''Creatures from the Abyss'' (original title ''Plankton'') is a 1994 Italian

b-movie A B movie or B film is a low-budget commercial motion picture. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified films intended for distribution as the less-publicized bottom half of a double featur ...

directed by Al Passeri and written by

Richard Bauman Richard Bauman is a folklorist and anthropologist, now retired from Indiana University Bloomington. He is Distinguished Professor ''emeritus'' of Folklore, of Anthropology, and of Communication and Culture. Before coming to IU in 1985, he was the Di ...

. The film starred Clay Rogers, Michael Bon, Sharon Twomey, Laura di Palma, Ann Wolf, and movie director and actor

Deran Sarafian Deran Sarafian is an American film and television director and actor. He directed ''Death Warrant, Gunmen,'' and ''Terminal Velocity''. He has been nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards. Life and career Sarafian is the son of film directo ...

Synopsis

A group of five teenagers, three girls, and two boys get lost in the ocean with a

Dinghy A dinghy is a type of small boat, often carried or towed by a larger vessel for use as a tender. Utility dinghies are usually rowboats or have an outboard motor. Some are rigged for sailing but they differ from sailing dinghies, which ...

, and a big storm begins. Suddenly they spot a yacht sitting in the middle of the ocean, and they go to investigate and to find shelter. But in fact, the yacht was a secret laboratory studying mutated fish results of radioactive

plankton Plankton are the diverse collection of organisms found in Hydrosphere, water (or atmosphere, air) that are unable to propel themselves against a Ocean current, current (or wind). The individual organisms constituting plankton are called plankt ...

. One of the specimens escapes kills the whole crew, and preys on the unsuspecting teenagers.

Cast

* Clay Rogers as Mike * Michael Bon as Bobby * Sharon Twomey as Margareth * Laura di Palma as Dorothy * Ann Wolf as Julie *

as Professor Clark

Release

Shriek Studio released ''Creatures from the Abyss'' on 31 July 2007 as part of the ''Mutant Monsters Triple Feature'' along with ''The Dark'' and ''

The Being ''The Being'' is a 1983 American horror film written and directed by Jackie Kong in her directorial debut, starring Martin Landau, José Ferrer, Dorothy Malone, comedian Ruth Buzzi, Marianne Gordon, and exploitation film producer Bill Osco, wh ...

''.

Reception

Much of the coverage for ''Creatures from the Abyss'' focused on the film's production values, acting, and dubbing. HorrorNews.net noted that the film contained poor dubbing, special effects, and acting while also stating "Is this movie worth your time? I’d have to say “Yes!” Is it a new cult classic in the making? Maybe. Don’t really see people flinging caviar at the screen. Still, it is quite quotable, and makes for a great party film with like-minded friends." Clive Davies noted many of the same issues with the film in his book ''Spinegrinder'', however wrote that the stop motion effects were "quite good". Bleeding Skull called the film a ripoff of ''Piranha'', further writing that the film "looks like it was shot by the team behind '' Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan'' and feels like it was written by

Lloyd Kaufman Stanley Lloyd Kaufman Jr. (born December 30, 1945) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer and actor. Alongside producer Michael Herz, he is the co-founder of Troma Entertainment film studio, and the director of many of their featur ...

between '' The Toxic Avenger'' and ''

Class of Nuke 'Em High ''Class of Nuke 'Em High'' (also known as ''Atomic High School'') is a 1986 American science-fiction horror comedy film made by B-movie production company Troma Entertainment. It was directed by Richard W. Haines and Lloyd Kaufman under the pseu ...

''.

References

External links

''Creatures from the Abyss''
at the

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''Creatures from the Abyss''
on

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''Creatures from the Abyss''
at

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1994 films 1994 horror films 1990s monster movies 1990s Italian-language films Films shot in Florida Natural horror films Italian horror films 1990s Italian films {{1990s-horror-film-stub