Halloween Day By Day: Tentacles (1977)

A lot of the films discussed during our Halloween Day By Day series were inspired by John Carpenter's Halloween. Given the title and setting of that movie, it's easy to understand why. Duh!

But one mustn't forget that Steven Spielberg's Jaws touched off a whole wave of similar genre films in the 70s and early 80s. And, as with Halloween, most of these ripoffs just weren't as good.

The Italians took two stabs at Jaws-like success: The Last Shark and Tentacles. I shared my thoughts on The Last Shark right here, and now it's time to throw down on Tentacles.

Sorry, that sounded gross. Wait! We don't apologize in The Basement . . .

When it comes to The Last Shark and this, Tentacles is definitely the better movie. But that's kinda like comparing McDonald's to Wendy's, as neither are really good for you. This is a cheaply made shocker that really isn't all that shocking, or scary.

Unlike The Last Shark, director Ovidio G. Assonitis at least had a handle on his giant octopus. For one, he keeps it off screen a lot. But, when used, this rubber/mechanical creation is at least somewhat convincing.

I'm not sure what the producers had on Hollywood legends John Huston, Shelly Winters and Henry Fonda, but their presence does lend a little bit of credibility, as does the hotness of Delia Boccardo and Sherry Buchanan.

That's about all I got for Tentacles. It didn't kill me to watch it once, but I sure wouldn't seek it out again, at least without some Tums first. It's not so bad it's Ugly, but it's certainly a Bad.

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