The idea of something monstrous loose on a storm-lashed oil rig is a very appealing one. A more remote, dangerous outpost it is difficult to imagine. Director Peter Atencio makes good use of a clearly low budget and ushers in a moody and claustrophobic atmosphere, fills it with a gruff working crew, and Writer CW Fallin brings them to life with some often witty dialogue. This, I always think, is the key to a level of success that belies budget – make the characters appealing (or most of them, at least) and the audience are affected by what happens to them.What happens to them is a fairly impressive series of death-by-monster. Many of these attacks are genuinely shocking, not so much in their execution – which is fine but hardly spectacular – but in the way they occur at the least expected moments.It's disheartening to see a fair amount of negative online reviews for this. It doesn't take someone as insignificant as myself to point out that everyone is entitled to their opinion, but it would be a shame to think that people slate this purely because of its low budget – which, on the evidence here, isn't THAT low. The insulting 'anyone who votes this more than one star is in some way associated with the movie' is a very narrow-minded and untrue viewpoint.It plods in places, and the finale is somewhat protracted, but there are some impressive directorial flourishes that further compound the remoteness of the location. This Alien-like horror run-around won't change your life, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Not sure what the point of making this movie was. The acting is a little below average at best. The plot was cliché. The musical score was wrong for this type of film. The script was down right terrible...and I've watched/reviewed my fair share of garbage I guess the best part of the entire movie was makeup/costumes and possibly the director of photography (although he had very little to work with). I If this film truly garnered 2.5 to 3 million dollars in production costs, then ANYONE can get a film to screen with the right drive and determination. Don't bother viewing unless you are a film student in need of inspiration.

As you can see from the general tone of the user reviews, there is a great deal wrong with 'The Rig'. These are my additions to that corpus of knowledge. 1) If you're going to steal 'Alien', the least you can do is make your 'creature' look a bit different. Why is something which supposedly evolved at the bottom of the sea going to develop feet, legs or indeed a humanoid body at all? It's a guy in a suit, and all the editing in the world isn't going to disguise that. Not even if you dub on 'lizard-breathing' noises, which happens pretty much every time you see it. In fact, the only time the monster(s) make a noise is when they appear on the screen. 2) If you're going to steal 'The Thing', don't draw attention to it by having one of the characters describe the creature as 'The Thing'. That's just the sort of thing we viewers pick up on as the failed 'hide in plain sight' script gambit. Its intention is to cover up a blindingly obvious script deficit by attempting to be clever and 'postmodern' about it, but it never works. In all seriousness, even if you have a '10 for $10:00' hire deal and can't find one last DVD which looks even mildly interesting, think twice about 'The Rig', and keep thinking until you decide against it. You might need that 90 minutes for something more rewarding.

Owww… my head hurts, and my wallet. I just spent my hard earned money on this movie, not to mention an hour and a half of my life!Okay, the best thing is the cover art on the tin – a set of giant jaws coming up from the dark depths, and looked pretty cool. The story is standard fare – strand em, then kill em. The back-story is a drilling rig out in the middle of the ocean. Caught in a storm at the same time they punch through into an underground (under seafloor) cavern and release a monster. The opening scenes were good - something comes out of a deep vent and swims towards the camera - huge teeth are shown... and then everything goes dark….No seriously, I mean real dark! The shots of the creature are mostly so dark I felt like I needed to grab some night- vision goggles cause most of the movie is pitch black. The first killing takes place on the rig… in a small room! Okay, so we know now its not huge. But wait, they soon find shed skins… is it growing Alien style? It's picking them off one by one (will we humans never learn?), and gives you the monster-cam view of things - wobbly and blurry. But don't worry, towards the end you do get to see the thing (spoilers alert) and crikey, what am i back in the 50s? It looked like some guy in a black wetsuit wearing a web- crown and a bad dental plate – a bit like the Creature from the Black Lagoon with a breathing problem. The only cliché they could have included to top it off was to have the hero blow the thing up, with himself being sacrificed at the same time… and then have him miraculously survive… and then also having the thing jumping back out for one last kill!Oh wait, they did!