Proteus (1995)

Too much of everything

Thanks for the memories!

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

The movie is about a group of narko-traders, who, after a bad heroin-trade gets their boat blown up in open ocean. They manage to rescue themselves onto an abandoned oil-rig, which turns out to be a scientific research laboratory, where "evil" scientist made experiments on sharks. It has got some nice make-up effects, but the characters has NO depth, and the horror is based on some large shocks. Imagine a weird mix of "Children of the Corn III," "Deep Blue Sea," "The Blair Witch Project" and "Resident Evil." By "wierd" I mean silly. If you have ever seen the movie "Creatures" you'd know what to expect. See it if... someone force you.

Six people board a yacht presumably somewhere in Thailand, it's never revealed exactly where we are at this point. The group comprises three couples. Alex (Craig Fairbrass) and his tasty girlfriend Rachel (Jennifer Calvert, whom I used to have a big crush on when she played Karen Hanson a mean-spirited fast food restaurant boss in the children's comedy T.V. series 'Spatz' that I used to watch after school!). Linda (Toni Barry) and her boyfriend Paul (Robert Firth) plus Christine (Margot Steinberg) and Mark (William Marsh). It's made perfectly clear in the opening sequence that they are drug smugglers with 600 kilo's of dope on board. All of a sudden, after the opening credits, they are all drifting out at sea in a lifeboat in the middle of the night and it's lashing down with rain. Did I miss something? What happened to the yacht? Since the filmmakers probably didn't have the budget to blow the yacht up the six characters just 'discuss' it on the lifeboat and argue about who's fault it is. Soon after this extremely awkward plot jump they come across a dead body floating in the sea, the name tag says Duncan Jarman (playing himself!) and he appears to be some sort of security officer. Suddenly the lifeboat hits a large structure in the sea, it's one of the huge metal legs belonging to an oil rig. Within a few minutes everyone is safely aboard. Going by first impressions, it seems that the oil rig is deserted. They come across some sort of 'biological research lab'. Looking at some of the computer screens they conclude that some sort of DNA genetic engineering experiments have been taking place. They decide to stay at least until the morning, and they all find cabins to sleep in. Both Paul and Mark are heroin addicts. While trying to deliver some heroin to Mark, Paul is chased by something rather nasty and slimy. The others search for him. Instead of Paul they find a Dr. Shelly (Nigel Pegram) who warns them to leave. To confuse things even further on their travels they also come across a Dr. Carol Soames (Jordan Page) and a security officer named Jerry Buckley (Ricco Ross), both of whom act strange and make no sense. Eventually Alex conveniently finds a video tape with the message 'play me'. On it is a filmed message from Dr. Shelly who rather helpfully says that he and his scientific team have created a genetic mutant with human DNA that kills and adopts it's victims DNA and any individual survival characteristics that might be of use to it, and for it to evolve at an incredible rate. In it's true form becoming more and more mutated and freakish after each victim, victim's that it is able to replicate perfectly. The project was called 'Proteus'. One by one the heroin smugglers become victims until the oil rigs owner, Leonard Brinkstone (Doug Bradley) turns up by helicopter. Will there be anyone left on the oil rig to greet him? Or will 'Proteus' escape the isolation of the rig and infect the outside world? Who know's, watch it too find out! Directed by Bob Keen I thought this was a perfectly entertaining horror film. It closely resembles John Carpenter's the Thing (1982), with it's shape-shifting monster that can turn into anything it infects. And the isolated setting, in this case the oil rig. The script by John Brosnan from his own novel 'Slimer' as Harry Adam Knight, is fairly well paced, everyone is on the rig and being chased by the monster within 10 or 15 minutes and there aren't many dull stretches. It's a little on the clichéd side though, and there isn't a single original idea in the whole film. But it does what it sets out to do rather well. There is a plot twist towards the end in which certain characters motives and identities are revealed to be different than first thought, but this revelation means nothing to the overall story and is rather wasted. Acting is OK, Fairbrass is alright as the hero and it was cool seeing Calvert again after all these years! The effects are pretty good, the monster is shown during the last 10 minutes or so and looks decent with quite good movement, but it looks a little silly as the original host for the DNA was a shark and to resemble a shark it has a pointed head, unfortunately this gives the impression of it having a big nose! Well, that's what I couldn't help thinking anyway. There's not much gore in it except when someone has their throat ripped out, most of the deaths are of the slimy variety rather than having lots of blood. Generally the film is well made, but I think there may be a problem with the sound as the dialogue is virtually indistinguishable in certain scenes, I had to turn the volume up on my T.V. to hear what people were saying but this has the unwanted side-effect of the music and sound effects being loud enough to wake the dead! Most scenes are lit with bright neon lights, mostly blues that I thought looked really cool. It isn't a masterpiece by any means, but if your looking for a decent time waster then you could do a lot worse than this, worth a watch for horror fans if you can find a cheap copy or catch it on T.V. for free. Entertaining enough, even with it's limited ambition.

This movie is taking a bit of a bashing, and I can't deny, it's not the best movie I've ever seen.The dialogue is cliched and banal. The special effects are pretty disastrous, failing to convince or frighten or even shock. But the movie is not without its good points. Namely Craig Fairbrass.A better action man / hero type could not have been found. He's has the looks, the build and is clearly capable of such parts. Ok, I'm biased cos he's British, gorgeous and was in Eastenders, but so what?I will say he is definitely wasted on stuff like this, though. Can no one in the UK give him a good, meaty role to save him from American B movies?

A group of drug smuglers are ship wrecked, and seek shelter on a near-by oil rig. As it turns out, it's not a oil rig at all, but a high-security genetic engineering where things went wrong, now there's monsters running around. This has to be one of the best film's I've ever seen! Excellent special effects, spectacular monsters, creative premise, a refreshingly non-routine script.....This is perfect! I want it on DVD!!!!!!!! Great twist at the end, too.