The Best Underwater Sci-Fi Horror Film from 1989(yes there were more than one).

For my inaugural blog post I will be reviewing something tried and true, the 80's sci-fi horror flick Leviathan.

Back in the 80's following the late 70's release of the epic masterpiece that is Alien along with John Carpenters penultimate horror classic The Thing there was a rather large glut of sci-fi horror films that hit theater screens with as much regularity as Blossom had “very special” episodes.  Combining this trend with the habit of studios to release dueling films of similar premises every year and you wound up with a large selection of underwater themed science fiction films in 1989, most of them horror films.

Leading the pack was James Cameron's ridiculously epic scale production The Abyss which was the least scary, and was also the best and most successful.  Then you had three other copycats, all of which decided that they also had to rip off Alien too.  These included Friday the 13th helmsman Sean S. Cunningham's Deepstar Six, Roger Corman's The Rift aka Endless Descent(technically from 1990, but whatever), and George P. Cosmatos' Leviathan, which is what we are here to read about today.

Produced by Italian studio Filmauro; this represents yet another questionable Italian foray into the film industry.  Now, I'm not sure why, and this is nothing against Italian people on the whole, but for some inexplicable reason; much like American Olympic basketball teams, Italian produced films have a strong tendency to suck.  For some reason, unless directed by Sergio Leone or Dino De Laurentis, Italian(with rare exception) films just seem unable to be good1.  I don't know if perhaps those two directors made some kind of deal with the devil and were spiteful enough to make it contain a provision that they be the only two directors to come out of Italy that would be good or what, but it is almost like a law of nature.  Unfortunately Leviathan is not one of those exceptions, although it is probably one of the better non-Laurentis or Leone helmed picture to come out of the 'boot.

Leviathan stands out as having the biggest selection of well known stars in the cast among the four(even more than The Abyss) although as you will see; quantity does not equal quality.  The cast includes:

 Peter "Robo Fucking Cop" Weller.  Fans of cheesy 80's movies are no stranger to the work of Mr. Weller, who is a staple of the era.  He is probably one of the stronger actors in this particular offering.  Fun fact: he is also teaches history at Syracuse University.

Richard "Colonel Fucking Trautman" Crenna.  He has been in about a bagillion movies and TV shows from the fifties all the way until his death in 2003.  Probably most famous for playing Colonel Trautman in the Rambo films.

 Amanda "Mrs. Corbin Bernsen" Pays.  She's been around here and there, but this is probably her highest profile role, other than marrying Corbin Bernsen of course.  Here she fills the roll of "hot chick with a sexy British accent" a job she does quite well.

 Daniel "Bad Guy From Home Alone" Stern.  He is most famous for his work in comedy films throughout the 90's, and here he plays against type by being a sleazy horndog.

 Ernie "Ghostbusters" Hudson.  Here he plays a character known as "black guy in a horror film" a roll which he fills excellently, following the acting method also known as "black guy in a horror film" right down to *SPOILER* dying at the hands of the film's antagonist.

 Michael Carmine.  This fellow made a name for himself in the 80's by playing disreputable street thugs or drug dealers, here he plays somewhat against type by not threatening or beating the crap out of anyone.  Tragically, he died of heart failure the same year this movie came out.

 Lisa Eilbacher.  Not really well known for much high profile stuff outside this film, aside for being the female lead in Beverly Hills Cop.

Héctor Elizondo.  A character actor who has been in more shit than all the rest of the cast combined. In fact if you're reading this and don't recognize his face, then you're probably blind. In which case, I am quite impressed that you are reading this.

Meg "what's the deal with my eyes?" Foster.  Fans of 80's films most likely remember her for the role that her ridiculously pale blue eyes played in the film They Live.

So this rounds out the main cast of Leviathan, as you can see this film was not lacking in acting talent.  It was just lacking in writing and directing talent.
 
Anyway, the film opens with a view of the undersea mining station 'Shack 7' which we are told is there for the purpose of mining precious metals from the sea floor for stereotypical Hollywood megacorp Trioceanic.  This is suspiciously similar to the mission of the undersea oil rig from The Abyss, but let's not get too picky yet, we're a mere five minutes into the movie.

Pictured: Not an undersea oil rig.

Anyway, we get introduced to our characters as a bunch of rowdy blue collar types who have no problem using profanity or giving each other a bunch of crap, they've been cooped up in this cramped and depressing location for a long time and are starting to annoy the shit out of each other, much like the cast of The Real World.  Again, this is suspiciously similar to Alien, The Abyss, and just about every other sci-fi horror flick to come out ever.  These guys have been busy digging up valuable metals all day, and have come to the end of the daily work shift, so it's time to turn in for the evening.

The action picks up pretty quickly as one of the characters; Dejesus(Carmine), suffers a technical problem with his suit, possibly because it sprung a leak or something.  At this point we know that Dejesus will not be making an appearance in Leviathan 2: In Da Hood because he promptly loses his shit, and as we all know; at this point in horror film history, if a character loses his shit in any way, he or she is almost guaranteed to die a painful and gruesome death, also he is a minority which isn't doing him any favors either.

The other characters are quick to lend a hand by all coming to a complete stop and not trying to drag Dejesus' ass into the Shack and to safety.  In stead they all stand around the poor guy doing pretty much nothing but talking to each other.  This is made all the more ridiculous by the fact that Ernie Hudson's character; Jones, claims that there isn't enough time to get Dejesus into the Shack even though they actually spend more time standing around doing nothing than actually walking back to the station.

We also are introduced to Peter Weller's character; Steven Beck, the foreman and a rather bookish one at that.  Now, he's quickly shown to be completely unprepared for the situation by acting like he has no freaking idea what to do, this is explained away as being because the station's doctor(only guy who knows what to do) is nowhere to be found.  Although you would think that having a job at the bottom of a couple miles of water would necessitate that everyone present have basic knowledge of emergency procedures.  In fact it is later shown that Beck has an almost encyclopedic knowledge of company policies, yet for some reason he failed to brush up on the safety manual.

I suppose I'm just being nitpicky here, as it is pretty obvious that this scene is merely meant to establish the fact that Weller's character is a sort of fish out of water. 

This scene also tells us that the good doctor is also destined to die, since we all know that if you either endanger or get someone else killed due to negligence or cowardice you are also due for a rather karmic death sometime later on.

Anyway, the problem is solved by everyone finally realizing that standing around and doing nothing is actually a bad idea and they get Dejesus back to the station.  Of course the day is saved and Dejesus lives as he is pulled out of the water just in time to not die.

A few more things are established over the next ten minutes or so.  First we have a scene where all the characters are eating in the mess hall, and again they are trading insults and profanities and whatnot, they more or less express universal displeasure at the Doctor(Crenna) for being AWOL during their emergency.  We have the notion that Doc will not make it to the end of the film reinforced when it appears that he is more or less unapologetic about the whole affair, thus cementing his role as a total douchebag for the audience.  

Beck is also further established as being completely out of his element when he pussies out in front of Doc rather than telling him to go fuck himself for almost getting Dejesus killed or something else more confrontational.  Meanwhile we are shown that Sixpack(Dern) is a complete asshole because not only does he have an unkempt appearance, he also makes fun of Dejesus for almost dying, ensuring his own gruesome death later on.

You almost suffered a horrific death miles below the surface of the ocean.  Isn't that hi-larious?



We are also introduced to Meg Foster's Eyes as the corrupt corporate slimebag Martin, I'm guessing that it's a last name.  Now, she doesn't do anything particularly evil at this juncture, but you can totally tell that the director wants her to come across as a walking stereotype, cuz every word out of her mouth just drips with snooty superiority and passive aggressive bullshit.  I half expected her to ask Beck for the TPS reports.

So, fast forward to the next day, and Sixpack is outside with Amanda Pays' character, Williams.  Sixpack continues acting like a crude trucker stereotype until he accidentally walks off the side of a cliff and they lose contact with him.  So everybody starts freaking out while they try to find out just where Sixpack wandered off to and whether or not he's dead.  Williams eventually jumps off the side of the cliff to go after him.  A few minutes later she notices a sunken Russian ship and seems to have completely forgotten about Six Pack while she looks through the ship.

"Six Pack, are you alive?  Say something if you haven't been crushed by several thousand tons of wate- oh hey, an old sunken ship!"



Anyway, Williams manages to track down Six Pack who has turned up an old safe that he found on board and they proceed to bring it back with them.  The crew goes through its contents which comsists of a few odds and ends, as well as a tape containing the captains journal(not gonna say 'log' I'm above poop jokes thank you very much), a bottle of vodka, and a flask which Six Pack pockets.  Now remember this in particular, because even if Six Pack wasn't a sleazy sexually harassing jackass with the sideburns of a chronic masturbator; in a horror movie, committing a theft is an automatic ticket to "decorate the walls with your entrails" ville.


Because Beck is a big fat killjoy, he has the vodka and the rest of the safe's contents all locked away.  This of course results in the rest of the crew breaking in and stealing it anyway. There is also a scene between Doc and Beck where they discuss all the suspicious circumstances surrounding the sunken Russian ship.  Earlier it was revealed that the ship(named "Leviathan" by the way) is supposed to be in the Baltic sea, not on the sea floor off the coast of Florida.  The video tape reveals that the crew of the ship all succumbed to some sort of unidentified virus, and then the tape cuts out suddenly.  Doc mentions that he thinks that the ship looks like it was torpedoed, because aside from speaking Russian and being a shitty doctor, he is also an expert in marine forensics.  Of course the one suspicious thing they fail to even mention is how after god knows how long since the station was built there, nobody ever noticed a whole freaking ship wreck within walking distance.

"Oh, let's just set this down right here.  What's that giant metal thing that's shaped like a sunken plague ridden Russian ship?  Probably just a rock, moving on..."

Anyway, the crew break out their purloined booze and start to drink it, only to find out that it's water in stead.  Apparently Beck is sharper than he looks, 'cuz he pulled the ole switcheroo on everybody, replacing the booze with water.  Later on, Lisa Eilbacher's character; Bowman, sneaks up to Sixpack's bunk because she spotted him pocketing the flask earlier and knows that he's got the Shack's only supply of liquor which she manages to convince him to share with her.  The inordinate amount of time spent focusing on the simple act of pouring vodka into Bowman's cup is a dead giveaway to the fact that the disease is being carried in the vodka, and that Bowman too is destined for a gruesome death.

There is also a brief scene that seems to have the purpose of establishing some form of sexual chemistry between the only two characters who haven't committed a sin warranting a horrible death yet(being too old, acting like an asshole at some point, being a party to stealing, being a minority, etc.)

They're also the most attractive people in the whole movie too.  Don't forget boys and girls: in horror movies: being ugly = death.



The next morning, we see that Sixpack is seeing doc about some form of illness that is afflicting him, he thinks that it is a nasty hangover, but we all know that it's because he looks like he is the kind of guy who owns a big black van with several kidnapped grade-schoolers in the back.

"While there is little I can do about your leprosy, I can prescribe 300ccs of shaving cream to help get rid of those side burns of yours."



Understandably freaked out about one of his crew coming down with some unidentified disease right after coming back from the plague ridden ship, Beck calls Martin up on skype.  Martin of course is quick to further establish herself as an evil corporate minion by threatening to put a bad mark on his permanent record or some such bullcrap. Apparently both Beck and Martin think they are in Catholic school because as far as I can tell that is the only time such a threat has ever worked.

Although you would think that she would be jumping for joy at getting the crew to evacuate early as it is revealed later that coming in short of their quota by even the slightest bit will result in the whole crew getting a 50% pay cut for the month.  Seriously, she could have gotten like 95% of the metal and only had to pay half the labor costs, you'd think they'd be doing everything they could to get these folks off of that station.  Of course as we have learned in other horror films; evil megacorps won't let a little thing like expenses or profit margins get in the way of being "EVUL."

Your mouth says no, but your eyes say "Eat a dick"

So, Doc does some tests on a sample he pulled from Sixpack's neck, and is shocked to find out that his genes are being altered.  He then proceeds to go- oh, yeah and Six Pack died, apparently.

"Now remember to get some sleep and plenty of fluids- oh, that's right.  You died.  How silly of me."

I guess Daniel Stern did such a good job of portraying Six Pack as a creepy asshole that even the film makers hated his guts by this point in the movie.  The guy didn't even manage to get an on screen death, they just had a shot of an EKG flat lining and then Doc walks out of the infirmary and switches off the lights.

Doc and Beck are again understandably freaked out about someone dying in eight hours from a skin rash on their underwater base(perhaps because of the recently visited plague ridden ship), so they call up Martin to see about evacuating to the surface.  She of course denies their request and claims that there is a hurricane nearby which prevents a safe pickup.  This of course is totally not a completely obvious lie.

Meanwhile Bowman is starting to freak the fuck out because she is starting to feel morbidly sick too and her hair has started falling out.  She completely loses her shit when she sees that Sixpack has died, and his body has started to pulsate and ooze various fluids, so she slits her wrists in the shower to kill herself.

Some time later, the crew all finds that Bowman's body picked itself up off of the exam table and walked over to Sixpack's body where they both proceeded to melt together.  Needless to say, everyone's underwear is all kinds of shades of brown at this point.  They attempt to dump the bodies out the "airlock", however the Bowman/Sixpack mutant...thing has started moving again which causes anyone who had decided to change their drawers before moving the body rather than waiting until afterward feeling pretty foolish.

One of the thing's limbs gets caught in the airlock as it closes, resulting in it getting cut off and laying on the deck.  Apparently nobody notices the equivalent of a human arm laying on the floor, or nobody really cares.  I suppose that desiccated human remains just aren't considered messy enough to warrant getting cleaned up by these folks.  I'd hate to see what the inside of the bathroom there looks like.

"Don't you think the severed mutant arm really compliments all the poop and vomit splatters?"

The next ten minutes or so is spent showing how all of the surviving characters are dealing with the circumstances.  Williams takes a shower in her clothes while she bawls her eyes out.  Now, based on previous horror film experience, many a movie watcher would assume that this means that she is going to die because as I said before "losing your shit = certain death" however, she has two very big trump cards that cancel this out.

One is that she is the most attractive character still left alive, and hasn't had sex during the course of the film.  The other is that she also is the only female character left alive, and as we all know; in like 90% of all horror films out there, at least one of the surviving characters will be a woman(excluding films with no female characters to begin with).  Effectively she's got plot armor that could stop an anti-tank missile.

Meanwhile Jones decides to deal with the situation by freaking the fuck out on Dejesus and his freshly assembled jigsaw puzzle.

"Fuck you Swiss landscape photo, it's all your goddamn fault!"

Now I poke fun, but this actually is something that you don't see often in this kind of film.  Usually once the first character bites it, the rest of the cast are too busy trying to keep their internal organs from being used to redecorate the place to bother with mourning or dealing with their loss.  Here we get just that; the characters all deal with the sudden tragic loss of two of their comrades, it is actually a rare bit of plot development in an otherwise shallow genre(no pun intended).

We get to see Martin continuing to bullshit Beck with the same line about a hurricane, and we get some snippets of some kind of eel type creatures crawling out from the formerly severed limb in the airlock room.

Elsewhere, Jones and Dejesus make up and Jones offers to help him reassemble his puzzle.  So, since Jones is preparing to complete a time consuming task in cooperation with his good friend, he decides to sit down in front of the TV and put on some earphones. Cuz, you know, talking is the last thing you want to do when trying to complete a time consuming and tedious task.  This is so totally not the standard "one character gets disemboweled a few feet away while another character is completely oblivious" horror movie scene.  So we are totally not surprised when the previously mentioned eel creature leaps out at Dejesus from one of the cupboards in the kitchen and starts to burrow into his chest.

When Jones finally does realize that Dejesus now has an extra appendage sticking out of his chest, he loses whatever shit he still has which isn't currently encrusted on the inside of his underwear an leaves the mess hall, sealing Dejesus inside while he goes to get help.  This whole time we have been getting shots of Williams jogging around the station while something unseen scuttles around in the shadows nearby.  This seems to indicate that there is a second creature aboard the station, whether this is supposed to be the one which they originally flushed out the airlock earlier, or that severed limb just split into two separate lifeforms or what is unclear.

Anyway Jones, Doc, and Beck return to the mess hall to find that the giant metal door that sealed over the entrance has been ripped open.  They of course realize that the shit is deep and they are in it.  What follows is a pretty standard "Lock and Load Montage" where the surviving characters go to the tool closet to retrieve what look like high tech power tools, including one which looks like a space aged hedge trimmer and for lack of a better word a flamethrower.  Now, why these guys would need a hedge trimmer or better yet a motherfucking flame thrower in an underwater mining station is beyond me.  In fact, I'm pretty sure that having such a device in such an enclosed space where oxygen is far harder to come by is probably really dangerous, but they've got them here.

 Fuck you OSHA!

At this point I suddenly realize that I haven't even introduced us to Hector Elizondo's character whose name is Cobb.  He's largely just a background character who makes the occasional quip or smartassed remark, but doesn't stand out much, which is a waste of talent in my opinion considering how good of an actor Elizondo is. 

His most defining moment came earlier in the film while he was discussing his incredibly pessimistic view of life back on the mainland and why he thinks they are lucky to be down there in the ocean.  I think it should be mentioned that I was pretty well aware that he was destined to die from the outset because in this kind of movie, people over a certain age limit almost always die.  That is unless that character is the old lady who lives just on the outskirts of the abandoned town and warns our protagonists about the monster/cult/ghost that inhabits these parts.

Needless to say, Cobb does not possess any of those characteristics, and so when he and Doc head on up to the infirmary for whatever reason and he decides to go off on his own, I know exactly what's coming.  He walks down the hall to a wire junction box or some such thing that looks damaged.  Being the smart guy he is, he places his chainsaw on the floor so that it will be completely out of reach while he is examining the damaged wires.

He is of course the only one who is surprised when a hideous tentacle leaps out from a hole in the floor and tries to drag him away.  He is fortunate that Doc is nearby though, and the other man surprisingly leaps into action, picking up the chainsaw and severing the attacking tentacle, saving Cobb from certain death(or a gender reversed reenactment of the most famous scene from Galaxy of Terror) and the fate that seemed almost guaranteed based on his character traits.

The gang debates on what to do about their predicament and the decision is reached to lure the creature down into the airlock where they can flush it out into the ocean.  Although I'm not sure what they expect to  happen then, since it has already been established that a giant metal door proves to be of little trouble for the creature to rip open, so I doubt that the metal hull of the station will prove to be much more of a challenge.

Earlier it was established that the creature likes blood(it took all the blood supplies out of the infirmary) so the plan is to use some of Beck's blood as bait.  So Beck and Jones set up a trail of blood spots like some demented version of Hansel and Gretel, leading down to the airlock room. 

While the other three wait, I learn that my initial preconception about Cobb's fate in this movie were not mistaken after all, as he starts complaining that he is feeling really itchy.  Doc claims that it means he is healing, but he and the audience know that Sixpack was scratching at some heavy itching on his arms before he died.

Doc suddenly decides to go for a walk all by himself, and of course both Cobb and Williams wonder what the fuck he is thinking by going off by himself unarmed.  Perhaps they have finally realized that they are in a horror movie and that such a course of action ranks right up there with drunken chainsaw juggling as far as bad life decisions go.

It looks like the good doctor has well and truly lost it as he walks around the station, seemingly oblivious to the risk of death by mutant fish person.  His journey takes him up to the infirmary where he logs into his computer and drafts a lovely email to the folks on the surface declaring that the Shack and everyone in it is completely doomed.  He then proceeds(unbeknownst to everyone else) to jettison all of the escape pods, this preventing everyone from well... escaping the station.

Things with Cobb reach their expected conclusion when something under his shirt starts to move of its own accord.  Williams understandably says "fuck this shit" and bugs out of there like there is no tomorrow, meanwhile the now mutated Cobb turns and lunges at Doc.  The good doctor attempts to struggle, but it proves to be no use as Cobb's hand develops a sudden case of vagina dentada which he thrusts at the poor doctor's face.

A thoroughly freaked out Williams heads straight for Jones and Beck which also happens to totally fuck up their plans as rather than head for the bait, the creature runs after her in stead.  They all manage to slip past the monster and make it to the infirmary where they learn that Dock has screwed them over .  Beck decides to send a new email saying that the previous message was wrong and they still want to be rescued, which prompts Martin to call them up again.

They demand that she send help ASAP, but she proceeds to tell them that (surprise!) the hurricane has taken a turn toward their location meaning that they will have to wait another 48 hours for rescue.  This is met with considerable displeasure on the part of our plucky heroes.

"We're totally gonna rescue you, like one of these days... honest!"

After a few hours of devoting serious thought to the issue, Beck realizes that the blood sucking corporate shill may not be telling the whole truth in regard to the hurricane(doy!).  So he decides to check the weather service, which of course has been disconnected.  After Williams gets the bright idea to check on her company stock options(which the evil megacorp forgot to shut down access to), they learn that their friendly megacorp employers have released a cover story claiming that the station was destroyed and all crew were lost.

Managing to surmise that they in fact are still quite alive, it is decided that Martin (again big surprise!) was totally full of shit, and that that there is no rescue coming for them.  Things get worse when the creature damages something in the station which stops air from circulating in the station which is explained will cause the air pressure to be too low to prevent the station from imploding.  Cue a dramatic countdown to destruction.

Our heroes race down metal pipe and wire lined corridoors while an automated voice counts down ominously, they find some machine which is revealed to be beyond repair, and our heroes then decide to try and gerry rig some kind of solution by going to the airlock room.  Two harrowing encounters with the creature or creatures(whether there is one or more than one monster is never fully explained, things only get more confusing later on) including one such encounter where Beck is ensnared by a tentacle around his chest which he manages to escape from through the usage of a miniature circular saw... slice and dice!

They get to the airlock room and Jones claims that the air valves are too hot to get to, I dunno why the air pressure valves would be hot in the first place, but then again I'm no expert in underwater mining base construction, so whatever.  In a split second, Beck figures out a way to escape using the suits and these giant underwater balloon things to allow them to float to the surface.  I guess someone sent him a copy of the film's poster art beforehand.

"What's a spoiler?"

Beck makes preparations to pull a heroic sacrifice to allow the other two to escape because like everyone else in the movie who has died, he was touched by one of the monsters, so he is destined to get mutated into some inhuman monster too.  It's a daring subversion of the horror movie formula where the black guy actually lives for once and the guy who they have been setting up to be our hero surprises everybody by dying in stead... er wait, no that was the way any decent writer would have ended the film. 

In stead they just have him leave the station about a minute later along with everyone else, killing the creature by decapitating it in the airlock hatch as it closes.  The cliche's don't stop there as the station is destroyed in dramatic fashion just as our heroes make a standard death defying last minute escape, then the same monster or a different one(again, not sure which) suddenly shows up on the surface and for some inexplicable reason Jones decides to stay behind and sacrifice himself for the other two in stead of just making a getaway in the conveniently arriving helicopter with the other two non-minority characters.  Beck also makes the inexplicable decision to swim over to the helicopter, then change his mind, swim back toward the monster and practice his free throw by tossing a mining charge into the creature's conveniently open mouth which proceeds to explode in gratuitous fashion.

"Say AAAHHH Motherfucker!!!" this line was actually spoken.



So... rip off the ending of Alien: check, crappy one liner by our hero: check, rip off the ending of Jaws: check, seemingly forget that you forgot to kill off the black guy earlier and that the there is only like ten minutes of film left so you off him in the most absentminded last minute fashion possible: check.  Oh yeah, there was also a shark that swam around nearby for a bit acting all threatening before just leaving for no apparent reason, not exactly sure what the point of that was, but I guess the director decided to just throw that in there for the hell of it, maybe an actual shark really did show up during shooting and they decided to just use the footage from that day anyway, or maybe they were out of money and couldn't afford to re-shoot, so they just rolled with it.  Oh yeah, and it is revealed that its nice and calm on the surface with no sign of a hurricane, like anybody was surprised by that.

The last scene shows up with the coast guard helicopter dropping the last two survivors off on an oil rig somewhere, there are no doctors to check and see if they are okay, no lawyers or law enforcement types or reporters to inquire about the fact that their employers had them declared dead for some unknown reason.  No, our heroes just walk off away from the helicopter onto the oil rig and Beck punches Martin in the freaking face.

 “Say AAHH Motherfucker!!!”

So that was Leviathan, all in all not bad compared to the vast majority of other sci-fi horror flicks to come out of the 80's.  The acting was quite decent, the soundtrack by Jerry Goldsmith was up to par for one of the greats of movie music, and the creature effects were quite excellent(as they should be for being a Stan Winston production).  Where it suffered was writing and directing which ranged from mediocre to down right inexplicable in some places. 

The directing suffered largely due to several weird editing and cinematographic choices, especially the deaths of Sixpack and Jones which seemed to have been given as little thought and screen time as possible.  The writing also had some serious weaknesses, including a lack of consistency on some basic tenets of how the monster worked like how the infection spread to anybody who even touched one of them and then this was promptly forgotten at about the three quarter mark of the movie. Also it is mentioned that the creature has considerable regenerative capabilities which adds to the confusion of whether or not there are multiple creatures or not, since seeing one die and then another one appear later would indicate that there are in fact two, but it's always possible that it is just the same one that managed to heal its earlier injuries.

Now, did I like the movie?  Yes.  I mean it wasn't The Dark Knight or Gran Torino or something, but if you are willing to accept the movie as what it is: a cheesy 80's sci-fi horror schlock fest, then it can be a really fun movie to watch.  Anyway, that is my review of Leviathan, and as a parting gift, I leave you with this:

1.)While I am sure that Italy has produced its fair share of art house films, I was mainly referring to mainstream releases.