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The recipe for 1998's Deep Rising is simple: begin with The Poseidon Adventure, mix in a bit of Aliens, Jaws, Titanic, Tremors and any heist film, and top the concoction with a goofy, self-aware sense of humour before adding guns, gore and a campy octopus-like creature. Voila! Written and directed by Stephen Sommers, Deep Rising is a silly and unoriginal hodgepodge of other films, but it is nevertheless an old-fashioned, unpretentious, flat-out fun horror-action picture benefitting from an engaging cast, a non-serious tone, and an enjoyably brisk pace. In essence, it is the type of junk food you know is unhealthy, but it remains eminently edible, and you will undoubtedly return for seconds. Fortunately, Deep Rising entered production back in the 1990s when studios felt more comfortable allocating generous budgets to B-grade, R-rated movies like this and Deep Blue Sea. Indeed, movies like Deep Rising are now mostly relegated to nasty, low-budget offerings from studios like The Asylum.
An enormous luxury cruise ship with a supposedly "impregnable" hull, known as the Argonautica, is making its maiden voyage across the South China Sea with a full load of passengers. Not far behind the Argonautica is a boat captained by freelance rogue Finnegan (Treat Williams). A group of armed mercenaries led by Hanover (Wes Studi) hire Finnegan and his crew, including second-in-command Joey Pantucci (Kevin J. O'Connor), to transport them to an undisclosed rendezvous point in the South China Sea. After a collision with a smaller vessel damages Finnegan's boat, the mercenaries take control and announce their plans to rob the Argonautica before sinking it. However, the Argonautica is empty when the group boards the ship. Soon enough, they discover the reason: a giant, tentacled, man-eating sea monster has devoured the majority of the ship's occupants.
With a monster on the loose and a sizeable ensemble of potential victims, Deep Rising adopts a predictable pattern of cat and mouse aboard the gradually sinking Argonautica, with the cavalcade of characters getting picked off one at a time by the marauding sea creature. The creature adheres to the expected tropes for movie monsters and slasher film villains - it is a powerful mass of spiked tentacles and endless rows of teeth, and it possesses the uncanny ability to reach any part of the ship at the most convenient time. Deep Rising is derivative and predictable, but so what? Not even the filmmakers would try to argue this point; therefore, Sommers infuses the flick with a delightful tongue-in-cheek sensibility, ensuring the viewing experience is fun despite its inherent flaws. After all, how could anyone take this material seriously? For crying out loud, the creature sucks a woman down a toilet bowl! Sommers also drenches his screenplay in one-liners and comedic moments, which is why the film is such a bona fide guilty pleasure.
Before Deep Rising, Sommers had only helmed two other features, both of which were children's films: The Adventures of Huck Finn and The Jungle Book. One cannot mistake Deep Rising for anything close to resembling a children's film, though, since it contains as many gross-out moments of violence and gore as Sommers could think of...or as many as the MPAA allowed him to get away with. Indeed, whereas big-budget monster movies typically cater to the PG-13 blockbuster crowd, this is a vehemently R-rated endeavour, which significantly benefits the production as it enhances the sense of fun and adds an edge to the bloodshed. Sommers excels as a director of cinematic junk food, and Deep Rising is further evidence of this talent. The pace is taut, the action is exciting, and the $45 million budget is put to wise use with impressively large sets and some respectable special effects courtesy of ILM. Jerry Goldsmith's flavoursome accompanying score is fantastic, as well. The digitally-created creature is not always convincing, and it is downright atrocious in some shots, but it's good enough most of the time, especially considering the modest budget and the film's vintage. Deep Rising was Sommers' first film to heavily rely on digital effects, paving the way for the director's follow-up project, 1999's beloved classic The Mummy.
In the acting department, the late Treat Williams is impeccable as the Han Solo-esque hero (Harrison Ford turned down this role), coming across as commanding and charismatic. Familiar faces fill out the supporting cast, including the appealing Famke Janssen (GoldenEye) as a pickpocket who was imprisoned in a storage cupboard before the monster's initial attack, while Anthony Heald relishes the chance to play the ship's sleazy creator and owner, Simon Canton. Kevin J. O'Connor, who went on to feature in The Mummy the following year, is on hand as the film's comic relief, and he is an enjoyable presence here. It is possible to care enough about this central trio to want to see them survive, which is a major positive. Meanwhile, the mercenaries ooze masculinity and deliver no-nonsense dialogue, with the likes of Cliff Curtis, Djimon Hounsou, an authoritative Wes Studi and a scene-stealing Jason Flemyng effectively playing these roles. There is a noticeable Aliens vibe to the colourful mercenaries fighting back against the monster.
Although there are horror elements, Deep Rising is not strictly a horror movie, as Sommers mostly favours goofy action scenes over unbearable tension or suspense. There are some intense scenes as the characters try to evade death, but this is not a scary movie. If you wish to criticise Deep Rising for its tongue-in-cheek silliness, the endless clichés, the one-dimensional characters and the lack of dramatic depth, you can. Hell, you have every right to. Deep Rising wears its flaws on its sleeve, but it throttles forward with such playful abandon that it's easy to overlook the rough spots to enjoy this goofy monster movie. It's an early example of Sommers' unique entertainment brand, solidified in later years by such titles as The Mummy and The Mummy Returns. Switch off your brain and enjoy this movie for what it is.
7.2/10
