Star Abyss ( 星门深渊 )

If you would ask me when was the golden years of science fiction and horror combined i would say that was in the 80´s for sure. This was a time when we got several great sci fi horror releases such us Leviathan, The Thing, Night Of The Creeps, The Fly, DeepStar Six, Predator, The Hidden, They Live and of course one of my personal favourite sci fi horror films of that time period which is Aliens from director James Cameron. It didn´t really matter what was attacking human beings in these films, we all loved to see aliens or some kind of monsters attack. What was so special about these films in the past was that they didn´t use any CGI effects but had to do everything with practical make up effects. Just the creativity level these professional make up artists had at that time creating some really iconic creatures turned out to be incredible. I mentioned one of the 80´s sci fi horror classics earlier known as Leviathan so let´s talk about that film for a while. Unfortunately at the time it came out in 1989 it was a box office bomb. Perhaps people had seen enough of monster movies at that time or just wasn´t interested in seeing the film because the concept of the film have been many times before. The film did find an audience on VHS thankfully and still to this day is appreciated on physical DVD or blu ray copies by fans of Peter Weller ( yes the original Robocop is in this film ). The first time i saw this film was on VHS back in 1991 on an uncut copy from England. I already knew the film was censored here in Sweden so i refused to watch this Swedish rental version. I had a good time with Leviathan and it is pretty much a classic monster film. The story begins at sea where deep-sea miners discover a Sovjet shiprewck known as Leviathan. What they don´t know is that they are being stalked by an unknown creature. If you want just a fun sci fi action horror film of the 80´s with practical make up effects and no complicated plot then this is a film for you from legendary director George P. Cosmatos ( director of both Stallone classics Rambo Part II and Cobra as well ). Speaking of creatures not that long ago i watched a trailer of a Chinese sci fi horror film known as Star Abyss. This looked like something in my taste so i decided to give it a chance. Is is possible this is one of the better sci fi horror films this year or is Star Abyss just as bad as Victoria Silverstedt´s only studio album Girl On The Run?

A group of humans travel through star gates. The spaceship these group of people travel on gets trapped in the Star Abyss. While their journey plans have changed completely they have a whole new problem on board the ship. An alien have been released on board the spaceship and everyone is forced to fight for survival.

If you are expecting something groundbreaking or something original with Star Abyss i can tell you right now you won´t find it here. This film have clearly been inspired specifically by classics such as Aliens and the Jan-Michael Vincent B movie cult film Xtro 2 - The Second Encounter and it is basically a similar concept with an alien on board a spaceship attacking people. There are some differences of course both with the plot and why this monster is on board the ship but it is very easily constructed to be appreciated by fans of similar films as i mentioned. There are a few smaller details i do feel could have been improved with this film but let´s get to the positive. I do like the idea about travelling through a stargate, similar to what they did in the 1994 classic film Stargate from director Roland Emmerich but there is no connection to Egypt in any way in Star Abyss. I especially love the twin assassin with her cloned twin with swords where they also do some martial arts fighting scenes, that´s my kind of space action chicks. I do think it´s a good idea to let the alien creature be like the chameleon just like in the 1987 action classic Predator, where he sometimes become invicible adjusting itself to the environment. When it comes to actors i do feel that Andrew Lien ( who have been in several films in the past such as New Police Story and The Man With The Iron Fists 1 & 2 as well ) as the Captain deliver some of the better dialogue scenes in Star Abyss. I do think the spaceship design from the inside looks pretty cool. Ok so let´s talk about the negative and i have to be honest, the face of the monster looks really silly. The body looks cool but the face doesn´t match that well at all. It is hard to describe but it almost looks deformed like The Toxic Avenger overdosed heavy after a cocaine party. You don´t really care much about certain characters even though there are scenes where they try to be more serious. Overall i would say Star Abyss is just fun B movie entertaining film if you love shooting scenes and a big alien running around a spaceship. Director Xiaobei Zhang deliver a film that´s made for sci fi geeks and B movie lovers and i am definetely in there somewhere. Star Abyss may not be a future classic but have enough of treats to be appreciated for the audience it was made for.

Rating: DDD