Monday, May 8, 2017

Humanoids from the Deep, Monster Rapists

When the green gill-man grabbed Kay, the beauty in the white swimsuit, and brought her to his lair, perhaps we wondered what it had planned for her. "Creature from the Black Lagoon" left that question up to our imagination.  Our imaginations did not have to work too hard as we had a pretty good idea what the creature wanted from the nubile and shapely marine biologist.  In 1980's "Humanoids from the Deep," Roger Corman left nothing up to the imagination.  Nubile bikini babes raped by grotesque humanoid sea monsters is what we get.
Peggy (Lynn Theel) is the first bikini damsel to meet an ungodly fate. After her boyfriend's face is ripped off by the monster, she has her bikini ripped off, and is then raped by the awful creature. Our creatures have converged on a salmon fishing village looking for mates, and they have good taste.  Experiments up river to increase the size of the fish may be the culprit. Fish are getting scarce and fishermen are dying mysterious deaths in this village. Jim (Doug McClure) is suspicious that some nefarious actions by the cannery may be responsible. Becky (Lisa Glaser) is next. In a weird scene with a ventriloquist dummy (don't ask), she is gang raped by our fiends.
As the body and inter-species rape counts increase, Jim is joined by Dr. Susan Drake (Ann Turkel) a sultry, but mysterious scientist. Susan and Jim go looking for the things and find their lair.  After Jim kills a few of the humanoids, he and Susan find Peggy, encased in slime, naked and unconscious. As they barely escape alive, having rescued the bikini damsel, Jim and Susan must warn the town. With the Salmon Festival coming up, in which the new Miss Salmon (Linda Shayne) will be crowned, the monsters will converge. After all, the humanoids from the deep see beauty pageants as their dating services. 
Will the newly crowned Miss Salmon keep her purity?  What horrors did Peggy endure? You'll see. Will the local yokels be able to grab their shotguns in time from the backs of their pick-ups and fend off a monster attack? Horror/sexploitation at its best, "Humanoids from the Deep" caused some controversy upon release.  The film was accused of misogyny and seen as a potential trigger for sexual violence against women.  Roger Corman reminded his critics that he hired a female (Barbara Peeters) to direct.  This explanation may be considered week, as Ms. Peeters did not include the rape scenes when she filmed the story, and was furious when she found out they were added in later.   

4 comments:

  1. I remember this fine effort from my late night viewing years as a teenager. You hit the nail on the head, Christopher. I thought, wow, those slimy sea creatures have hit a babe jackpot here. In real life, nubile young woman aren't a plentiful resource, lol. I guess when you are a working actor like McClure was, you will get involved in quite a few "dodgy" projects. Then to top it off, Mrs. Richard Harris (Ann Turkel) was in this too. Terrific review.

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  2. I don't think I ever saw this one, but I remember when I was a kid, it always seemed to be "coming next" on whatever cable channel I was watching Fear No Evil on at the time. Great review. I'm simultaneously horrified and intrigued.

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  3. Lol the director complained that all the nudity & rape scenes were added later without her knowledge. Nice review, I love Humanoids From the Deep & find it ridiculously entertaining trashy fun.

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  4. Oops sorry didn't realise you mentioned this already in your review, my bad mate :)

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