The Rift, Tentacled Sea Monsters vs. Submarine

A film about tentacled creatures that is not an H.P. Lovecraft story. I've always been a sucker for a good sea monster film. Throw in some mad scientists, mutations, and genetic altering and we have 1990's "The Rift," directed by Juan Piquer Simon. Just like a deviant Roger Corman film, the tentacled thing wants women to...well, you'll see. Oh yes, Ray Wise is in this as a mysterious part of the submarine crew.

The submarine Siren 1 goes missing while on a scientific expedition. The Siren 2 is sent to look for it. Summoned is the sub's designer, Wick (Jack Scalia). He joins a NATO crew in Norway for the voyage. This sub is captained by Phillips (R. Lee Emery). Of course, Wick's ex-lover is the lieutenant, Nina (Deborah Adair). Another babe, Ana (Ely Pouget) is also on board but she'll be owned by tentacles and other creatures, so don't get too attached. The sub finds the wreckage and sends out a diver. The diver sends a seaweed sample back to the Siren 2 before being ripped apart by the seaweed. Of course the seaweed will grow into a monster inside the sub's laboratory. Captain Phillips and his crew find an underwater cavern and surface in it.

An 8-man crew goes out into the cavern to explore.  Most of the crew will get ripped apart by monsters which are hiding in the cavern walls. This is where Ana is abducted by tentacles. Now the seaweed in the sub is starting to kill the crew that remained on board. The creature has infected the water supply. Uh oh...the crew was lied to about the true nature of this mission. Captain Phillips orders the survivors of the landing party to get back out there to search for Ana...they won't like what they find. As each new creature we are introduced to gets bigger and bigger (as do their teeth), we see what is really going on in these undersea caverns and it spells doom for mankind.

Will Ana be eaten or impregnated by mutant sea creatures? Will Jack win Nina back before an amorous sea creature claims her for it's own? Is there any hope, at all, that the U.S. military, NATO, the scientific community, and world governments may level with the beset submarine crew? Nope. This may be the best sea creature film you have never heard of. For an epic creature feature, see "The Rift."