Leviathan

On a deep sea mining expedition, evil stirs. Well, not really. The guys and gals on the mining shack are just three days away from the end of a 90 day rotation. DeJesus (Michael Carmine) nearly dies when his suit malfunctioned, and the doc is nowhere to be found. Tensions are running high and a practical joke involving a water spider fish thing gets two of the crew members in trouble.  Willie (Amanda Pays) and Sixpack (Daniel Stern) are sent out in the water to set an explosive when Sixpack falls over the edge of a ridge. Willie goes after him and the rest of the crew are tense back in the shack as she searches for him. She finds a sunken Russian ship called the Leviathan. She finds a skeleton on board and Sixpack, who has discovered a safe, declaring himself rich.

The dude in charge, Beck (Peter Weller) puts Sixpack on report for reckless endangerment as they go through the loot. Sixpack discovers a flask and slips it in his back pocket before anyone but Bowman (Lisa Eilbacher) sees. They discover another bottle of vodka and a bunch of reports that the doctor (Richard Crenna) translates for the rest of the crew. Apparently there was a whole bunch of dead people on that Russian ship. Beck orders it all impounded, including the vodka until the company can sort it out. 

That night Bowman and Sixpack drink up their stash and the next morning Sixpack falls sick. At first they think he's hung over, but then patches of skin start to change color and texture. Eww. The doc thinks his DNA is being changed. Unable to withstand the changes, Sixpack dies. The doc tell Beck, who contacts the company on the surface. Martin (Meg Foster) tells them that there's nothing to worry about, if it only stays to one person, and not to call for an evacuation.  To not cause a panic they decide not to the rest of the crew

The doc starts to check the rest of the crew for 'skin conditions' but before he can investigate Bowman, he is called away. It turns out there's a hurricane on the surface and they can't be evacuated for 12 hours. Bowman falls sick, and Willie and Jones (Ernie Hudson) help her to a bed in the infirmary. Jones checks in on Sixpack, and he is literally moving under a blanket. Thinking he's sleeping Jones exits and goes to find the doctor, as does Willie. Left alone Bowman stumbles into Sixpack's room and actually looks at him and sees that he is dead and mutating and guesses correctly that's what's happening to her. When the rest of the crew get there she has committed suicide. They place her on a table and the next time we see her she has made her way to Sixpack and there's an orgy mutating thing going on that is really disgusting. Beck and the doc stick it in a body bag and get everyone to help them carry it to the loading bay type thing. Only DeJesus feels something moving in the back and tries to open it only to discover the mutated thing in the bag. Cobb (Hector Elizondo) get scratched and the thing gets dumped except for a leg/tentacle.

They try to go about their daily business when DeJesus gets the tentacle thing, now with a mouth, right in the chest. Jones runs for help, but not before it merges with DeJesus and gets into the packs of blood stored in the infirmary.  The doc puts out a theory that the Russians were trying to create a half-man half-fish person, by placing it in the vodka, ('cuz all Russians drink vodka) only it got out of hand and they sunk their own ship. Anyway the doc decides that it can't get out, so as Beck and Jones are trying to lure it in to the loading bay, he launches the escape pods and writes to the surface saying exactly that. He goes back to Cobb and Willie only to get killed as Cobb goes over to the dark side, because of the scratches on his chest. Willie runs for her life and nearly smacks into the creature, which is now fully formed as a walking fish slug thing.

The three of them hightail it out of there and call for help only to discover that the hurricane is directly above them and it will be another 48 hours until they can be rescued. Deciding that the company has abandoned them Willie checks her stock only to discover they have already been declared dead in an accident. Not to be outdone, the creature cuts the air supply, causing the shack to implode in ten minuets.

Running like hell, they make it into the loading bay and jump into the mining suits and break for the surface as Beck blows up the shack. The three of them make it and a helicopter spots them right about the time that the sharks show up. Apparently the sharks don't like the eau de sea monster they're wearing and turn tail and run. Then the creature shows up and kills Jones, because black dudes are not allowed to survive action/horror movies. Beck then throws a explosive down it's throat and it explodes.

Beck and Willie make it back to the main platform thingy where they find Martin simply delighted at their miraculous survival. Then Beck promptly punches her, wrapping up a delightful movie.

I am a fan of the horror/sci-fi movies. They can be quite good, if they are done right. This one was pretty good. A little obvious about who was going to die and who would survive. It's always the two with a romantic subplot that live. The romance was down to a minimum, which was a good thing, because I don't think Peter Weller's face has that much of a range of emotions.

The one thing I don't get is how the company knew what was happening when it was a secret Russian operation. Bah, who cares. This movie was great brain candy.

Grade: 7/10