Oh dear, "Proteus" has wandered into streaming, over twenty years since this mid-level scifi/horror flick bored its audience into comas. "Proteus" was nothing more than an entry into a genre made bankable by Ridley Scott's "Alien", which was itself a pastiche of earlier scifi drive- in movies with a big budget and the hope that no one remembered the original material. Psst! Hey! "Alien" was the love child of 1958's "IT! The Terror from Beyond Space". You know, monster gets on spaceship of malcontents and kills everyone but a smart person who opens an airlock. ZZZzzzZZZZ. "Proteus" was just another entry into the monster/claustrophobic space/idiotic humans/corporate billionaire with immortality issues/muscleboy/ridiculous monster cycle.Let's see: unlikeable drug smugglers foul up a deal and escape some mysterious Asian port in a yacht. In a hilarious scene that features a really unconvincing miniature, the yacht blows up real good. This was filmed in a dime store aquarium, or the director's bathtub. Smugglers find refuge on an equally unconvincing miniature oil rig. Bad scientists have made an ugly something that eats or slimes anyone available. Lead idiot and resident muscleboy Craig Fairbrass wanders the oil rig, which he knows because he "worked on a rig" back in the day. OK, yeah right. Idiotic characters get eaten/absorbed by "Charlie" the monster. Charlie the Tuna would have been scarier. One by one, the stupid interlopers get got. Musclehead Fairbrass runs around and burns up the monster, which looks like the Hanna-Barbera 'toon character Jabberjaw. Monster shark tentacle thing moans and waves it's digits and gets burned up real good. Surprise ending!! Special effects maven Bob Keen gives little, despite his credentials on "Hellraiser". Yes, this is a low budget affair, but its ongoing foolishness and adherence to the monster who's not a monster and eats you when you're not looking canon (which goes waaaaay back to "The Thing") just gets boring.Drinking game! Watch muscleboy Fairbrass sweat! Every time you see him and his sweaty tshirt, throw a shot. His sweat stains change from scene to scene. For claustrophobic monsters stuck in a small space with a twist ending enthusiasts only.

The acting is teriible, the special effects are passable up until the climax that looks like a man in a rubber suit. the story is complete and utter nonsense about a group of drug smugglers including Craig Fairbrass (yes-Dan from Eastenders!) who end up on a abanodoned oil rig which just happens to have a nasty shape shifting monster on board. all of the movie is shot in darkness - at times complete darkness so you can't see what's going on - It might as well be a radio show. The movie is awful but somehow it keeps you watching just to see how hilarious it gets.My vote:- 6.5/10

Having purchased this on DVD at my local supermarket for a modest fee, I was hoping for a modestly entertaining experience. Sadly, like most of the characters in the film, I was to be bitterly disappointed with the experience.In my opinion, the plot was minimalist, matched only by the acting skills of the cast. The efforts of the director to build up dramatic tension were totally over the top and repetitive in the extreme. Special effects started well and taper off into the ridiculous.The key to a successful horror/fantasy is to make the entire surrounding environment seem convincing, or at least plausible, to allow the viewer to suspend his disbelief. This film spectacularly failed to do this in any way whatsoever. The supposed oil rig bore no resemblance to anything remotely connected with the oil industry and from almost the first 5 minutes it was obvious that filming had taken place in a large tank, with a mock up of somebody's imagination of what an oil platform should look like. It went down hill from there.If you were terminally depressed I would recommend this film, as it is so terrible, it will cheer you up!

Bob Keen (the make up and special effects wizard behind Hellraiser 2-3 and Candyman among many others) directed this alien film set in the oil rig. A bunch of drug smugglers have their boat sunk and they have to go to one oil rig they accidentally find while floating in the middle of the ocean. They go on board only to find it's completely abandoned with some menacing voices and dark rooms. Soon they learn there's something nasty and hungry in the rig and it's going to get the new visitors, too.There are two things which make this film worth watching even couple of times. They are soundtrack and lightning with the usage of camera. The theme played during the credits and during the film isn't too effective or special, but the ominous and low sounds heard in the soundtrack to create suspense are indeed effective and creepy, thanks to the talented film makers who knew what sounds scary. The green and dark mist is present in the film all the time and the images of the abandoned oil rig are very scary again and show only little information about the place.. There are also some effective shocks which make the viewer almost jump, and fortunately they are not too plenty as then they would've lost their power and become gratuitous. Otherwise this film isn't too noteworthy. The characters are not too deep or interesting and speak and scream things which reveal bad script. The ending is too cliched and the monster too big and becomes little unintentionally comic as the budget didn't make it possible to create more convincing monster. They should've kept the monster smaller in order to make the film look more serious. The ending has also one bit of unexpected gore as the full monster arrives, and it looks little different now that the entire film is practically bloodless and without gore. There is also one brief scene which raises the puke-o-meter pretty high as one nasty alien tentacle goes inside one character's mouth while she's sleeping! After all, this film has enough atmosphere and horror elements to make it worthwhile for the fans of horror and scifi cinema, but otherwise this isn't too revolutionizing picture even in its own genre. If you appreciate the genre, rent or buy this (if you get it cheap) because it could be MUCH worse than this.5/10