It Came from Beneath the Sea Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		2.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		2.5

It Came from Beneath the Sea Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman February 22, 2023

Mill Creek has released the 1955 film 'It Came from Beneath the Sea' to Blu-ray. The film was previous made available on Blu-ray by Sony. That disc is superior to this one, and it also contains a colorized version of the film not available here. This Mill Creek version is currently only available in a four film, two-disc collection alongside 'Creature with the Atom Brain' (with which this film shares a disc), '20 Million Miles to Earth,' and 'The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock').

Aboard his atom-powered submarine, mankind's ultimate weapon and the finest vessel ever to set sail, Commander Pete Mathews' (Kenneth Tobey) boat encounters a large object on sonar, soon experiences extreme levels of radiation, and the crew discovers a mysterious object attached to the hull. Upon return to the safety of Pearl Harbor, professor Lesley Joyce (Faith Domergue) and Dr. John Carter (Donald Curtis) discover that the object is a creature from the deepest, unexplored depths of the ocean, affected by radiation from a hydrogen bomb, and forced to leave its habitat in search of new food sources. When the creature begins attacking more vessels, the Navy sets out to destroy it before it can wreak havoc on America's heavily populated coastlines

The primary problem with It Came From Beneath the Sea is the film's lack of drama and urgency, evidenced by the opening sequence as Commander Mathews' sub first makes contact with the creature. The encounter seems almost routine for the crew, and the audience is never made to believe a true sense of danger or bewilderment exists. The film does break from convention by presenting the entire sequence sans music. Generally in such a "tense" scene as this one, the action would be dominated by a harrowing theme, but not here. This decision added to the realism of the moment, and made the scene stand out. The pacing is also somewhat sluggish throughout. The action is separated by lengthy exposition that begins to drag the film down. It never comes to a grinding halt, although the needle veers closely to the "boring" end of the spectrum far more often than it should. For all of its shortcomings -- including a cheesy voice over narration in between sequences, bland acting, and a trite romance angle replete with swelling music signaling a budding love interest -- the movie will put a smile on the face as audiences revel in the ridiculousness of it all. It Came From Beneath the Sea, particularly in its third act, is good, lighthearted, easy-on-the-brain fun.

It Came from Beneath the Sea Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Well, that's at least something of a relief. After reviewing this film's disc mate, Creature with the Atom Brain -- a truly horrific trainwreck of a Blu-ray in every way – this is a breath of semi-fresh air. The picture is at least somewhat filmic, free of excess debris and wear beyond the plethora of stock footage seen in the film, especially early on (some flickers, pops, vertical lines, and splotches do appear, but not usually in substantial quantities). The picture proper is at least somewhat attractive, holding to a grain structure that sometimes appears naturally occurring and at other times somewhat clumpy and chunky. At least there are no signs of severe de-graining. The picture also offers moderately sharp detail that certainly takes advantage of the Blu-ray format's capabilities to resolve textures with more natural ease and efficiency, though there are some signs of digital tampering with the source. The picture is fairly crisp and moderately well textured, considering, primarily, faces, but also clothes and various environmental details, especially inside the submarine in the film's big sequence to open. There are some compression issues, but they are not terrible; some backgrounds a little chunky, but the image is very watchable. The grayscale is fine with nice depth to blacks and fairly good white balance. The midrange offers satisfying differentiation to the gray shades. This is not a perfect image by any means, but it is very watchable and for the most part satisfying. If only its disc mate was even at this level. "Middling" probably best describes this one, which is far, far better than the disaster that is Creature with the Atom Brain.

It Came from Beneath the Sea Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The supplied DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 lossless soundtrack is sufficient to satisfy the film's needs. The presentation is dialogue heavy, and the spoken word is suitably clear and positions itself nicely in the front-center sound area. Music can be a little shrilly, but the absence of pristine clarity is not a surprise given the ages and constraints of the source. Some of the more potent effects offer decent front side stretch and a fair sense of lower end depth, though of course the absence of a dedicated subwoofer channel means that the low end can't match more modern fare. That's OK, though, because the audio is perfectly fine as-is, again within the natural constraints of the original sound design parameters and limitations.

It Came from Beneath the Sea Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This film shares a disc with Creature with the Atom Brain. There are a couple of featurettes on the main menu screen but are not tied to either release in particular (they are reviewed here). There is an audio commentary specific to this film, however. It features Justin Humphreys and C. Courtney Joyner, who are filmmakers, writers, and Ray Harryhausen superfans. They talk about the film with knowledge and passion, offering broad depth insight about not only the story but the film's technical construction. It's a great track!

It Came from Beneath the Sea Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

It Came from Beneath the Sea is a plodding and flat film, and its 1080p transfer, courtesy of Mill Creek, is equally uninspiring. But it is not awful like its disc mate, which is at least a positive. The audio is fine and the new commentary track is solid, too.