REVIEW: JP SIMON’S THE RIFT / LA GRIETA (1990)
by Lin Carbajales (*)
1989 had to be a good year to go to the movies if you were into underwater horror. The Oscar-winning THE ABYSS came out, as well as the similarly themed DEEPSTAR SIX, LEVIATHAN, LORDS OF THE DEEP and THE EVIL BELOW. Spanish director Juan Piquer Simón (PIECES, SUPERSONIC MAN) tried his hand with this theme on THE RIFT or LA GRIETA, released in 1990. This production counted on successful actors from the USA, like R. Lee Ermey (FULL METAL JACKET) and Ray Wise (TWIN PEAKS), as well as Spanish ones like Tony Isbert (THE DRACULA SAGA ) and Frank Braña (RETURN OF THE BLIND DEAD), who filled secondary or minor roles. As a curiosity, Pocholo Martínez-Bordiú, famous for Spanish tabloids, is also here in one of his few acting jobs. The movie got a Goya award for best special effects. In the art department, we find British artist Colin Arthur, credited with the creature design, and Francisco Prósper, a regular of Piquer Simón’s movies.
Dino de Laurentiis financed the movie, without having his name attached to it. He had recently produced LEVIATHAN, a pretty cool underwater knock-off of ALIEN with strokes of THE THING, and then he decided to put his money on, basically, the same thing but cheaper. The script, by David Coleman and Colin Wilson, was translated into Spanish for Juan Piquer Simón, who didn’t know a lot of English and needed an interpreter when filming.
The main character is Wick Hayes, played by Jack Scalia (DALLAS). He is an engineer who joins a crew in a submarine he designed. Their mission is to find another of Hayes’ vehicles, with which contact has been lost. During their search, they’ll face the attacks of an impressive array of mutant beings.
The derivative characters are bland and boring. Actors John Toles-Bey (DUDE, WHERE’S MY CAR?), R. Lee Ermey, and Tony Isbert manage, sometimes, to spark a smidge of life into their roles, but there isn’t much else to hold on to.
At first, the crew seems to care way too much about arguing who is to blame that the submarine works like shit. I guess we are supposed to side with the main character, but he comes off as smug and egotistical. He goes through the classical arc in which his partners kind of hate him at first, but then he earns their respect. There’s nothing wrong with using well-established formulas, but in this case, it’s not very compelling. It’s also resolved very soon in a blatant manner.
You can tell THE RIFT had a lower budget than its underwater horror partners by watching any of the sequences from the outside of the submarine. The giant monster that hugs the vehicle and looks at its camera with a giant eyeball isn’t very impressive either. The characters seem to think likewise since they are pretty much unfazed after they get rid of the creature.
Everything is a slog until the crew leaves the submarine to explore a pressurized cavern, which harbors a lab. Then the movie takes a turn for the surprisingly awesome. The bug-like creatures who come out of the walls, although stiff, are effective and very gross, and the gory effects are simple but great.
There are more kinds of creatures and a bit of body horror caused by an infection. The disease thing isn’t very catchy and doesn’t feel that important, compared to the display of weird-ass monsters who are killing people in a more expeditious manner. The vine effects and the half-plant look of the sick are very cool, though.
When the characters arrive at the main room of the underwater complex, we see the best creatures by far. They don’t even seem to belong to the same movie than the toy submarine from the early scenes.
Sadly, the movie doesn’t end with monster goodness, but with more dull-as-hell character interactions. A character we have to think is evil, since he smiled diabolically early on, betrays the protagonists. In Alien there was a traitor android guy, and you gotta try to be like Alien, I guess, but as a final conflict, it’s a serious downgrade from the killer creatures. The character even acts a bit like some kind of creepy robot, although he seems to be just a regular person.
THE RIFT is a fun watch if what you’re looking for is some imaginative, disgusting monsters, and the flesh of humans and creatures exploding into bloody bits. That is, as long as you can stand the first part of the movie, and if you don’t care that much about compelling characters or stories.
For the U.S., The Rift is available on VOD on Amazon Prime Video and Epix, and there are DVD and Blu-ray editions by Kino Lorber.
___________________________________
Lin Carbajales writes about video games, movies, and books for Spanish sites Todas Gamers and Libros Prohibidos, focusing on the horror genre. Besides that, they are a fiction writer and artist and have developed their own short, text-based, horror video games, which are available on itch. A few of their short stories can be found online or in anthologies from indie Spanish publishers, spanning fantasy, horror, and soft science-fiction.
