Leviathan (1989)
Written by: ML
Edited by: Grave Reviews Staff
Film Information
Director: George P. Cosmatos
Producers: Aurelio De Laurentiis, Luigi De Laurentiis, Charles Gordon, Lawrence Gordon
Writers: David Peoples, Jeb Stuart
Date Released: March 17, 1989
Cast:
Peter Weller as Steven Beck
Richard Crenna as Dr. Glen ‘Doc’ Thompson
Amanda Pays as Elizabeth ‘Willie’ Williams
Daniel Stern as Buzz ‘Sixpack’ Parrish
Ernie Hudson as Justin Jones
Michael Carmine as Tony ‘DeJesus’ Rodero
Lisa Eilbacher as Bridget ‘Bow’ Bowman
Hector Elizondo as G. P. Cobb
Meg Foster as Ms. Martin
Rating = 3/5 Graves
***May contain some spoilers***
Synopsis
The story is about a crew of underwater miners who were preparing their last moments before they head to the surface in 3 days. An unexpected discovery of a sunken Russian ship named Leviathan and a vault containing mysterious items got them stuck in the deep. After drinking vodka from a flask they found in the vault, 2 of the crewmembers had unexplained rash which was found out to be genetic alteration that turned them into an alien-like mutated creature. With time running out and with mining equipment as weapons, it is up to the remaining crewmembers to fight for their survival.
Gore Factor
There was not much blood in this movie, but the guts and gore from the creature were good. The notable ones include the sequence where the creature got sliced while being flushed out. The leg survived and a creature came out of the thigh wound. It grew and went inside a crewmember’s tummy. The creature in itself is already gory, with all that slimy fluid and the gruesome human/fish/octopus mutation. Its full transformation was seen in broad daylight during the explosion scene on the surface.
The Grave Review
This movie could be compared to outer space alien encounters and other films about the deep unknown. It’s a typical group of crewmembers encountering something and getting killed one by one. The only thing that makes this different from the rest is the story of the creature coming from a genetic mutation.
The only problem with this movie is that they wasted 40 minutes of irrelevant chitchat. It was only after those dragging moments when the action finally started, the moment the rashes appeared and a crew died and the creature reborn. It could’ve been great if they used the time for more of the Russian ship’s back story or how the creature mutates when in contact with human genetics. After those slow and wasted minutes, the speed of the story became so quick.
What’s also weird was that they only had mining equipment as weapons and the scenes that they were able to successfully use them were very few. The creatures died from implosion and explosion.
Aside from that, the ending was cut short because nobody knew what happened to the mining company after that or if they had anything to do with the genetic experiments. It just ended with the rescue of the two survivors.
Overall, this movie is recommended for fans who love creature features, the deep unknown and alien-like atmosphere.
For the foregoing reasons, Grave Reviews gives Leviathan (1989) three graves out of five graves.
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