OCTAMAN (1971)
Tagline: Horror heap from the nuclear trash!
(Horror, SciFi, Leaving Stuff In Buckets) [PG]
Oh, man! So in this one, a team of researchers is investigating a lake in Mexico where they discover a weird-looking baby octopus and of course, throw it in a bucket. Whenever I find weird stuff, I just throw it in a bucket so I totally get that. Now they can complain about environmental contamination and all that stuff in peace right? Nope. There’s a larger more pissed-off Octaman in that lake and he is not freakin having it. Can they either capture or kill this freakin thing in the name of science before he smacks every scientist and random local that shows up on screen?
First off, this movie gets panned all over the internet, but it’s probably one of the greatest sci-fi flicks that should have come out in the ’50s but didn’t. I guess lots of moviegoers took this thing seriously, but I found myself laughing out loud almost this entire movie. It looks and feels like something we would have gotten in 50’s sci-fi which makes total sense. The actual story was written by Harry Essex, the writer of CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON. Only this isn’t that creature… I mean Octaman is goofy looking. Let’s stop for a tentacle count to make sure he’s really an octopus….
The acting is actually pretty good and while the dialog is preachy it’s interesting enough to keep this thing moving along. I thought Pier Angeli was pretty strong in this. Some movie fans may recognize her from THE BATTLE OF THE BULGE. Kerwin Mathews is also solid in this thing. He is most famous for playing Sinbad in THE 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD. This dude was basically the Harrison Ford of the ’50s and ’60s. This movie was made in the ’70s, but I will go ahead and say Harrison Ford was the Harrison Ford of the ’70s. Outside of that the rest of the cast is also fine.
Where this thing sort of falls apart is in the lighting and apparently no one knowing whether it was day or night out. It’s like no one had a clue how to shoot dark scenes when this was done because there are entire sections of this movie where you can hardly tell what is going on other than the fact that we know that people are getting slapped silly by Octaman. It’s freakin hysterical. We have other parts where it’s nighttime in one shot, then the scene is a continuation and it’s suddenly daytime. Then in the very next shot, it's night again and vice-versa. It’s all pretty damn nuts but stupidly fantastic at the same time.
I am guessing I am not the only person that kinda loved this flick because it is briefly shown under different names in both FRIGHT NIGHT and GREMLINS 2: THE NEW BATCH. Octaman is a big lumbering crazy looking sci-fi legend and I really wish this movie got a bit more love from critics who seem to just have an inability to enjoy the craziness of this movie. This is by no means a masterpiece and shouldn’t be treated as such, but that acting isn’t horrible and for me, this thing is just a blast.
I have to give OCTAMAN a 5 out of 7. It is not without its issues, but it’s a go-to sci-fi flick on a night where I just want to crack up.
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