Tentacles
Director: Ovidio G. Assonitis (a.k.a. Oliver Hellman)
Cast: John Huston, Shelley Winters, Bo Hopkins
Reptilicus
Director: Sidney Pink
Cast: Bent Mejding, Asbjørn Andersen, Povl Wøldike
Reviewed by Brian M. Sammons
The latest Blu-ray two-pack from Scream Factory makes more sense about the paring than you might first think. Both are forging films attempting to pass themselves off as American movies, or at least were made for American audiences. Tentacles is a 1977 Italian flick with a bunch of American actors and set in the U.S. Reptilicus is a 1961 Danish movie full of Danish actors speaking English, sometimes unconvincingly, and while it is set in Denmark, an American general still shows up to save the day. Both movies are about underwater critters looking to eat people. Both are copies of films that came before them and are done in an attempt to jump on the lucrative bandwagon. Tentacles is to Jaws as Reptilicus is to Godzilla. So the movies are more alike than not, but are they good? Well grab a life vest and let’s find out.
Tentacles starts off great, with a killer, giant octopus wasting four people in rapid succession, including an infant, just to show you that it’s all serious and stuff. Then comes the people trying to figure out what’s going on while the eight-legged killer continues to off people, and all that is right out of the Jaws playbook. Sprinkled throughout are some recognizable big name, for the 1970s, American actors such as John Huston, Shelley Winters, and Henry Fonda. But that’s where the similarities between the two movies end. The first thing that sets this movie apart is the wonderfully Italian score that is fun but so out of place in this movie. It is far better suited for a giallo then for an animal attack flick. There is also some stylistic choices that seemed odd, such as some freeze frames that come out of nowhere, but then there is an awesome scene where the octopus interrupts a sailboat race and just starts wrecking fools for no other reason than to do it. And then there’s the ending, which I think is unique in all animal attack movies, but I won’t give that away. It must be seen firsthand.
The second movie on this double feature is Reptilicus, where people drilling in Lapland accidentally bring about a giant, snake, dragon thing when they dig up a long dead tail of some giant beast. However, the tail isn’t all that dead, and soon this kaiju regenerates from that and becomes a winged, tiny-armed, long-necked beast. Before you know it, the monster is rampaging through Copenhagen, and the army just can’t blow the creature up, because then every little piece of it would grow a whole new monster. But hey, at least the Copenhagen chamber of commerce hijacks the movie right in the middle for a travelogue to pimp for some tourism dollars. Anyway, how do they deal with the big, bad beastie in this movie? Well you’ll have to watch the movie to find out.
Tentacles is the better movie of the pair, as Reptilicus is easily the kind of movie you would see on MST3K, and without that riffing, this movie can be hard to watch as it alternates between boring and moments that push the cheese-o-meter into the red zone. That’s not to say Tentacles isn’t cheesetastic, but it works much better as a movie, overall. Yes, it’s a blatant Jaws rip off, but at least there’s some fun parts, and again, that awesomely wrong soundtrack.
As for the extras and special features Scream Factory but on this Blu-ray two pack, each movie get equal, and light, treatment here with a trailer, photo gallery, and radio spot. That’s it, that’s all the extras, here, but not all that bad for these mostly forgotten flicks.
Both Tentacles and Reptilicus are acquired tastes, to be sure, but if you are a fan of animal attack movies, or giant monsters stomping through cardboard cities, give this two pack a try. The look great on Blu-ray and there is fun to be had here, for sure.
