Evil Below, The (1989)

Directed by:

Jean-Claude Dubois

Ambitious Sarah (June Chadwick) charters a boat from the gruff, bearded Max Cash (Wayne Crawford) to search for the missing "El Diablo;" a 17th century sunken treasure ship carrying stolen religious artifacts and gold, off the coast of Florida (this was actually filmed off the coast of South Africa). As they get closer to the sunken ship, an ancient curse is unleashed to protect the booty. Everyone who tries to help them dies, and there are two menaces to look out for... the 300 year-old black-garbed guardian Adrian (Ted Le Platt) and a mutant, shark-like creature with big claws. Extremely low on gore, THE EVIL BELOW has too much talking, too many underwater swim scenes, spends too much time of a romance subplot and the monster is only briefly seen, but it also has some good moments and ideas here and there and the lead actors do a good job. Another release from the same people was HEADHUNTER (1988), which also took place in Florida, also was actually shot in South Africa and also featured Crawford and Chadwick.

*For the record, Mr. Crawford is listed as being the co-director of this film on IMDB. Since he is not credited on the version I saw, I'm not listing him.

★★