In the year 2000, Venice, Italy has developed higher tides and an over abundance of seaweed. The excess is killing the oxygen in the water which in turn has polluted it. The polluted water is now corroding the buildings and Venice is uninhabitable. To try to fix the situation a team of researchers, commissioned by the Tubular Corporation began investigating. The researchers are located in a labyrinth of tunnels underneath the city.
Securing the underground facility is a group of mercenaries tasked with patrolling the tunnels. When the mercenaries begin getting killed, a select group is sent to find out what is happening. The group is comprised of a team leader, Captain Bond (Mark Steinborn), a civilian scientist named Sara Drumble (Haven Tyler), a Tubular Corporation representative, Samuel Fuller (Christopher Ahrens), and a group of well armed and highly trained mercenary soldiers called Megaforce.
As they make their way through the tunnels they are picked off by a group of genetically mutated humans that were part of a failed experiment. They were created to clean up the waters of Venice, but turned into monstrous subterranean creatures. Soon they encounter a young girl, Samantha (Dominica Coulson). The girl turns out to be the daughter of the scientist responsible for the creatures. The team also learns that the Tubular Corporation is really an arms dealer working on various weapons of mass destruction and the monsters are one of their creations.
“Shocking Dark” AKA “Terminator II” AKA “Terminator 2” AKA “Aliens 2” AKA “Aliennators” AKA “Contaminator” was released in 1989 and was directed by Bruno Mattei. It is an Italian science fiction horror film. The film has never had a North American theater release, probably because of the plagiarism.
Director Mattei was well known for his various rip-off style movies. The film is kind of a cross between two films, “The Terminator” 1984 and “Aliens” 1986 and perhaps some ideas from several other science fiction stories. It not only incorporates a cyborg type terminator, but also an orphaned girl being chased by the mutated creatures and protected by a kickass woman named Sara. Haven Tyler, who plays Sara, tries, however, she’s is not exactly as “kick-ass” as her counterpart in “Aliens” 1986, but then no one is as good as Sigourney Weaver in beating the crap out of aliens.
It goes from bad acting to over acting and back again with ease. The dialogue is bland and repetitive. Much of the film is just a bunch of mercenaries shooting off guns and being slaughtered by creatures. The creatures are probably the best part of the film, at least what you can see of them. It also has a strange twist at the end that involves time travel. All together it is a hodge-podge of people running, people screaming and stolen highlights from many major science fiction films of the time.
This is not a great movie or even a really good one, but it is a little better than some of the other lower budget offerings from the 80’s. It is schlocky silliness and a bit of a kitchen sink plot wise but still worth checking out if you like campy rip-offs.