Orphan Films: The Dive / Dykket (1989)

Originally released by Virgin on VHS in North America, The Dive/Dykket was another trapped-underwatwer thriller produced to cash-in on the huge publicity around James Cameron's The Abyss.

Unlike George Cosmatos' Leviathan (Alien meets the Thing underwater) or Sean S. Cunningham's Deepstar Six (Alien underwater), Tristan DeVere Cole's The Dive is simple: two men trapped in a diving bell, and time is running out.

The melodrama is minimal, the underwater scenes chilling and suffocating in their loneliness, and the running time is compact and bereft of filler material.

Cole's film is apparently available on DVD in Norway, but this British-Norwegian co-production has yet to make its Region 1 release, and while that day will probably come, whatever label decides to undertake the release should think Special Edition, and include (at the very least) an edited commentary track with material from the director, the screenwriter, the producer, and the cast largely comprised of Nordic stage and screen stars, and Britisher Michael Kitchen, best known as the star of the popular Foyle's War series.

Until then, here's a review of this orphan film.



- MRH