DeepStar Six 4K (1989)

        Studio Canal are releasing director Sean S Cunningham’s underwater monster movie in 4K on UHD, Blu-ray and Digital. It’s a film made in ‘the year of the Sub-genre’ as one of the commentaries cracks on here, when six films with similar subject matter made it into release, including James Cameron’s THE ABYSS and George Pan Cosmatos’ LEVIATHAN. 

Compared with those, DEEPSTAR SIX is at the lower budget end of the spectrum, with a cast of TV standbys (BJ and The Bear’s Greg Evigan, Nancy Everhard from lots of stuff), Ronn Carroll from Cunningham’s original FRIDAY THE 13TH (“Miss - we didn’t find any boy”), Matt McCoy from POLICE ACADEMY 5 & 6 and Miguel Ferrer (ROBOCOP and Twin Peaks and the biggest name of the lot here).

The titular undersea base belongs to the navy, which is looking at the best place to set up some nuclear missiles. The ideal spot turns out to be on top of a cavern so they blow it open and release an enormous prehistoric monster that we get to see in all its glory towards the end of the film.

“The water is as much the monster” says Cunningham in one of the archival extras, probably because it was also quite a bit cheaper, and it does mean that for much of the running time the crew are fighting against flooding and collapsing submersibles rather than fighting the enormous beastie. That said the model work is Gerry Anderson-level quality and therefore very endearing and the monster, when we finally get to see it, is so impressive that it shows up the rather small set it’s supposed to be skulking in.

Studio Canal’s disc comes with an impressive four commentary tracks, the most recent being from podcasters James G Chandler and Ash Hamilton, and the most entertaining being from screenwriters Lewis Abernathy and Geof Miller who both sound “fairly merry”. There’s also a 2001 commentary from Cunningham and visual FX supervisor James Isaac, and a fourth commentary track is a mixture of a 35 minute interview with composer Harry Manfredini and tracks from his music score.

Other extras include a set of interviews with FX men Mark Shostrum, Robert Kurtzman and Greg Nicotero (22 minutes), stars Greg Evigan and Nancy Everhard (17 minutes) and stunt coordinator Kane Hodder (13 minutes) all from 2020. There are also archival extras from 1989 including behind the scenes footage (4 minutes), cast and crew interviews (4 minutes), the 1989 press kit, stills, trailer and TV spots. The disc also comes with four art cards.

Sean S Cunningham’s DEEPSTAR SIX is out on 4K UHD, Blu-ray and Digital on Monday 8th June 2026