How the director of Tombs Of The Blind Dead and its sequels went on to make one of the worst monster movies I have ever seen is beyond me even though his movies had been steadily getting lamer. Watching a movie like this makes me question why the filmmakers would spend the money on such a piece of crap and how on Earth they managed to get a director and stars who had more than a film school track record. To make things more disturbing, director Amando de Ossorio also wrote this disaster. It is films like this that let me know why pseudonyms were invented.

Timothy Bottoms stars as Pedro Fontan, a boat captain who has a history of drinking on the job. On a fishing run, his boat is sunk by a sea monster that was created when the British government detonated an atomic bomb in the ocean. After the most poorly shot and boring courtroom scene in the history of celluloid, Bottoms has his license revoked and takes it upon himself to clear his name by finding the monster. Soon, he meets up with a rich woman (Taryn Power), in a psych ward that looks like a hotel room, whose friend was eaten by the monster. Together with the help of a scientist (Ray Milland in his last role), they track the serpent and plot a way to send it away.

Now, I completely understand that in the wake of Jaws, there were a number of imitators but this flick has to win a prize for the most blatant ripoff of John Williams' score. There are also shades of Godzilla with the monster making the same shriek that Godzilla makes as well as being borne from radiation in the ocean. The monster itself looks nothing like Godzilla but instead looks like a lost Ed Wood prop complete with having the ability to have the actors playing victims writhe around in it's mouth to pretend they are being eaten. It is quite funny to see the exact same shot being repeated with a different actor in the mouth every time the monster gets hungry. My main problem with the monster was that it had no reason for wreaking the havoc it was wreaking. It wasn't even just plain mean like Jaws but was more like a retarded, misguided, one-headed hydra with a sore back. The big standout effects scene in the movie was the monster wrapping itself around a lighthouse and crushing it like a boa constrictor just to kill the lonely old man who resides there. This was mildly entertaining but completely without purpose.

If you are looking for a mess of movie, this is a great example of what can go wrong with a bad script and when you have a once talented director in the twilight of his career who is doing things as a hired gun for a paycheck. The same can be said for Taryn Power who had not made a movie since 1977's Sinbad And The Eye Of The Tiger but I cannot get why Bottoms and Milland would appear in something as bad as this. Fans of Italian genre films will also recognize Jared Martin who was also in Lucio Fulci's The New Gladiators. The only reason this film is getting higher than a trash can is because the sheer silliness of it all made it marginally entertaining. (Josh Pasnak, 6/05/05)

Directed By: Amando de Ossorio.
Written By: Amando de Ossorio.

Starring: Timothy Bottoms, Taryn Power, Jared Martin, Ray Milland.