Plankton (1994 Video) User Reviews

I can barely compose my thoughts after watching this.

[Zbigniew_Krycsiwiki · 5/10 · 7 September 2013]

Five teenagers go motorboating one night, and suddenly find themselves in a rainstorm. Bikini-clad, they board an abandoned ship adrift at sea and end up fighting off .... something or other, on board the yacht. It's too dark and badly photographed to tell for certain. A circle of some sort was placed over the lens to simulate the creature's point-of-view, for scenes of it stalking these soon-to-be-fish-food fools.

Dead, mutated piranha in the freezer don't deter these nitwits from further inspecting the contents of this abandoned ship. Hell, they even cook them up and eat them for dinner. After poking his girl's ass with a dead fish, a guy finds some unidentifiable goo on a shelf, puts it to his mouth and tastes it! Yes, these characters will live a long a healthy life.

Thawed, mutated piranhas from hell go on a rampage, chowing down on these braindead cyphers for most of the rest of the film's run time, which was probably 15 minutes too long, incidentally.

There's a bit of nudity (which distracts from the gore) and gooey, vomiting effects and gore (which distracts from the nudity) in this badly dubbed grade Z-flick, which looks like it was filmed several years earlier and sat unreleased for quite a while, from the looks of the awful looking mullets, and the guy in the white speedo. But there are a few unintentional laughs, the girls look good and wear as little as possible, so it might be fun for fans of zero budget sleaze to watch this in the right frame of mind.

Cheap, gory, trashy, sleazy... LOVED IT!

[Coventry · 5/10 · 9 April 2005]

"Creatures from the Abyss" is an insignificant and very nasty Italian romp that 'borrows' elements from every notable underwater SF/horror film made in the past 25 years. It rips off the obvious classics like "Piranha", "the Abyss" and "The Thing", but it also steals ideas from B-movies of which I never assumed they would have inspired anyone to do the same. Like "DeepStar Six", "The Blob"-remake and even Roger Corman's "Humanoids from the Deep". Don't even consider buying this flick if you got any good taste left in you, as this is really bottom of the barrel camp! We're talking atrocious acting, hilariously bad dialogue ("Hey, that fish has an evil expression!") and grotesque gore that somewhat resemblances the artwork of Screaming Mad George. Nonetheless, I loved watching it simply because it's such dumb and brainless entertainment that doesn't require any involvement whatsoever. The plot centers on five stupid teenagers who planned a nice day at the beach with their rubber boat. They're overcome by a storm and seek shelter on an Oceanographic Research yacht (let's ignore for a moment that they supposedly drifted off to the middle of the Atlantic on that ridiculously small motorized raft...). Despite the ominous setting of the abandoned yacht, they throw a little dinner party and have some sex. Until, finally, one of them (who at least has a little brain capacity) discovers that giant amounts toxic waste poisoned the plankton in the ocean. Seeing that this plankton is an essential food source for many ocean organisms, the fish have mutated and eaten the crew. Some sequences rate very high on the repulsive-scale, like a girl vomiting sea-creatures or a dude transforming into a rancid monster during a sex-act. The nauseating gore actually is the only reason to check the film out, since there's not much tension or intrigue. It's an unusual type of gore for an Italian film, I'll give it that, as it doesn't handle about zombies or mad raving cannibals for a change. The English dubbing is downright painful and easily one of the worst I ever beheld...and that has got to mean something.

"Creatures from the Abyss" is an Italian film made in the 90's. The only Italian genre director who still meant something during this decade was Michele Soavi and he sure as hell didn't have anything to do with this production. That should give you a little idea about how "good" this film is. It's sick, ugly and monstrous! You can either take that as a warning or a recommendation.

Why aren't you listening? I can still hear footsteps...

[Hey_Sweden · 5/10 · 9 November 2017]

Mike (Clay Rogers), Bobby (Michael Bon), Margareth (Sharon Marino), Dorothy (Laura di Palma), and Julie (Ann Wolf) are as insipid a bunch of horror movie characters as you'll ever see. With Mike representing the only working brain they have among them, they end up taking a motorized raft out into the ocean. However, their gas was left behind, and they are soon stranded out there, while a storm rages. Then they encounter a vast yacht which is part pleasure ship, but mostly a biological laboratory. The air headed group is ultimately terrorized by the marine life on the vessel.

"Creatures from the Abyss" is crude in pretty much every department, including script, acting, and effects. The dialogue is lousy, yet sometimes very funny in its lousiness; one of the gals comments that the fish on display "have an evil expression". You won't care about the characters, and will thus likely enjoy seeing them subjected to a variety of comeuppances. All of that said, this 1990s Italian product does often get by on sheer outrageousness. It's rough going for a while - VERY rough going - but the viewer eventually gets rewarded with some priceless, over the top creature effects gags. Best of all is a classic case of coitus interruptus when one of the two participants begins mutating. The effects may be crude, but they ARE plentiful, and they're frequently fun.

All of this nonsense is set to a silly electronic score credited to Elikonia Group. Production design and lighting are adequate for a production budgeted at roughly $250,000. Among the young actors, Rogers comes off the best, but this is basically because his egghead character isn't as annoying as the others. And, for those who are interested, Wolf does bare her breasts.

The capper is that the automated systems on the ship are given electronic voices, which chatter away in the most inane way possible.

Overall, this is worth at least one look if you're enticed by the prospect of unearthing obscure cheese.

Five out of 10.

Amazing Trash

[cath-stinton · 29 July 2005]

I didn't expect anything amazing from this film. It was specifically bought on a late-night wander around Tesco on a hunt for something to amuse a group of five friends with. It was a toss up between Creatures of the Abyss or something to do with a leprechaun and some rappers. 'Creatures' won, solely for the expression on the face of the girl on the front cover, and the fact that none of us like rap.

We weren't disappointed with the result. We went expecting some atrocious acting, stupid plot, and something generally cheesy and terrible we could watch while drunk and laughing at it. It provided exactly that. It was a bit slow before any of the truly ridiculous incidents came along, but the actually-flying fish attaching itself to Random Girl #1's throat kicked off a roller-coaster of a time.

I found myself laughing so hard I couldn't breathe in a grand total of two incidents during the film - the first, Slightly-Branier Guy's rampage of the fish lab, destroying everything in sight with a large bone, randomly grunting all the way and showering Stupid Guy with random bits of lab as he cowered in the corner. Mostly the overblown nature of the scene, the aforementioned mad grunting (sound guys should have been fired) and the fact that this scene took up about five minutes of random destruction did it. Then there would be the Random Surviving Scientist who, it was pointed out, shared a surprising similarity to Billy Connelly and existed only to look scary and die at the end being pointless.

But the best scene was, indeed, the fish-man-sex scene. Random Girl #2 not realising that she was having sex with a fish was funny enough, but the eye-swallowing scene almost made me choke to death with laughter at just how ridiculous it all was.

Other highlights would include the truly bizarre range of different accents Stupid Guy chose to use, Random Girl #2 giving birth to a ship's worth of caviar, Random Girl #1 shooting herself in the head with a harpoon girl, and the expressions on the face of Random Girl #3 when she has tentacles coming out of her head.

Grotesque, ridiculous, and NO WAY made in 1994 for the general visual quality, if you're looking for a film so terrible you'll end up laughing at it, I'd recommend Creatures of the Abyss. Expect girls who are pretty much interchangeable, random nudity (on a freaky abandoned ship, girls get topless, look down at their breasts and say "I think I need a new bra." Scene over), terrible sound, and caviar.

Lots of caviar.

Fans of terrible horror films REJOICE!!!!

[WyteRabit · 1/10 · 10 September 2007]

Being a fan of bad movies, I was thrilled to find a 3 pack of cr@ppy horror at Best Buy today. The set was cheap and included a terrible film called "the Dark" that I actually remember seeing in the theater.

The remaining 2 were equally as bad. "Creatures from the Abyss" being probably the worst of the bunch. Since they were all bad that isn't saying much. But its stupidity, bad acting, terrible effects and retarded storyline actually made this one a lot of fun to watch. I was rolling on the floor with each new plot development. The discovery of the abandon ship, the missing crew, the realization that there was something terribly wrong!!! It was great!!! Of course, everyone's favorite scene seems to be the sex scene. OMG!! I almost lost it!!! Between that an the "monster cam", I have to say I enjoyed this film a lot.

I am a fan of bad movies so I enjoyed it but in all fairness, I did have to give the movie a 1. IT WAS AWFUL... But if rubbish is your bag, at least rent this one... (YES the BAD pun was intentional)

Not a 'The Thing' Rip off! An Evil Dead rip off :)

[Sic Coyote · 5/10 · 5 September 2001]

This film has so much in common with things happening in the evil dead, but it's got flying killer fish and a strange boat. This was made in the nineties? No way! Looks like it was made in the early eighties. Now I won't trash this movie to much,(there's enough trash in it already) it's strange, oversexed sick and has some terrible effects (although that may be a work print that I saw, even though it was translated to English). I bought this as a rather dodgily titled 'Piranha 4' Video CD when I was in Malta (where I also managed to catch a documentary on Italian horror movies on the TV, what luck!) I paid my £5 pounds and couldn't wait to get back to England to see it. I stuck it in and got drunk on vodka, I'm not sure if that effected my enjoyment of the film, but it was GREAT! Not in a classic movie way or in an Evil Dead way, but in the way it was just so wacky sick and crazy that you just keep watching! Don't expect anything more than trash and you will be in for a good time, just best watched when drunk I think :) Oh yes and look out for some great fake explosions.

I would have given it a five had it been made in the 80's...

[Aaron1375 · 4/10 · 2 August 2021]

I watched this film in amazement as it was absolutely bizarre. All through this thing I thought it was a film from the 80's, then I look it up and it is from 1994. So the effects look very dated for 1994 as John Carpenter's The Thing boosts way superior effects and it was made 10 years prior to this thing. I am probably being generous giving it a four as it has such horrible editing that even I noticed the editing was bad! It also boosts five of the most annoying and stupid characters ever put to film! Three of them were at least easy on the eyes I guess. Not sure why they went with Plankton rather than Creatures of the Abyss, that one makes it sound so much more ominous while this one just sounds like it should have been a nature documentary...

The story, well, five people who are super excited and talking over each other in what seems to be a cocaine induced frenzy get a raft and put it in the water, a rather small raft I might add. Hilarious hi jinks ensue as one of them gets caught in a net! Okay, it wasn't that funny, but the characters sure thought it was! Well, they get stranded as their tiny boat ran out of gas, good news as storms don't happen in the summer one of the characters said and then they get caught in a storm. Thankfully, they find a yacht, unfortunately, it is filled to the brim with fish monstrosities that are horny...still not sure how are why this plot point was needed or what was going on throughout most of the film.

So, most of the film was filler as the fish attacks are few and far between. For reasons that still baffle me there is a bathroom with like a sexy hostess or something that tells you how to shower and none of the characters are stunned by this...apparently, they've been in a shower like this previously? There is also a wall clock that says stupid things and also rarely tells time and this too is not questioned. Very strange movie that seemed to be trying to go in a sexy horror direction, but it is just too gross in sections to pull this off successfully.

So, the film was edited poorly and you really do not understand what the heck the cast is saying until they get on the yacht. Still, it was so crazy that you could not look away and the effects had a certain charm. Though, the film would have been more impressive had it been made in the 80's, because it sure did have that vibe to it.

Gory, grimy recent Italian "The Thing" ripoff.

[Aylmer · 3/10 · 4 March 2000]

Boasting some pretty good Rick Baker-esque special effects and Deran Serafian in a small role, this pretty lame Italian movie deserves some recognition. Cerchi gets some credit for still making gore flicks while most of the other Italian directors (Ruggero Deodato, Sergio Martino, Lamberto Bava, and Enzo G. Castellari) have moved on to lower-key TV movies. As for plankton, it's half Piranha - half The Thing, with people turninging into monsters, raping women, and causing general mayhem. The ultra-grimy, sleazy, and over-sexed feel of the film makes it hard to enjoy. Only available in Italian language work-prints floating around.

"These fish are mutants." Awful horror film that is really painful to sit through.

[poolandrews · 1/10 · 2 September 2005]

Plankton, or Creatures from the Abyss as I'm positive it's more commonly known as & filmed under as the title Creatures from the Abyss appears over a moving image & in the same font type as the rest of the credits, starts with five 20 something kids, Mike (Clay Rogers) his girlfriend Margaret (Sharon Twomey), sisters Julie (Ann Wolf) & Dorothy (Loren DePalm) & an annoying idiot named Bobby (Michael Bon) whom decide to all fit into a small rubber boat & head out to sea, don't ask why as I don't know. Oh & the complete idiot Bobby left the petrol behind & never thought to tell anyone so it comes as no great surprise that they end up stranded out at sea without any petrol for the motor & to make matters worse they become trapped in a thunder storm & discover a dead body floating in the water. Shortly after their luck seems to change when they come across a yacht & potential safety, in a flash everyone boards the yacht & begin to explore. First of all they find a scientific lab with various fish specimens & computer equipment, then down below they find fully furnished & luxurious cabins. They find a chemist (Deran Sarafian) who appears mad & can't talk. They eat fish from the fridge which makes Dorothy puke up green vomit, beetles & slugs. They learn that these fish are living fossil's 1000's of years old & have been contaminated by toxic waste dumped in the sea & that they fly, mutate, bite & are generally unpleasant to be around. I really can't be bothered to go on with this plot outline so I won't, here's what I think...

This Italian production was produced & directed by Massimiliano Cerchi under the pseudonym Al Passeri (I'd hide under a different name if I made a film this bad too) & I think Plankton is quite simply one of the worst films ever, there are so many things wrong with this film it's difficult to know where to start. First the script by Richard Baumann is total crap, it makes no sense whatsoever & is so slow & dull it was torture for me to sit through. Why would five people just simply set sail for the middle of the ocean on a rubber dinghy barely big enough to fit them all in? What were they planning on doing exactly? Why do we often get point-of-view shots from these fish creatures but they seem to be totally invisible to the characters as they are never shown on screen even though they are right next to a character, & how do these fish get around the boat as there is no water for them to swim in? People's actions & reactions to things are all wrong, they constantly split up, they make bizarre decisions that simply don't make any sense in the situation they find themselves in & some of the dialogue is as awful as anything I've heard. I could go on all day about all the plot holes & ridiculous goings on but I'll run out of space if I do. The fish creatures themselves look awful, a mixture of rubbish rubber puppets & some really bad stop motion animation at the end, the scenes where they interact with the human cast also look terrible with some bad super imposition. I have heard a lot of comments saying that Plankton is gory, don't make me laugh! Forget it there is virtually no blood or gore in Plankton whatsoever, there are a couple of slimy scenes when Bobby transforms into a fish monster while having sex with Julie but it's pretty brief & he doesn't kill her, he just sort of drips slime on her, grows a couple of tentacles & a fish head comes out of his mouth. Later on Julie's vagina starts to drip some dark slime but that's it, we never get to actually see what happens to her or what the slime is. Dorothy has a fish creature come out of her back, off screen, & control her but again we never get to see what happens to her while Margaret commits suicide, a very brief shot of a plastic harpoon stuck to her forehead. Easily the grossest scene is when Dorothy pukes up that green stuff with what looks like beetles & slugs in it. That's it, only one person actually dies on screen & for the most part Plankton is quite tame & as exciting as watching paint dry & I nearly fell asleep it's so boring. I can't see how anybody can like this total crap, I just can't. The acting is awful, the dubbing is awful, the characters are awful & I hated all of them. Tecnically Plankton is predictably crap as well, with an estimated budget of only $250,000 all I can say is where did the money go? The sets are monotonous & dull with one lab & a few cabins, the special effect's are bottom of the barrel stuff including the most fake looking exploding boat ever, the cinematography is bland, the music sucks there is zero atmosphere or tension & as a whole Plankton, like it's name sake, is as low in the food chain as it could possibly be. I hate Plankton, it's awful in every single aspect of it's overlong 86 minute duration. Do yourself a favour & avoid this one at all costs unless your either a masochist or insomniac.

Beer Will Help

[Steve_Nyland · 6/10 · 1 February 2006]

This is actually a surprisingly nihilistic little modern day B monster movie shot on DV, with a premise so stupid that no matter how idiotic the execution it still worked. A group of teenage dingbats stage their own private party on a deserted excursion yacht found floating aimlessly in the middle of a raging storm. The reason the yacht is deserted is because mutant fish monsters have evolved in about two days from a radioactive toxic waste spill and first mutated with the crew, and now they are ready to breed.

The slimy prospects of the lustful monster fishies is indeed realized during a hilariously over the top transformation scene that stands as the film's centerpiece: While attempting to score with one of the chicks, one of the guys (who has been exposed to the mutating waste) suddenly starts growing tendrils & spines and heaving out gobs of muck. What makes it funny is that the girl starts to like it, and the animated stop motion & prosthetic effects do not pause to consider how fake they look and instead concentrate on getting a few laughs plus gross out factor. The film has a reckless abandon to it crossed with a perverse sense of humor, nudity, and gross out gags.

In other words this is a party movie, not SCHINDLER'S LIST, and should be consumed only in the company of friends at social settings where alcohol is served and consumed in what might be deemed as an irresponsible manner. You'll need it for most of the warm up portion of the film -- after a nice frenetic Lost In The Storm sequence the movie settles down into cliché mid 1990's teen party footage for a while, but once the kids start disappearing and the monsters (interestingly depicted as first by only a fish-eye view of their own perspective as they stalk the idiots) start trying to glom onto them it starts to be actual fun. The "bad" or dated or low budget effects make it all the more enjoyable, including a downright nihilistic conclusion for this sort of fare.

Colorful, slimy, and over quickly -- try adding beer for optimal effect.

6/10 for this kind of stuff.

Wow

[BandSAboutMovies · 4/10 · 9 November 2021]

It's rare for Becca to get as upset about a movie as Plankton, but I've heard about this movie repeatedly since she watched it with me and with good reason. It's the kind of movie so bad that it circles the sun like Christopher Reeve Superman and comes back twice as horrible as it was before.

In short, this is the kind of movie I get on here and write a thousand words about.

Alvaro Passeri made The Mummy Theme Park and for that he gets a lifetime pass to make movies this horrifically rough. The editing gets so frenetic at one point that I was waiting for Cetin Inanc to fly over from Turkey and tell him to settle down.

Also known as Creatures from the Abyss, this film has the absolute nadir of special effects within it, as radioactive fish mutate and then take over humans and you ant everyone to die, particularly Bobby, who makes some of the worst jokes in the history of jokes. In fact, this movie is pushing me to look up new synonyms for worst, awful, bad and poor.

But how can I hate a movie that has a cyclopean mermaid clock that talks to everyone and says cute things and comments on the film? Why is there an anthropomorphic clock in an aquatic slasher film? There's an extra long vomit scene and an even more intense fish stomping scene and I nearly had a seizure several times in this movie from laughing and the strobing editing. And then some woman started growing crab claws out of her head that were basically crab claws tied to her head, perhaps via the magic of sweat band. And I nearly forgot that the shower has an artificial intelligence that just wants to see people have sex with each other or themselves while it watches.

I owe my wife an apology and you one as well, because as always, I've probably made this sound way better than it is. I'll probably watch it at least ten more times and fall in love with it even more, because it is obviously made by someone who has no idea that it is approaching John Waters levels of upsetting moments when all he wanted to do was make a silly little horror movie.

Holy Mother of Leviathan!!!

[Vomitron_G · 10/10 · 2 March 2006]

This movie is utter trash! No, wait, it's a masterpiece! It's totally cliché! No, wait, it's actually unpredictable! It's so bad, it's hilarious! No, wait, it's so hilarious, it's bad for your health! And it's got the best/worst dubbing I've ever seen! It also manages to rip-off every possible sea-creature-mayhem-movie. And some others too. Two scenes are in fact exact copies from EVIL DEAD. Further more this is a truly psychedelic experience.

All you need to know about the plot is: Five teenagers on a boat and crazy mutant fish monsters. The dialogues and characters are extremely dumb. For example: a couple walks to a refrigerator, which is open and has ice coming out of it, and the blond chick cleverly remarks "This must be a refrigerator". And when the brunette looks at a dead fish, she says "I don't like that fish. It's got an evil expression." Best dialogues ever! Best is to watch this with some friends and play silly games like betting which girl will take her top off first. I was betting on the blond babe. But I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the first female nudity-shot actually contained both the blond AND the brunette topless. Like I said, this movie can be unpredictable. The special effects are outrageous. Not particularly good, but very sick and colorful. And they also use a lot of different techniques, all very enjoyable. The explosions are so bad, you won't believe it. This flick also contains the most INSANE sex-scene I've ever seen. If you thought the scene with the couple making love by the fire in the woods in THE HOWLING was disturbing, then wait until you see this. There's also a scene where a chick gives birth to caviar! This flick is insane. I love it. It's that good. No, it's that bad.

Actually, I don't know anymore what it is. But I am gonna watch it again. Now, if I still have just a little bit of sanity left in me, after watching this trash, I will give it 1 out of 10 stars.

One for fans of the crude, the sick, the cheap

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 26 December 2015]

Although there is a small but dedicated section of horror fans who adore Italian horror films, the career of trash director Al Passeri (aka Massimiliano Cerchi) is one yet to be fully explored. Whilst his cheap but gory B-films make him the 'Bruno Mattei' of the 1990s and 2000s, the fact that most of his work is as yet unreleased outside of Italy means that he has an obscure status. CREATURES FROM THE ABYSS is one of his earlier works, a low budget and insane riff on THE THING, set on a sailboat in the middle of the ocean. It looks like CREATURES FROM THE ABYSS is going to be typical fare from the start, what with plenty of cheesecake as the bikini-clad unknowns strip their tops off at every opportunity, but soon the tone becomes darker and the viewer is lost amid a welter of cheap-but-cool effects, extreme bad taste and all kinds of gooey sexual situations.

Most aspects of the film are amateurish, but this is to be expected for the dedicated B-fan. Performances are abominable, the dubbing is also on the crude standard for the genre. The camera-work too is pretty dodgy, with weird eye-view floor shots from invisible creatures (???), lots of cheap music to complement the cheap action and flimsy-looking sets. But where this film excels is in the gross-out shocks and the special effects.

Beginning with a girl spewing up live bugs and beetles, the film continues as characters turn into fish-monsters and kill each other, with lots of goo and gunk splattering all over the set. Watch out for the weirdest, sickest sex scene in history (the guy's face rips back to reveal a nasty monster inside) which rivals similar moments in SOCIETY but on a much lower budget. Other favourite moments include the wicked stop-motion monster in the cargo hold (briefly seen, but a nice surprise, especially in the '90s) and the bit where the guy with the glasses goes on an overacting spree, smashing up the lab, all shot in loving slow-motion. It's great, it really is. Fans of the crude, of the sick, of the cheap, definitely give this one a shot; it's a real surprise.

Pretty Bad

[arfdawg-1 · 2/10 · 23 September 2020]

The only cool thing about this movie is that they actually put some stop motion work into it. It's pretty bad and the guy who did it never worked again, but at least they tried.

The entire front end of the film is so dark you cant make out anything. It was basically filmed with a dark blue filter to pretend it's night.

The girls are rather gnarly so you're not wishing for nudity. You get it about 2/3's in, and it's barf time. The movie appears to have had the entire dialog dubbed -- as if they filmed silent and added the voice later.

It's really bad.

Diabolical biological fish-things

[Dr. Gore · 19 March 2005]

*SPOILER ALERT* *SPOILER ALERT*

I bought this DVD. The cover had a woman wearing a bikini with a slimy tentacle around her neck. Her facial expression alone was worth the nine bucks. Let's just say she would graduate Magna Cum Laude from bad acting school. This bikini babe is nowhere to be found in the actual movie. That's appropriate since I was expecting an out of control B-movie with all of the trimmings. "Plankton" fits like a glove.

So three women and two guys are stuck in a storm and try to find safety on a yacht. They start to wonder about all of the frozen fish on board. What does it all mean? Is the yacht some sort of diabolical research vessel? Or is it really a drug smuggling operation? All of these questions become moot when the fish start going haywire and biting everyone in sight. This leads to many fish-like mutations and gory fish monster scenes.

Now, I'm not going to say that this is a good movie. "Plankton" is a straight forward B-movie with lots of blood and bad acting. I especially enjoyed the sex scene between the girl and the fish-monster. That was some eye popping fun. Overall, if you're the kind of person who enjoys a horny fish monster movie, you'll find something to like here. Otherwise, let this one flop away.

HOLD THE MAKO

[nogodnomasters · 6/10 · 18 April 2019]

When I saw all the American names,I was immediately confused by the horrible dubbing. People are talking, but the camera doesn't show their face. Three young ladies and two horn dogs go boating. As luck would have it, the motor conks out and it is raining. Fortunately a yacht is nearby and they are rescued, only to find an experimental oceanographic research vessel specializing in deep water life, that is empty.

The five make themselves at home and attempt to figure out the enigma. The girls take off their bikini tops to dry off and one was nice enough to shower (full frontal nudity). They consume the fish in the refrigerator, a major plot point as they now become infected with a carnivorous mutated fish that lives out of water (the smaller ones fly through the air.) Fish-People turn against people.

The special effects were bad. The plot, which started out good, became silly when they used the bad special effects. The dialogue was very weak. With the movie being so obviously dubbed, they should have created new dialogue with some hip American slang instead of attempting a phrase for phrase translation. The girls were pretty which might be the only reason to watch this film.

F-bomb, sex, nudity.

The best sea horror since Jaws!

[paddy1516 · 10/10 · 26 September 2005]

This film is by far the best sea horror I have ever seen bar none! The sex scene's are perhaps the best and are on par with those in Team America. The special effects are probably the best I've ever seen. And with dialogue such as "how long have you been f******g fish professor" "what, they were all of age!" you can't go wrong! This film's "radioactive levels were above danger-zone!" The dialogue is ace, and the dubbing was the best dubbing seen in any film, ever. They should've won an Oscar just for the dubbing alone. How can a film with so many continuity errors pose the question of man/woman - fish relations and still remain so entertaining.

Fun & Thrilling

[mickeymackenna · 11 October 2013]

What can I say for Plankton or known as Creatures from the Abyss I loved it..It reminded me of the good old days of late night cable TV on a Friday/Saturday night.Director Max Cerchi did a fantastic job directing a very cool Horror B film. What I liked about the story a young couple and their friends decide to go for a fun day at the beach take a trip on a small boat then run into trouble out in the middle of the ocean their boat is taking on water things look bad but luckily they come across an abandoned yacht boat, they go on board little do they know the looming is some kind of mutant crustacean danger that lies in their future. It seems that weird biological experiments were being conducted before the crew mysteriously vanished. Soon the horror ignites as the couple and friends begins to truly grasp the terror that awaits them when monstrous killer plankton come calling. I loved the cool special effects which included some interesting stop motion animation.

Creatures from the Abyss" or Plankton has a lot of cool B-movie stuff. Special effects range from fair to outlandishly silly. It did make me laugh a few times.

Tonight, you'll never eat fish again

[dolce_knights43 · 10/10 · 17 December 2008]

Yes, I'm afraid that this statement above is true. I wasn't able to eat a DECENT MEAL for a week thanks to this movie.I think I lost more than 5 pounds after seeing this movie. But why am I giving this movie 10 stars???

Cause It's one of the best sexually-charged and disgusting "fish-movies" ever made.

Stealing plots from "Evil Dead","Humanoids from the deep" and "Leviathan", this Italo movie is just insane from the first hilarious scene to the last!!! just check that dubbing!! I could't believe what my eyes were seeing:FISH-SEX! in full glory!With a plot would make roger ebert die of disgust and featuring "special" effects like flying paper-mache piranhas,Plankton just doesn't stop to amaze.The director is in full exploitation mode as he shoots these long naked shower shots and of course the infamous,protracted and disgusting "fish-banging" sequence complete with a tasty eyeball. Yummy! there are more scenes of disgust that I wont reveal and I swear that those scenes would have made Lucio Fulci cry. This is like "the legend of the overSEXED FISHMEN" It's a down and dirty "fishploitation" movie thats recommended only to the people who can stand the sight of talking fish raping the hell out of your typical dumb teenage girl.

Overall,this is a good effort from the Italian cinema as they try to win back their honor as the makers of the most depraved cinema on earth. Ruggero Deodato, THIS ONE'S FOR YOU!

LONG LIVE Italian CINEMA!

A wonderfully wretched high camp creature feature howler

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 20 April 2010]

Five teenagers -- bespectacled nerd Mike (Clay Rogers), his sweet fiancé Margaret (pretty brunette Sharon Twomey), obnoxious toolbox Bobby (Michael Bon), busty babe Julie (foxy blonde Ann Wolf), and her equally sexy sister Dorothy (fetching Laura di Palma) -- embark on a boating trip and wind up becoming seriously lost after they run afoul of a fierce storm. The quintet stumble across an abandoned yacht in the middle of the ocean with a mysterious biology lab on board it. Next thing you know the kids are being attacked by ferocious mutated prehistoric fish. Will any of them survive this harrowing ordeal? Boy, does this immensely messed-up movie possess all the right wrong stuff to qualify as a deliciously cheesy and often uproarious four-star stinkeroonie: simply atrocious (non)acting from a lame no-name cast, a totally ridiculous script that blatantly rips off such classic fright films as "Piranha," the '82 "The Thing" remake, and "The Evil Dead," hilariously horrendous dubbing, hopelessly inept (mis)direction, zero tension or creepy atmosphere, oodles of gross graphic gore (watch out for an especially revolting upchuck scene), insipid cardboard characters, cruddy (far from) special effects, laughably dumb dialogue ("Look, it's full of clothes," exclaims one gal after opening a closet), a generic hum'n'shiver synthesizer score, an insanely over-the-top conclusion, and, best of all, a gloriously tasteless scene in which Bobby transforms into a grotesque humanoid fishman beast while in the middle of doing just what you think with Julie. As a nice added bonus, both Wolf and di Palma spend the entire film wearing skimpy bikinis or less. "This is all absurd," Mike proclaims at one point in the picture -- and indeed that's exactly why this sublimely tacky trash rates highly as a completely sidesplitting unintentional laugh riot from start to finish.

Then the fish sex ensues...

[FacemeltingFilms · 10/10 · 1 May 2011]

Italian 80's horror movies always feel like sketchy territory. The actors are always too shiny, everything is lit like a porno and the Italians in the 80's couldn't act. Well, at least not the ones in this movie. Plankton starts off as a typical s--tty Italian horror movie but seems to make all the right choices. Out of nowhere you go from bored to enthralled. To this day I've never seen another film with homosexual fish sex. I think Plankton is the first.

Four teenagers decide it's a good idea to get into a motorboat and ride into the sunset (and into the middle of the ocean). Predictably they get lost and run out of gas. Soon they are lamely paddling their way through a stormy dark night, crying in the rain. On the verge of death they randomly bump into a huge metal ship floating in the middle of nowhere. Desperate, they climb aboard to seek shelter. They soon find that the ship is half laboratory and half 80's Italian bachelor pad complete with a stocked bar and sexy neon lights. They also find that the ship is strangely empty.

The film moves on with stumbling acting, horrible lighting and a basic disinterest in creating a well made film. There are strange unexplained things like a cartoon fish on the wall with a little girls voice that screams at everyone and a robot shower that wants to have sex with you and screams, "USE YOUR FINGERS!" over and over again. One of the more funny moments of the film happens early on when, as the girls are changing, one girl holds her boobies up to the camera and declares, "I think I need a new bra!" Then things start to get strange. They start hearing strange noises, one teenager will flip out and start screaming and crying and the next minute they will be fine again. The main character, Mike, starts snooping around and finds out that the ship was researching prehistoric piranha for a few years. The piranha are gay fish with unusually large genitals. For real. He actually says this out loud! Now here's the kicker: The scientists are all gay too and they have been fu--ing the fish for years! Apparently gay sex leads to mutations because all the scientists have either turned into huge gay fish or have been eaten by huge gay fish. Slowly the teenagers each fall to similar fates.

In the world of bizarre 80's Italian horror films this is right up their with Nightmare Beach and um……. I guess those are the only two I know. So it's definitely in the top 10! But for director Massimiliano Cerchi this is old news. He went on to direct such classics as Satan Claus, Brainmaster, The Mummy Theme Park and Carnage Road. His IMDb page is so impressive Face Melting Films is thinking about building a guide for the guy. Plankton is something that has to be seen to be believed and even though I've seen it I still don't believe it!

oh my god don't watch this dubbed

[DJ-Chojin · 4 May 2007]

OK this is probably a good film but i found an English dubbed version! its pointless watching it unless you want laughable dialogue esp when bobby finds the drugs!! this film sucks i really would like to see it with subtitles the acting i think will be much better. The rubber killer fish are funny. and the professor is well what can i say? like this line ''proffeser how long have you been f******g fish?'' ''they were old enough'' i don't know if that line is in the original language version. this film is not gory apart from little bits here and there by no means on the lines of gore from Italy I'm use to. the best bit the sex scene were Bobby turns into a fish monster really funny

This is what happens when seaweed goes bad.

[Lobsterman from Mars · 4 March 2002]

I was expecting this movie to be entertaining, I was let down big time. There was not one entertaining scene in the whole movie. Even the acting was bad. Avoid at all costs, resist the temptation.

Don't think I'll ever eat fish again after seeing this movie.

object x

[white pongo · 26 November 2001]

This actually played for a while about 2 years ago at a theatre here in Tokyo. The English title was CREATURES FROM THE ABYSS and the Japanese title translated as OBJECT X. It was an English language print and watching this late 70's/ early 80's-look trash in a theatre was a nice experience that made me wish I could have experienced 42nd st. in it's heyday. At the time I thought it was a new release and that it copied the British PROTEUS. But if it was made in '94, I guess the opposite is true.