"The Rift" (1990) is an undersea action adventure movie chock full of mystery, espionage and monsters. Lots of weird, great monsters.
Jack Scalia stars as submarine designer, Wick Hayes, who is called to help a crew bring down a sub based on his design to find out what happened to another sub lost in, you guess it, a deep sea rift.
With a cast featuring, Ray Wise, Ely Pouget and R. Lee Ermey, there's plenty of acting talent to go around. Other characters are also played by people who clearly do not speak English as their first language. They hand in solid, if not totally convincing performances. Overall, the acting is far more than you'd expect from what is clearly a cash-in B-movie. Undersea monsters were pretty big in 1989 and "The Riftt" came in just as the popularity was dying down.
The sub model and sets were very basic, but never looked "cheap" or slipshod. The biggest complaint I'd have about the sub itself is that except for being yellow, it looked like any model submarine of the day. It didn't seem "experimental." Most of the underwater F/X were pretty standard for the late 80s, The monsters on the other hand, would have been right at home in a 1960s or 70s B-movie. I loved that about the film. Puppets and other practical F/X are my preferred method of monster creation.
There was an array of undersea monstrosities as well. Tentacles, fly looking things, various eels or serpents. You don't get a terribly close look at many of them, but the F/X crew of "The Outer Limits" black and white TV series and "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" clearly influenced the people who worked on these monsters.
Elements of the plot will be familiar to anyone who is a fan of these types of movies. Clumsy attempts at romantic triangles, the hero conflicting with authority, specialty guns that aren't all that special, things breaking on the experimental craft (or sea base, space base, etc), affectively trapping our characters and forcing them into ever more perilous situations are all here. There is even a handheld "radar scanner" that keeps track of the personnel who are off ship. All-in-all, there's not a lot new here story-wise. Again, however, I find formulaic movies somewhat comforting. Sure, surprises are nice, but it's good occasionally to go into a movie knowing what you'll get.
"The Rift" delivers on the monsters, the action, very little gore (but a good deal of slime) and a threat to "the entire world!"
If you're itching for a monster movie with a water element, it's certainly worth the time.
Watch the trailer and decide for yourself.
Oh, apparently at one time the title was "Endless Descent".
And for my sea monster movie, watch what happens when a famous fisherman meets his nemesis.
Jack Scalia stars as submarine designer, Wick Hayes, who is called to help a crew bring down a sub based on his design to find out what happened to another sub lost in, you guess it, a deep sea rift.
With a cast featuring, Ray Wise, Ely Pouget and R. Lee Ermey, there's plenty of acting talent to go around. Other characters are also played by people who clearly do not speak English as their first language. They hand in solid, if not totally convincing performances. Overall, the acting is far more than you'd expect from what is clearly a cash-in B-movie. Undersea monsters were pretty big in 1989 and "The Riftt" came in just as the popularity was dying down.
The sub model and sets were very basic, but never looked "cheap" or slipshod. The biggest complaint I'd have about the sub itself is that except for being yellow, it looked like any model submarine of the day. It didn't seem "experimental." Most of the underwater F/X were pretty standard for the late 80s, The monsters on the other hand, would have been right at home in a 1960s or 70s B-movie. I loved that about the film. Puppets and other practical F/X are my preferred method of monster creation.
There was an array of undersea monstrosities as well. Tentacles, fly looking things, various eels or serpents. You don't get a terribly close look at many of them, but the F/X crew of "The Outer Limits" black and white TV series and "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" clearly influenced the people who worked on these monsters.
Elements of the plot will be familiar to anyone who is a fan of these types of movies. Clumsy attempts at romantic triangles, the hero conflicting with authority, specialty guns that aren't all that special, things breaking on the experimental craft (or sea base, space base, etc), affectively trapping our characters and forcing them into ever more perilous situations are all here. There is even a handheld "radar scanner" that keeps track of the personnel who are off ship. All-in-all, there's not a lot new here story-wise. Again, however, I find formulaic movies somewhat comforting. Sure, surprises are nice, but it's good occasionally to go into a movie knowing what you'll get.
"The Rift" delivers on the monsters, the action, very little gore (but a good deal of slime) and a threat to "the entire world!"
If you're itching for a monster movie with a water element, it's certainly worth the time.
Watch the trailer and decide for yourself.
And for my sea monster movie, watch what happens when a famous fisherman meets his nemesis.
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