Up from the Depths
Up From the Depths | |
---|---|
![]() Theatrical poster | |
Directed by | Charles B. Griffith |
Produced by |
Jack Atienza Cirio H. Santiago |
Written by |
Anne Dyer Alfred Sweeney |
Starring |
Sam Bottoms Susanne Reed Virgil Frye Kedric Wolfe Charles Howerton |
Music by | Russell O'Malley |
Cinematography | Ricardo Remias |
Edited by | G. V. Bass |
Distributed by |
New World Pictures Shout Factory (DVD) |
Release date |
|
Running time | 75 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Box office | Unknown |
Up From the Depths is a 1979 horror film directed by Charles B. Griffith. The film, along with many other natural horror films at the time of its release, was made due to the success of Jaws, to which it is very similar.
Plot
The staff and vacationers at a first-class resort on the island of Maui are beginning to mysteriously disappear. A biologist believes that an underwater earthquake has caused a giant and very hungry dormant prehistoric fish to be released from its slumber. The fish voraciously helps itself to a tourist buffet. Now it is open season for the local fishermen to find and kill the creature.
Production
Charles B Griffith later called making the film a "terrible experience".
We had it written by one of the typists or secretaries in the office who didn't have any thoughts of becoming a writer. I think Roger did it to punish me, to send me out to The Philippines where I didn't know what I was getting into. I was making an action picture, but The Philippines people were all so depressed, and they had made this goofy-looking fish with bug eyes. I told them that we'll make it a comedy, and their eyes lit up! So I sent back a comedy on one plane, and I arrived on the next one. By the time I arrived, Roger had already cut 75 minutes out. As an editor would say, "That's a set-up, that's a payoff!"[1]
Cast
- Sam Bottoms - Greg Oliver
- Susanne Reed - Rachel McNamara
- Virgil Frye - Earl Sullivan
- Kedric Wolfe - Oscar Forbes
- Charles Howerton - Dr. David Whiting
- Denise Hayes - Iris Lee
- R. Lee Ermy - Lee
Release
The film was released theatrically in the United States by New World Pictures in June 1979, and later released on VHS by Vestron Video in the 1980s.
The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray by Shout Factory in 2011 as a double feature alongside the similar Demon of Paradise.