the deep.

The VHS cover for The Evil Below makes it look like a cool underwater horror flick. Sadly it's closer to a boring adventure flick and has no real horror elements. It starts off with some divers who get attacked and we see a bit of blood, but that's the only blood in the entire film.

The Evil Below isn't the worst around, but for a horror film it is tediously boring. The acting is decent and to be honest the only thing that keeps you watching is the developing romance between the two leads. There's a few nightmare sequences where it just seems like the director didn't know what to do. I manged to sit through it all (just about) but I wouldn't recommend this film to ANYONE. Horror fans might want a copy for the cool VHS cover, but it's best left at that.