Directed by Ovidio G. Assonitis, written by Jerome Max, Tito (ALIEN FROM THE DEEP) Carpi and Steven W. Carabatsos, starring John (THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE) Huston, Bo (MUTANT) Hopkins, Shelley (PETE’S DRAGON) Winters, Henry (THE SWARM) Fonda, Delia Boccardo, Cesare (VALLEY OF THE DRAGONS) Danova, Sherry (ZOMBIE HOLOCAUST) Buchanan and Claude (BATTLE FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES) Akins.

People are being killed near a seaside town and marine biologist Will Gleason (Hopkins) and journalist Ned Turner (Huston) discover that the Trojan company, run by Mr Whitehead (Fonda), has been using ultrasonic drilling techniques, which have disturbed and enraged a giant octopus. With the death toll rising, Gleason, whose wife has been killed, finally uses two trained killer whales to take down the huge cephalopod.

TENTACLES, which was one of the many animal attack movies to come out after the success of JAWS, is laughed at and derided by many reviewers, who claim it is a really awful production.

But, and I really don’t fully know why, I (quite) like this cheese-tastic creature feature! I did see it in the theatre when it first came out, so I guess I’ve always retained a soft spot for it.

The score, by Stelvio Cipriani, is really nifty: full of harpsichords, plus some electronic music. To be honest, this soundtrack is far too good for the film!

Somehow the producers of this American-set Italian monster movie managed to snag John Huston, Henry Fonda, Shelly Winters and Bo Hopkins to appear in the film, with Hopkins and Huston coming across better onscreen compared to the others (though Huston does refer to the creature as a squid in one scene, rather than an octopus.)

Director Ovidio G. Assonitis, who also did uncredited work on PIRANHA II: THE SPAWNING, is no great talent, that’s for sure, but he does come up with some interesting stylistic choices, such as using still frames in a yacht attack sequence and doing some sequences without sound effects. He also manages to make the widescreen film look pretty good, considering it was produced on a low budget.

There’s an okay diving bell scene that has the giant octopus’ eye suddenly peering through the diving bell’s porthole, a decent nighttime attack on a boat stands out as one of the film’s better set pieces, plus an early sequence, where a child in a pushchair is unknowingly put in jeopardy, is pretty effective.

On the negative side, some plot threads are left dangling and most of the time the filmmakers merely use a real, normal-sized octopus to represent the monster, though prop tentacles and a prop octopus head & eye are featured sparingly. The film is also not very gory, unfortunately, and it ends with shots of a dead, real octopus being ripped to pieces by model killer whales!

So, if you go into this knowing it certainly has (a fair few) flaws, you might actually find the film watchable.

Here are various TENTACLES assets…

One last look at the octopus…