Released recently on DVD from Shriek Show/Media Blasters as PLANKTON, Cerchi's Creatures from the Abyss has enough gore, monsters and bad dubbing to classify it as one of the classic Italian horror movies. While not a prototypical Italian shocker(it doesn't have zombies or cannibals), the film definitely captures the heart and atmosphere found in so many of Italy's gorefest from the seventies.

The film begins with 5 friends taking a small raft out onto the ocean for an afternoon of fun. They're soon out of gas and caught in a storm but luckily(or not so much)they come across an abandoned, high-tech yacht. Boarding the vessel they find it void of crew, with the remnants of a scientist's macabre laboratory to hint that some weirdness was going on. Like any respectable group of would-be victims, they ignore the evidence that all is not well and throw a party. Soon of of their members begins to act odd and upchucks a lovely menagerie of puss and bugs. The others take that as a clue to abandon ship, only to realize they're trapped.

Clearly inspired by Fulci with a touch of THE THING thrown in for good measure, the film boasts outstanding blood and gore FX but even more so this film deserves major props for being incredibly gross. We're not talking the typical disemboweling or decapitation, we're talking nasty, disgusting gore which has to be seen to be believed. The only major misstep comes about half-way in when the fun, rubber monster-fish is exchanged for a CGI beastie. CGI has no place in underground horror.

As with most Italian horror, the film suffers from bad dubbing. It's a shame because it drags the film down and what could have been an effective horror movie basically devolves into a campy gorefest. But I tell you what, it's one hell of a fun campy gorefest and must be seen.

You don't eat the fish, the fish eat you.