While a cool, prolific budget-conscious studio shingle adept at filling video shelf space and cable television programming slots, Phillip J. Roth's Bulgarian-based UFO (Unified Film Organization) is no French-based StudioCanal; it's apples to oranges. So, yeah, John Carpenter had every right to sue -- and win -- a claim against the studio's Lockout (2012) by Luc Beeson, as it blatantly clipped Escape from New York. But seriously, what's Warner Brothers/Columbia Studios to gain by suing UFO for this familiar we've-seen-it-all-before sci-fi romp?
Chances are you've seen, but may not know it, the work of Phillip J. Roth, the writer behind this film originally known as Dark Descent during its Euro-overseas theatrical run. Born in the US, Roth's direct-to-video/cable career stretches back to the early '80s with the US-aired sci-fi-actioners Prototype X29A and APEX (both takes on The Terminator), Digital Man (Universal Solider), Total Reality (Total Recall), Velocity Trap (Demolition Man), and Interceptor Force (French-bred action star Oliver Gruner). Sure, while you can say most entries on Roth's resume are influenced by or homages popular films, there's no denying 2016's Arrival starring Amy Adams so-ripped Roth's own 2001 cable-aired Epoch (right down the floating stone monolith space-spires). Most recently, you've seen quite a few of Roth's sequel-productions in the Boogeymen, Death Race, Doom, Jarhead, Lake Placid, The Messengers, Sniper, Taken, Wrong Turn, and SyFy's monster-shark franchises. One of his most recent offerings was Inferno: Skyscraper Escape with British actress Claire Forani, kickin' high rise ass, The Rock-style (appeared on US streaming shores in 2020; theatrically-premiered in Europe in 2017).
So, let's unpack this space-cum-underwater romp from Phillip J. Roth's 112-films as-a-producer resume; he wrote 27 and directed 21. Here, Roth pens and produces.
So, once upon a time: There was a western movie called High Noon (1952) starring Gary Cooper as a small town Marshall. And there was a black and white sci-fi horror film, It! The Terror from Beyond Space (1958). Then, as time passed: In the wake of Star Wars the latter film was unofficially remade as Alien (1979), while High Noon received an unofficial outer space makeover as Outland (1981) starring Sean Connery in the Gary Cooper role. And Outland wouldn't have existed if not for Alien becoming a box office hit. Got that?
Then, James Cameron sunk the genre with The Abyss (1989) and thou let loose an aquatic crop of ripoffs released in the early 1990s: There was Aliens from the Deep (from Italy), Deep Star Six (good ol' Carolco), The Evil Below, The Lucifer Rig, Leviathan, Lords of the Deep (good 'ol Roger Corman), and The Rift, aka Endless Decent -- which is not to be confused with the film at task: Dark Decent. (And there's a new crop of post-1990s-to-2010s waterloggers to discover on Tubi*.)
Ah, but all of those The Abyss rips had aliens or aquatic-based monsters: Yes, while Phillip J. Roth's UFO Studios put this 2002 (that rolled out in other markets until 2009) underwater sci-fi'er into production to ride James Cameron's 1989 wave, the model of Dark Descent (aka Descent Into Darkness on US video), as many other reviewers have name checked: Peter Hyams's earlier '81 romp, Outland.
As with the later, obviously superior-produced sci-horror Underwater (2020): We're in the Mariana Sea Basin, the deepest place on Earth (instead of Io around Jupiter), on a research-mining platform: a platform so massive that a very cool bullet train (all CGI'd, natch) is required to transverse the "industrial Atlantis." Keeping the peace is Officer Will Murdock of the Deep Submersible Division. (Yeah, I am digging those padded, all-black-leather cop duds that reminds of -- well, what do you know -- the wares in John Carpenters's Ghost of Mars from 2001 (a rip of his Assault on Precinct 13). You know what: Forget The Abyss from 1989 triggering Dark Descent into production. Carpenter's Mars cops-on-a-mission is the mold, here; which itself is a sci-if inversion of 1959's Rio Bravo, so there you go.)
Anyway, after taking down a brotherly criminal duo (killing one) working the aquatic mines, Murdock stumbles into a drug-running operation responsible for not only a rash of increasing violent crimes, but suicides (the catalyst is an dry-dock chamber accident by way of a miner's drug-triggered hallucination that kills several workers; a nice water-pressure spout through the chest gag, ensues). Ah, but those brothers work for the corporation that supplies the drugs than keeps the miners happy and productive. And Marshall Murdock has become a financial liability.
Two years later: Murdock's tour is over and he's readying to return to dry land. Ah, thanks to a convenient legal issue: Vlad is out and he's on the "noon-arriving" sub-shuttle to get his revenge. Murdock is left all alone to face Vlad: the corporation and the miners turn their back on him.
If you skimmed the other's reviews, you'll notice many chastise Dark Descent's set design and special effects. In reality: neither is that bad, as the CGI is more convincing than most budget conscious sci-fi'ers and the costuming is especially impressive; as is the cinematography and editing. Those reviewers' folly: Sure, while the proceedings are a note-for-note take on Outland (right down to a sympathetic doctor helping in the cause), one can't belly this Bulgarian production for the Euro theatrical market against the dual production powers of Warner Brothers and Columbia Studios: UFO will always lose that battle. So the key to enjoying this underwater-Alien hybrid is to view it through Roger Corman-tinted glasses: an affectionate throwback to the sets, effects, and costumes of New World Pictures' Alien knockoff of Galaxy of Terror (1981), William Malone's pretty darn fine Creature (1985), and the more plot-similar to Roth's vision: Moon 44 (1990) from Roland "Stargate/Independence Day" Emmerich -- with Michael Pare's space cop going against his own brand of corporate mining intrigue sans the xenomorphs.
Yeah, I really dig Michael Pare, even as his star has fallen (check out my favorable "user-review" of his Deep Impact-rip, Falling Fire from 1997) and he's gone into Eric Roberts, Bruce Willis, and Nicolas Cage direct-to-video territories. Regardless of the film each always bring their A-game to the set. And so does Dean Cain in his reinvention as a go-to direct-to-video actor. If you've never seen his Euro-made Rollerball rip known as Futuresport from 1998, check it out; outside of the presence of Vanessa Williams (ugh), it's inventive.
Well, so goes this review!
A discussion on the Star Wars-Alien-The Abyss mash-ups of the '80s continues at B&S About Movies with our features "Ten Films that Rip Off Alien," "Exploring: After Star Wars," and "Movies in Outer Space Week." Look for my full, official review of Underwater (2020) under the IMDb's "critic reviews," and a mini-review under "user reviews."
*You're on your own with these later, trapped-with-an-alien-in-a-confined-space flicks; but I recommend the Australian-made The Dark Lurking: it's better than the rest: Alien Rising (2013), Creature (2004), Dark Island (2010), Deep Evil (2004), The Dark Lurking (2009), Hydra (2009), Legion (1998), That Thing Below (2004), and Parasite (2004).
