Film Review: Leviathan (1989)

Director George P. Cosmatos had a short career having only directed ten films in four decades with Shadow Conspiracy in 1997 being his last film. With Leviathan (1989) Cosmatos was ending a career at a high note (Tombstone in '93 would be a cap on his career).

Leviathan is the story of an underwater mining facility that comes into contact with a sunken Russian vessel that seems to have been sunken on purpose. The crew return to their facility with a safe believing that there might be a reason for the vessel being there but instead find nothing but an alcoholic flask that they believe is innocent. Unbeknownst to them the flask harbors a genetic experiment gone wrong. When several of the crew members drink from the flask they become infected with an organism that slowly takes over their bodies changing them into creatures whose only goal is to survive and spread. Lead by Steven Beck (Peter Weller) the remaining crew must find a way to survive the presence of the creature before the creature kills everyone else in the vessel.

Following soon after the release of Deep Star Six earlier that year (1989), Leviathan was an action horror film that grossed only $15.7 million. It's cast was made up of Richard Crenna, Amanda Pays, Daniel Stern, Ernie Hudson, and Meg Foster, to name a few. It had some breath taking cinematography by Alex Thomson, who made history with Labyrinth & Legend and who later worked on Alien 3 & Cliffhanger, to name a few. This film is no different as the locations underwater and the mining facility itself become a character and the real prison from which the characters find themselves trapped.

Leviathan is a suspense filled joyride from beginning to end in the tradition of Cosmaos' previous films Cobra, Of Unknown Origin, Rambo: First Blood Part II, and Tombstone, and makes as one of the truly best underwater horror films since Jaws.