40 years ago the Derleth went missing off the coast of Alaska with all hands. Except now, suddenly, a signal from the lost ship begins transmitting again! A mysterious businessman charters a shipping crew for a salvage mission to the wreck in the middle of nowhere. Could the crew still be alive - and, if not, what onboard is broadcasting the signal…?
I like the premise and look of Plunge more than the execution. Lovecraftian stories are my jam and this is Lovecraftian as hell: there are cosmic alien horrors manifesting as giant tentacled monsters tearing apart reality, shambolic zombies toting weird talismans, not to mention the nod to August Derleth, HP Lovecraft’s first publisher.
But Joe HIll doesn’t do much besides slowly introduce these elements then drearily smoosh them together for a predictably Hollywood-esque finale. Hands emerging from the dark, corpse bags slowly unzipping, eyeless figures, “call us… Legion”, corpses talking but only one person hears - it’s all stuff I’ve seen before in many other horror stories trotted out again unoriginally.
The Ingot is like any other Macguffin that does whatever a spider can and the ending is too pat, almost cliched, in the way it wraps everything up. I didn’t understand why the Derleth would contain a “lifeboat” for these creatures and it’s just a bit too convenient that it’s protected by something that’s fatal to them but not to humans, providing a contrived conclusion to close out on.
The cast of characters are an unremarkable bunch, none of whom leave much of an impression, and their banter was mostly irritating and tedious (all that rubbish about the coffee - ugh! Also, how does anyone jump to the conclusion that the coffee wards off possession?!).
I also didn’t get why they would scrawl out Pi in its entirety - it just seems like something that seems cool and spooky in a story but doesn’t make sense from the perspective of the ones actually doing it. And there’s not a lot of it but the untranslated Russian was annoying - why have this for an English-speaking audience? And if it’s because the dialogue itself is easily-imagined and irrelevant, why include these scenes to begin with?
Stuart Immonen’s art is superb, particularly when you add Dave Stewart’s colours. The Lovecraftian monster designs were awesome and I’m pretty sure the mysterious businessman IS Paul Giamatti! I also discovered that fire retardant grenades are actually a real thing which is super cool.
It’s got nice art and a strong premise with interesting aspects but Joe Hill can’t bring it all together into a compelling narrative. Plunge is a dull, wet sea shanty of a horror comic - another Hill House clunker.
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