The Rig

It's time for a little Viewer Vomit! Now, what's that you ask? It's when critic extraordinaire, Ryne Barber chooses two movies of his liking and invites others to write a review for it. Those reviews will be featured (along with his own of course) on his site The world is a dead moon (Go check it out). Our choices this time were House of whipcord and The Rig. I chose the latter movie. Now, let's get right into it then! 

Where the "magic" happens!

After one of their remote submersibles malfunctions, the skeleton crew of oil rig “Charlie” don't get much time to asses the damage. A storm is about to hit them. They've been ordered to “button up” and sit it out. During their off hours, one of the crew members goes missing. After an unsuccessful search the crew is on edge. Things go from bad to worse when they find their boss' office covered in blood and torn apart. From that moment on they discover that strange and deadly creatures have found their way onto the rig. The same things that have damaged the submersible. Without any means of escape and no communications, the crew decides to hunt down these creatures but soon become the hunted themselves.

Our fearless monster hunters

I could delve deep into this film but truth to be told, it just doesn't have enough substance to do so. What surprised me the most is that this film was dead boring. It took me a couple of viewings to get through it all. You see, when you make an ALIEN rip-off (Yes, they even have the Weyland logo plastered all over the place) it's most certainly possible to make an amusing and/or watchable B-movie at best. The Rig is full of lengthy and dull dialog. Not to mention the unnecessary subplots that have no payoff. It would have been better if they'd concentrated on creating atmosphere and tension instead of forcing drama that is out of place in a movie like this. 

Hey, look ma! Another obvious reference to Alien!

Its biggest flaw is that the monsters seem to be an afterthought. It pops up here and there randomly reminding you, the viewer that, hey “This is still a horror movie”. Really? Why does it seem like the writers thought this was On Golden Pond? In this instance, and I never thought I'd say this but too much character development was a bad thing here.

"Remember me? Just reminding you i'm still in this flick too!"

Even though the writing is bad, I can't completely knock this film down. Knowing how hard it is to make a movie, I have to commend the makers for their effort. What vision or ideas they had, they made it a reality. The locations, monster suits and visual effects; it's all on screen. They even managed to get William Forsythe to star in this. I'm guessing he owed the director something and I'm pretty sure that after reading the script; he made sure that his role was cut short, very short. He's the best thing in the movie but barely in it.

William Forsythe, after he read the script

So, is THE RIG a bad movie then? Not really, it's just not very exciting. From the cinematography, lighting to the performances, it's all just so very boring. You just don't care for any of the characters or what they go through. The Rig isn't good but also nowhere near that “so bad it becomes amusing” type of thing. It's just there on screen, killing your time with its mediocrity. You know, just re-watch Alien. It'll be time better spent.