Eric's Season in Hell:Tentacles(1977)

By Eric Polk-
Anything....anything has to be better than last week's viewing(or pseudo-viewing) of Oasis of the Zombies. But since I couldn't find my cousin Herbert's trip to the pencil factory, I delve into one of the many late-70s amok sea creature knockoffs that found their way into the drive-in after the huge success of Jaws.

(No Little Guy I'm just as upset as you are)



But wait....The opening title card, very....dare I say, Italiano? The music, synthy? Directed by Ovivido Assonitis? Holy frejoles, Batman, I am saved. Yep.

The tourist spot Ocean Beach has come under attack by a giant octopus, which captures human swimmers and picks clean the skeletons of flesh and bone marrow. The attacks, which gradually increase in number as time passes, threaten to scare away the 10,000 tourists who visit Ocean Beach each summer.

The characters determine that the excavation of an underwater tunnel has caused the giant octopus to rampage; the company, owned by Mr. Whitehead, has been using radio signals that have been "above regulated levels", and these have somehow enraged the octopus and caused it to attack human beings.
In the end, the Octopus is killed by the killer whales when the main character goes out to sea in a sailing yacht, with the killer whales in tow.

Yes, this movie is HIGHLY derivative. There is nothing about this film that will cause it to ascend to a spot into the Horror Movie Hall of Fame. But it is decently acted(what, it has to be with the late Peter Fonda and Shelly Winters guest starring). The underwater sequences are fantastic, the monster isn't cheap and cheesy like you may think, actually looked real. The gore is minimal(PG rating, afterall) and there are some slow scenes, but in the horror ocean littered with killer whales, killer crabs,  hybrid fish, underwater Nazi zombies, etc. Tentacles rides the crest in Patrick Swayze fashion!