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Possibly the last of the New World Pictures eco-horror movies, this final effort bows out in exploitation's version of high style. To wit: the humanoids of the title are coming ashore near a Pacific Northwest fishing town to breed with human women. The humanoids in question are the result of government experiments in cross-breeding humans and salmon and, like the salmon from which their genetic make-up is derived, they return to their spawning grounds for mates. The mates in question are the nubile teenage girls of the town. This, of course, gives the filmmakers the license to film the living end of the bug-eyed monster sci-fi pulp fiction covers of the fifties--the humanoids are seen in fairly explicit acts of copulation with half (and sometimes fully) naked actresses. Of course, the men of the town will have none of that. At first, racist hothead Vic Morrow blames the town's Native American activists for the disruption of their fishing (the humanoids attack lone fishing vessels first, you see) until the movie erupts in a full scale invasion of the autumn carnival by the humanoids. Meanwhile, our heroes (tough-guy Doug McClure and comely scientist Anne Turkel) are getting close to the origins of the humanoids. The townspeople eventually dispatch the humanoids (after much gratuitous violence), but the film ends with a hilariously over-the-top rip-off of the chest-burster scene in Alien as one of the female victims of the attack gives birth to a humanoid.

Director Barbara Peeters and producer Roger Corman have been arguing in public about this movie for two decades now. Peeters claims that some of the most outrageous acts of misogyny in the movie were inserted by Corman over her protests. Personally, I can't really see what difference it makes. The misogyny is there from the get go in the film's premise. If Peeters was so concerned with the degradation of women, she shouldn't have signed on to make the movie in the first place. As it is, the sheer outrageousness of the film actually enhances its appeal. Lord knows, I watched it a couple of times on cable when I was a teenager, before it vanished from home video for all those years. Sex and violence will always appeal to an audience of teenaged boys. Watching it again on video after all this time made me nostalgic for those early days of HBO.

Oh, don't get me wrong, Humanoids from the Deep is a dreadful movie, but even a dreadful movie like this can be a pleasure when all the elements of exploitation filmmaking are clicking--as they are here. All of the New World eco-horror movies (which include films like Frogs and Piranha) have a certain vitality to them despite the cynical opportunism at their core. Even if Humanoids from the Deep DOESN'T have a witty, smart-ass of a director behind the camera (a Joe Dante, for instance, or an Alan Arkush), it's still awfully funny. I'm inclined to credit Corman for this, given that Peeters seems so uptight about what actually wound up on screen. The cast, especially AIP veteran Doug McClure, are perfect for the material and the producers are willing to let their misanthropy and misogyny have full reign. This film couldn't be made today, despite Corman's recent remake for cable. Since no one seems willing to let it all hang out like this any more, we shall have to content ourselves with taking it where we can get it....