Tentacoli |
  • Italy / USA • 1977 • 102m •    • Directed by: Ovidio G. Assonitis. • Starring: John Huston, Shelley Winters, Bo Hopkins, Henry Fonda, Delia Boccardo, Cesare Danova, Alan Boyd, Sherry Buchanan, Franco Diogene, Marc Fiorini, Helena Mäkelä, Claude Akins, Alessandro Poggi. • Music by: Stelvio Cipriani.      Several people disappear from and at the sea. Their bodies are found gnawed to the skeleton, even the marrow is missing. The scientists have no idea which animal could do such things. Dr.Turner begins to suspect that the company which builds a tunnel beneath the bay might have poisoned the environment and caused an octopus to mutate to giant dimensions. Just at the same time a great sailing regatta with many children is started - among them Turner's nephew Tommy.
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Review:
With creative camera angles, including a ghost boat being towed in to bay while onlookers both move forward and recede slowly from a reverse crane shot, director Ovidio G. Assonitis, who'd produce THE VISITOR two years later and with a list of cult b-flicks under his belt, works stealthily alongside his stock composer to, like the 1975 Steven Spielberg shark summer blockbuster, not spoil the killer octopus all at once, maintaining slowburn suspense in an Alfred Hitchcock fashion...
While the acting isn't as good as the overall visual, including underwater shots that look nice but tend to obstruct the body count storyline, and anticipating a boat race regalia for an inevitable mid-peak, the actors are, well... on paper, pretty darn great. And yet, John Huston, Shelley Winters (both in THE VISITOR) and Henry Fonda don't have much to do: The first plays a snoopy journalist while the other's young son prepares for that forbiddingly formidable race (Fonda literally phones in his performance) as Claude Akins's stalwart Sheriff wanders around looking for answers. But it's the always supercool and dependable Bo Hopkins... working at at an oceanic theme park with two trusty killer whales and a gorgeous girlfriend (Delia Boccardo, who could be Heather Graham's aunt, aesthetically) seems to good to be true, or to last... who is the true main character here....
A cross between Robert Shaw's hunter Quint but with the friendly countenance of Richard Dreyfuss, Bo seems more the "ringer" than even the veterans. The only downfall is how much time's spent on, like in JAWS, an adventurous third act in which this Hooper-Quint hybrid takes way too long in the open sea to finish off -' along with the endearing Orca duo (who both thankfully survive!) -' the eight-armed monster for good. The music becomes more of a typical gallant symphony than the previous mid-tempo dirge, which had supplied the best TENTACLES had to offer with... like in most horror flicks... the (in this case fairly long and entertaining) metronomic buildup.
Review by TheFearmakers from the Internet Movie Database.
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