Octaman (1971) Sorry for this bad news.......but the guilty pleasure, unintentionally hilarious fun this movie promises never happens.
You'd think a horror film about an ambulatory octopus-man would deliver gobs of cheesy laughs.
Uh-uh. Plenty of cheese, but a dreary painful experience to sit through for all sorts of reasons.
Let's start with cheap. Then more on to poorly photographed, haphazardly edited and barely acted by a cast made up of unknown non-entities and a few weary pros at the tail end of their careers.
Not that it didn't have potential. Its writer-director was Harry Essex, the co-writer of the immortal "Creature From The Black Lagoon".
Octaman himself came from makeup wizard Rick Baker ("American Werewolf In London", "Star Wars", "It's Alive").
And the cast boasted three familiar faces......Harryhausen monster-slayer Kerwin Matthews ("The 7th Vogage of Sinbad"), 1950's sci-fi hero Jeff Morrow ("This Island Earth", "The Giant Claw") and international starlet of the 50's-60's Pier Angeli ("Merry Andrew", "Somebody Up There Likes Me", "Sodom and Gommorah")
So what went wrong? Why's the film such a clumsy amateurish mess?
Essex cobbled his script as a more or less remake of "Black Lagoon" pitting a bunch of adventurers against a semi-humanoid aquatic monster. But he'd never directed a film and didn't have a clue about how to create an effective horror movie with a poverty level budget.
Rick Baker, just starting his career, managed to slap together a Halloween Shop worthy Octaman suit, complete with dangling tentacles. But the film puts the monster on display way too much and in broad daylight, accentuating its silliness. If anything, Octo-wussy looks like one of those man-in-suit rubber monsters who pummeled Ultraman or the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.
As for the actors.....Matthews, now gray-haired, appears barely interested. Morrow, in what amounts to an extended cameo, shows the same 'just-sign-the paycheck' so-I-can-get-back-to-the-golf-course' indifference.
Saddest of all is Pier Angeli, who at 39, was already too old to play a screaming ingenue in a monster movie. Since her role's the equivalent to that of Julie Adams in "Black Lagoon", she's forced to wriggle and squirm as Octaman carries her away....(presumably to become his Octo-Bride and then later an Octo-Mom.) Shortly before the film opened, she committed suicide with barbituates.
If it's laughs you're hoping for, the movie offers precious few.....such as Matthews and company RVing it through the wilds of Mexico and spotting an African leopard. Then again, there's always the sight of Octaman in full rampage, flailing his rubber tentacles like styrofoam swimming pool noodles.
Those seeking a beer 'n popcorn giggle-fest would be better off hunting down the MSTK3000 episode devoted to the film. Otherwise, you'll have to make up your own jokes at Octaman's expense.....hardly worth the effort....Zero stars (0).
No comments:
Post a Comment