Forgotten Foes: TENTACLES! (A List of Films Featuring Underrated Monsters)
**Forgetten Foes is a series where Giallo Julian talks about underrated monsters in horror movies.**
Tentacles. Appendages used to ensnarl prey and drag them into the maw of whatever they’re attached to. Are they unnerving? Oh, yes, absolutely. Terrifying? For a good amount of people, definitely. Sexy? Depending on your perspective, sure! While the concept of tentacles isn’t too forgotten in the grand scheme of things, I’m primarily talking about the giant octopuses/squids famous for them… it just sounded cooler to have “Tentacles” as the title rather than “Octopuses, Squids, and Friends,” you know?
Giant cephalopods are old hat when it comes to the legends and myths surrounding the vast, cold sea. I mean, everyone knows about the Kraken. Giant octopus, big hugger, drags ships down to the ocean floor because it’s lonely or something. It’s a household name. However, despite that being the case, there are relatively few horror flicks based solely on the idea of some sea-dwelling beast coiling its arms around unsuspecting victims to give them a one way trip down to Davy Jones’s Locker.
Besides last year’s Big Octopus (a Chinese flick that I literally just heard about), I can’t think of any recent films starring a colossal cephalopod of any kind. But that’s okay, because there’s a handful from the last 50 years or so that we can check out! So grab your scuba gear and ready your harpoons, because we’re going to dive into open ocean and see if releasing the Kraken really is as threatening as it sounds!
1. Tentacles
(Directed by Ovidio G. Assonitis; Starring John Huston, Shelley Winters, Bo Hopkins; 1977)
“A mutated giant octopus wreaks havoc on a California seaside community.” – via IMDB.
What better way to start our expedition than to take a look at the appropriately named Tentacles. This tale of a large octopus terrorizing a beachside community draws a lot of inspiration from a similar movie about a coastal town being attacked by a maritime monstrosity that came out around the same time. You know which one I’m talking about… Orca, of course! Would you believe me if I told you Bo Hopkins and Henry Fonda are in this flick? Those Italians are really good at getting older actors to show up in their stuff.
Yes, this is an Italian cash-in on 1975’s horror classic Jaws, but unlike the other one, they actually bothered to change the creature in this feature. Progress is progress! Trade in the bloodthirsty shark for a flesh-hungry octopus, and bam! New movie! In spite of this, it’s hard not to see the notable beats between both films being pretty much the same.
That is, save for the ending. In Jaws, you have three men in a boat going after the ravenous shark armed with barrels. Here, you have two men hauling a pair of orca whales to eat up the murderous octopus instead, which… I’m not going to lie, is pretty rad.
As far as acting goes, you can pretty much guess given the film’s origin. It’s either dubbed and decent, or dubbed and bad. Henry Fonda is just phoning it in, which…I mean… I can’t blame him. But what about the effects? Well, they spent a million dollars making a life-sized giant octopus for the flick, which would be neat… if it didn’t immediately sink when put in the water. So, for the most part, you get superimposed “live octopuses” doing most of the work, with the occasional prop octo-head showing up. Hey, at least they tried.
Side note: Octopuses actually don’t have tentacles. They have “arms”, so the title isn’t too accurate. Shocking, I know. However, arms isn’t as fun to say as “tentacles” so…there you go.
Watch it digitally here or buy it physically here.
2. Peter Benchley’s The Beast
(Directed by Jeff Bleckner; Starring William Petersen, Karen Sillas, Charles Martin Smith; 1996)
“Mysterious things happen at the coast of Graves Point: An empty boat lies at the shore, divers vanish. The sea biologist Dr. Talley thinks he knows the solution of the mystery: In the depth there is a gigantic squid.” – via IMDB.
This tale of a large squid terrorizing a beachside community draws a lot of inspiration from a similar movie about a coastal town being attacked by a maritime monstrosity that came out years before… yes, I’m aware I’m repeating myself, but the description fits just as well as the last time. However, unlike the previous flick, this one is based on a novel by Peter Benchley, the author of Jaws. Turns out, he did the same story twice, though I personally think The Beast is the better book. I can’t say the same about the film adaptation… but to be fair, it’s going against Stephen Spielberg’s Jaws, which is a pretty high bar.
To begin with, this was one of those “two night mini-series events” that were so popular in the ‘90s, so it hits about a three hour runtime. I agree, that’s pretty daunting… which is why I’m happy to say that it’s pretty good! It’s essentially just Jaws, but with enough changes to keep it fresh. I’m pretty sure the squid is an animatronic or puppet, which is pretty neat. Whenever they show up nowadays, the filmmakers always go the CGI route (more on that later). Also, the squid screeches like a parrot… yeah, sure, why not? Regardless, the team behind the flick were confident in their monster, as proven by the amount of times they show it. Luckily, it doesn’t look too shabby, so props to them!
Will Peterson of Manhunter fame leads the acting charge as manly man “Whip Dalton” (“Whip Darling” in the book, which sounds like a badass name for a burlesque performer), and I like what he does! He pulls off the loving father/tough fisherman role pretty well, even if his character is kind of a dick sometimes. To be fair, he’s being a dick to another dick, so it’s not that bad of a mark on him. Good acting all around, as far as the rest of the cast is concerned.
The story ends with the adventurers clamoring onto a boat, heading out to sea to hunt the beast… I said it was being “fresh,” not different.
I can’t find anywhere to watch it digitally, but you can buy it physically here.
3. Deep Rising
(Directed by Stephen Sommers; Starring Treat Williams, Famke Janssen, Anthony Heald; 1996)
“A group of heavily armed hijackers board a luxury ocean liner in the South Pacific Ocean to loot it, only to do battle with a series of large-sized, tentacled, man-eating sea creatures who had already invaded the ship.”- via IMDB.
Do you like boats? Do you like casino boats? Do you like casino boats being raided by robbers armed with handheld Gatling rifles? Do you like casino boats being raided by robbers armed with handheld Gatling rifles who battle a deep-water horror with tentacles that eat people? I’m really hoping the answer is yes, or else the next few paragraphs aren’t going to interest you. I can tell you one thing, though… I love every single bit of what I just said, and this movie delivers it all.
So, who do you get to headline such a fantastic premise? Why, Treat Williams and his trademark smirk, of course! But what about his trusty sidekick? Just throw in Kevin J. O’Connor, and there you go! Famke Janssen, Wes Studi, Jason Flemyng, Djimon Hounsou, Cliff Curtis, Trevor Goddard; this flick has an amazing cast. All under the superb direction of Stephen Sommers (of 1999’s The Mummy fame). Oh yeah… this movie rocks. The cheesy dialogue is great, the absurd guns are great, the set pieces are great, the monster… well… the idea of it is really cool!
Okay, so they went and used CGI for the beastie that plagues our heroes… ’90s CGI …’90s CGI that didn’t have Jurassic Park beaucoup bucks behind it, if that’s telling of anything. Is it god-awful? No, not at all, but it is noticeable. I’m more than willing to give it a pass though due to how much fun everything else is, and how the monster’s tentacles swallow people whole, digesting them before spitting out blood-red skeletal remains. That’s hardcore! Okay, so, it’s a mutant cephalopod, not just a big cephalopod, but normal cephalopods don’t get horror-movie huge in nature so it’s in good, freakish, mutated company. Definitely worth a watch if you haven’t seen it, and worth several more watches if you have!
Watch it digitally here or physically here.
4. Octopus
(Directed by John Eyres; Starring Jay Harrington, Ravil Isyanov, David Beecroft; 2000)
“During the Cuban Missle Crisis, a Russian sub is sunk while en route to Havana. As the sub goes down, the hold is breached and barrels full of some mysterious substance tumble out. Years later, an American nuclear submarine is transporting a captured terrorist to the States. The terrorist’s henchmen, however, are planning to hijack the sub and rescue their leader. Meanwhile, a large, unidentified creature is approaching the sub at high speed…” – via IMDB.
When I was a wee lad, I asked my grandad to rent this flick from Hollywood Video, as it was often custom for me to be allowed a rental or two every Friday after school. With a giant octopus attacking a ship on the film’s VHS cover, I was pretty much guaranteed to choose it over the rest. I watched it, then promptly moved on with my life. Sometime down the road, I watched it again, then proceeded to carry on with life once more. I watched it several more times in the span of my years, mainly for one reason in particular: I keep forgetting what happens in the damn movie.
For the longest time, I wasn’t sure why that was the case. After this most recent viewing, though, I think I finally cracked it. The reason is, at some point during the watch, I just started to zone out. I’m talking just tuning out of the film and thinking of more exciting things, like what I was going to eat that night or if I should reorganize my movie collection again to accommodate for my newest arrivals… the flick is really freaking boring. One thing a film about a gargantuan devilfish shouldn’t be is boring. A good portion isn’t even about the massive mollusk! It’s about some terrorist guy and his CIA rival throwing bedroom eyes at one another while the octopus screws around in the background somewhere.
Sure, it shows up to attack a cruise ship at the end, but at that point it’s too little, too late. Even then, it’s not that great. The CGI leaves a lot to be desired, the acting leaves even more, and the feeling of the film is just so… clean. No blood or anything, despite numerous scenes needing it, like when someone’s throat gets slashed. Talk about a clean kill, right? Apparently, it was a TV movie, but so was Peter Benchley’s The Beast, and that had way more heart to it. I don’t know, it probably had a bigger budget. Anyway, one good thing I can point out about Octopus is Ravil Isyanov’s performance as “Casper”, the lead terrorist guy. He was pretty fun to watch, and I wish there was more of him because he was the only entertaining part of the flick.
Watch it digitally here or buy it physically here, if you so choose.
We may have a few crushed bones and several sore sucker marks, but we made it back topside in pretty much one piece! There’s still a few giant octopus/squid movies out there, but for now, it’s time to wipe the ink from our eyes and sail back to shore. Until next time friends. Ciao!
