The Deep Below

An unfinished movie

Most people should avoid buying this DVD and/or immediately expel it from their Netflix queue. While not without charm, it is not a watchable movie. It really should never have been released at all. Yet, despite my giving it one star, I don't regret seeing it. However I cannot, in good conscience, recommend it for a general audience.

"The Deep Below" is a poorly made movie. And I don't mean that minor problems tainted what was an otherwise okay movie. Rather we are talking severe structural issues that render it hopelessly stillborn. Yet through the miraculous, if necromantic midwifery of Amazon, it is available for anyone to view nevertheless. Not only is the movie misbegotten, but this movie was simply not finished. Really. Some examples of what I mean follow.

Many scenes lack dialog partially or entirely. I guess it is possible the sound balance was way out of whack. But I don't think so. While watching the movie I frequently saw what looked to me like missing dialog that was meant to be ADR-ed in later. For example, there is a scene where Dohring appears to be mumbling unintelligibly. Perfect technique in the unlikely event that a director instructed you to pretend to say something that can be looped in later--once the script was firmed up a bit. Apparently "later" never came.

More evidence that the movie is not complete: special effects needed to carry the plot are simply missing. For example, in a climactic scene late in the movie, Will Taylor's (Dohring) friends rescue him from an underwater vault in which he is trapped by ripping the door off the vault with a speed boat. As ridiculous as that might seem, try to imagine how such a scene would play with no footage of the vault door. Also missing: sorely needed establishing shots that might have sewn together scenes that haphazardly follow each other. Finally, much of what *is* in the movie needs further editing.

For me the most intriguing question about this film is how did it come to be? From the "making of" segment included in the DVD, The Deep Below seems to have been the creation of writer-director Rod Slane. As is typical in "making of" films, Slane relates various travails that hindered making the movie. Generally the "making of" genre requires that the cast and crew heroically (or alternatively, comically) overcome all odds to produce the blockbuster you've just watched. But in this "making of", Slane is depicted as being in over his head with comments like "well let's do something, even if it is the wrong thing". It was one of the grimmest things I've seen in a while. Difficult to imagine that the director of the "making of" was not being intentionally subversive. It could have been comical had Slane been oblivious, but I got this undercurrent of torment from Slane. Like he knows the project is sliding sideways, he is unable deal, but he's soldiering on nevertheless. I suppose I'll muster the courage to listen to the director commentary some day. But I'm imagining that would be pretty brutal to listen to.

Okay, not so surprising that a film maker could get in over their head like this, but how did professional actors like Dohring, Sirtis and Dorn get dragged into this disaster? Then, once there, what kind of superhuman professionalism allowed them to turn in credible performances in the face of what must have been the obvious failings of the project. This is why I don't regret watching (and buying) this DVD. Clearly something went very wrong in the making of the film, but it does rather highlight what skilled actors these guys are.

Finally, and with some serious reservations I'll give the film one admittedly back-handed positive comment. There might be a certain inadvertently postmodern aspect to "The Deep Below". That is, not only was there no point at which I was able to suspend disbelief during the course of this movie, but I found it had a fiendish "aftertaste" that made it difficult to get into unrelated and well-constructed shows I watched afterward. How is that positive? Well, say the world were under the dominion of slick genius auteurs like Joss Whedon. Were you the hero needing to see through their closely-woven fabrications, this could be the movie that you could watch to inoculate you against the real thing.

Or, how about, if you needed to prove to yourself that you really will watch anything, *anything* with Jason Dohring in it, then this is indeed the film to prove yourself no fair weather fan. July 18, 2008

Movie summary

"Will Taylor (Jason Dohring) has nightmares about watching his father and aunt being murdered when he was only four years old. Will lives with his troubled uncle Joe Mitchell (Jeff Corbett) because his mother remains catatonic from the attack. Joe, who has his own problems with his girlfriend Sarah (Marina Sirtis), has raised Will since the bank robbery that killed his wife and brother-in-law. Back in 1990 the whole town of Canyon Hills had to be moved because a new dam was built to prevent chronic flooding. The original town is now at the bottom of the lake. Will finds out that the stolen bank money was never found and begins diving to recover it and his past. Enter Carl Bennett (Michael Dorn), the bank robber turned murderer. Just released from prison, he is heading for Canyon Hills to recover the money he left behind. Who will get to it first? Written by CG Cristo" July 29, 2007

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