The Rift (1990) — Triskaidekafiles

THE RIFT

WRITERS: Screenplay by David Coleman

Story by J.P.Simon and Mark Klein

DIRECTOR: J.P. Simon

STARRING: Jack Scalia as Wick Hayes

R. Lee Ermey as Captain Phillips

Ray Wise as Robbins

Deborah Adair as Nina

John Toles Bey as Skeets

Ely Pouget as Ana Rivera

QUICK CUT: A voyage to the bottom of the sea finds more than James Cameron.

THE MORGUE

Wick - An engineer who designed the state of the art Siren series of subs, but after a clash of personalities he left the project. But when one of his subs goes missing, and he’s the only one who knows it well enough to help when they find it, he gets sucked back in.

Phillips - The captain who is in charge of the expedition, and has a strong personality that conflicts with Wick on more than one occasion. However, it’s just asserting his dominance and being in charge, while he does appreciate the conflict.

Nina - Our love interest for the movie.

Robbins - The computer tech for the mission, who keeps the systems up to date and tracks communications.

TRISK ANALYSIS: Welcome back, Triskelions! We continue through March, and an odd little movie I came across awhile ago, called The Rift. It's an undersea thriller with some horror elements to it, that I thought was at least taking a look at. So let's get to it.

The movie wastes no time with Agents Smith and Smith gathering up Wick Hayes, the designer of the new submarine, Siren-1. He left over design and funding concerns, but they've brought him back because the nuclear power system has seemingly failed, and they need him, the man who designed it, to go fix it.

Wick and Steinman argue over the details, but since Wick has a friend on board, he reluctantly agrees to help.

So it's off to Norway to board the Siren 2, I guess, and we meet the crew of nobodies who don't really stand out, aside from the Captain, and Robbins, Wick's bunkmate and computer specialist.

And man, when Robbins says he recognises Wick from his Omni Magazine interview, THAT sends me back to nostalgia land. I loved that magazine.

If Ray Wise isn't enough, the captain is played by R. Lee Ermey, who everyone knows from Full Metal Jacket. He's much more toned down here as the captain, but still very R. Lee. This cast is almost too good for this movie. And it definitely elevates the material.

After we get through the intros and everyone bunks down for the night, we see a mysterious someone altering the computer code somehow for some reason, and that can't be good.

What is this vessel’s major malfunction??

So we find out as they're navigating through the icebergs to get to their target, their instruments are off, and they end up colliding with one of them. So that answers that computer code question.

They get a black box signal from the Siren-1, deep in an ocean rift, and dive down to get a closer look and render any aid they can.

So they reach the vessel’s wreckage and send a diver out, to investigate the damage, take some seaweed samples, and a few other things.

The diver finds a dead body, and a piece of the hull, but then gets attacked by something underwater.

Best to start believin’ in horror movies…

In her lab, Nina is futzing about with her sample, and finds that it somehow attacked her fish. Meanwhile, something outside the Siren 2 is coming right at them.

Whatever the snotbag is grabs the ship and starts crushing it. And with some technobabble, they zap it off with an electric shock, and they sink to the bottom of the rift, well below their recommended depth.

The crew sets about affecting repairs across the ship, and Cap has another chat with Hayes about challenging his authority in front of his crew. Typical stuff.

Once that's done, they resume chasing the black box, and find themselves in an underground cavern conveniently filled with air. Hey, it happens.

Closer now to the signal, Robbins determines its actually an SOS, and there are clear signs the crew of the Siren-1 was in the cave as well. So they begin to mount an expedition to find the source of the SOS.

The crew starts hearing strange noises in the caves, and Flemming pokes his head where it shouldn't, getting bitten by some strange creature

Robbins tries to guide them back to the sub, as more and more creatures poke their heads out of their holes to see the new visitors.

Flemming begs to be killed, since this is not going well for him, and we at least get treated to a solid head explosion.

Another creature bites off Felipe's leg, and we're down another crew member.

On their way back, they find a lab! and the source of the SOS. Unfortunately, the person who sent it was kinda dead.

Meanwhile, there's problems on Siren-2, and Muller goes to fix them...finding the encroaching kudzu wannabe, and gets gooed good.

They isolate the locations of the seaweed and seal those rooms off, but unfortunately, Francisco the chef has to be left behind because he came in contact with it. Also, as the search and rescue team come back, one of them falls in the water and gets eaten.

Hayes returned with a disc of information logs about what happened, and we get some infodump about transgenetic accerlation, so basically angry plants that evolved too quickly. And they're hungry.

They find more machinery, and Ana gets grabbed by some tentacles and something tries to drag her inside for a snack.

Poking around some more, they find some amniotic sacks with foetuses inside, and like any good scientist...decide to poke them.

The sac pops and releases its cargo, and they determine its some type of mutant. Wait. Mutants. Amniotic sacs. Accelerated growth. THEY FOUND KRAKOA!!

Ahem.

They make their way to the machine that's devouring Nina, and a GIANT creature that is probably the source, and it quickly grabs Skeets.

Our heroes make their escape, and shoot some fuel tanks on their way out. This takes out enough of the creature that it's either dead or distracted, and destroys the machinery.

Back on the ship, Robbins receives a message that the accelerator signal is terminated, gives a wry grin, and declares mission accomplished.

He preps the escape pod and makes his way to get out of there, and sail off before the rest can return, leaving everyone behind.

Gasp. Surprise. Ray Wise turns out to be the bad guy.

Seriously. I saw Ray and said, JOKINGLY because I know his resume, “Oh watch him be the bad guy” with not once REALLY expecting him to be. But here we are!

Robbins closes the outer hatch, but the others open it, stopping him from leaving just yet, and they make it on board.

Everyone reconnects on the sub, and Robbins holds them all at gunpoint so he can herd them to where he wants them, and run away.

Unfortunately, trapping the man who designed the ship, is harder than one might think, and Wick goes hunting through the walls for some assistance.

Wick threatens to burn one of the main circuits and stop Robbins, so they negotiate their release.

The captain finds Robbins and they have a bit of a fight, until Cap smooshes Robbins' face against an infected corpse.

Wick gets the ship running again, they make plans to head for the escape pod, and will send the Siren-2 into the rift to explode and hopefully seal it off.

But as they rush for the pod, Cap slams the door behind the other two, and reveals he got infected in his fight, and must stay behind. The captain goes down with his ship.

So the two survivors get in the minisub and sail off into the sunset as the Siren 2 seals the rift. Ha ha ha, all our friends are dead…I love you!

New from Gillette, the SirenShave 3000, it even works underwater!

TRISK ASSESSMENT

Video: Looks pretty good! Maybe a bit dull for a 1990 movie, but it comes off pretty well for a more indie production from Spain.

Audio: No complaints.

Body Count: A solid pile of bodies, if I do say so.

1 - 3:30 minutes in, and someone aboard the Siren-1 is attacked

2 - Holst gets crushed underwater.

3 - Flemming gets infected and then mercied.

4 - And then Felipe gets eaten

5 - Muller got gooed.

6 - Barton I think? falls in the water and gets torn up.

7 - Francisco gets set aside around here, and either dies from infection or explosion.

8 - Skeets gets eaten

9 - Ray Wise gets algae in the eye and his face melts.

10 - Captain sacrifices himself with a boom

Best Corpse: Felipe’s head going boom? chef’s kiss

Blood Type - B+: This movie gives some great splats, the mold looks good, and has some solid practical creature effects. My biggest complaint is I feel they didn’t go far enough.

Drink Up! Every time someone dies.

Movie Review: I have no big problems with this movie, other than that it shows its budget on its sleeve. The plot is straightforward enough, and the twist works well enough. Yeah, it’s very Alien but underwater, but it works for what it is. The acting is a little above average thanks to a few standout stars, the effects are above average, and it’s a good adventure. It could just have gone a little further than it did. But it is very solid through and through. Three out of five amniotic sacs.

Entertainment Value: Seeing ANY movie with Ray Wise and R. Lee Ermey is a treat. The other actors keep things interesting, and the effects are just weird enough. I would’ve loved some over the top Ray Wise craziness I know he can deliver, and we get a hint of it, but I know it could be more. It could have been a bonkers movie, but remains solidly entertaining. Three out of five missing subs.