Monday, September 25, 2017

Tentacles (1977)

How bad is it? Exceptionally dull supposed horror.
Should you see it? Only if you want to see the cast embarrass themselves.

This was made to capitalize on "Jaws," substituting a giant octopus (created, I think, by underground radio waves?) for the shark. John Huston, Shelley Winters, Bo Hopkins, Henry Fonda and Claude Akins are in it, but have little to do - Fonda's scenes look like they were shot separately and spliced in. In the end, Hopkins convinces (yes, that's the right word) killer whales to kill the octopus. The action scenes are the least action-filled they could be, with some good underwater shots and an obvious small octopus in a tank in close-up. The soundtrack seems to be the same three tunes repeated, with no connection to the action. There's a scene with Winters on a phone and her voice cannot be heard. The plot just picks up storyline threads and drops them again. Action scenes get gutted by freeze-frames and cutaways to a non-sequitur guy in an Uncle Sam suit telling jokes. Director Hellman (Assonitis) made some other poor films, but mostly produced after this one.

2 comments:

  1. Sorry to hear this was a snooze-fest. It sounds like they had the makings of a cult classic.

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  2. Daniel Budnik just gave it a favorable review on "Rupert Pupkin Speaks."

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