The Rift (1990) Review

A submarine rescue goes awry when they find some life forms that shouldn't be at that depth.

 Director Juan Piquer Simón's 1990 The Rift also known as Endless Descent is another one of those modest Alien/Abyss copies, following hot on the heels of 1989's Leviathan, Lords of the Deep and Deep Star Six, Simón's offering is arguably better than the latter despite being widely forgotten. 

 Actor Jack Scalia sporting his best Mel Gibson mixed with David Hasselhoff hairdo as Haze is no Ed Harris or Peter Weller, but you can't fault him for effort. Ely Pouget brightens every scene and is sadly underused until required to dish out some slap dash Aliens' Ripley-like action. R. Lee Ermey is his usual line chewing self, The excellent Ray Wise is surprisingly low key. Deborah Adair offers much of the drama and scientific babble weight. Notable is Tony Isbert as Mr. Fleming. There's no real clear lead actor as the film unfolds and it becomes a group effort as the cast wrestle with the clunky script. The supporting cast are a little hit and miss mainly due to the unconvincing accents. 

 Joel Goldsmith's suitable score kicks in when necessary. Along with the sets, the underwater special effects, submarines, dead bodies, creatures and mutations are decent enough. Trypophobia suffers beware. There's a few gore moments reminiscent of Italian horror hay days. Thankfully Simon's direction coupled with Juan Marin cinematography and smoke head it off at the pass stopping it from becoming DTV fodder. There's also a few little twists thrown in for good measure. 

 Overall, hammy moments, loose editing aside, for its limited budget it's a lot better than is should be thanks to the all round cast effort, effective lighting and visuals.