OCTAMAN (1971) Dir: Harry Essex

Shawn Francis sends us another review, not for Doctor Who this time but for an obscure 1971 monster movie called OCTAMAN, now i've never even heard of this but from the sounds of things, it seems like great fun. Anywho check out Shawn's review after the Jump....


Written By Shawn Francis

Easter Sunday is the memory I have of when I first saw this movie. I was in Grade School then and hated Sundays because that meant school the next day, and there were a few grades where I was incredibly anxious about going. I also loved monster movies growing up and a movie about a half-man/half-octopus creature could not be passed up.

I also have a thing for “eye trauma” in movies. It freaks me out. HORROR EXPRESS (1972) being the leader in that department, but I don’t remember where in that youthful timeline I had seen that movie. Was it before, or after, OCTAMAN? I cannot remember. All was going relatively well with the OCTAMAN viewing until a flash back occurs showing a Mexican native down by the riverside encountering an octopus man with four tentacles. The creature sweeps one of his appendages across the native’s face and bulges his eye bloodily out of its socket.

Oh, God, eye trauma!

I freaked out, but stayed with the movie till the very end.

In my book, that’s pretty much a perfect prescription for what makes a memorable movie, and the most memorable always seem to be the ones that affect you in some way during childhood. I don’t think I ever saw OCTAMAN again after that, and that wasn’t because I didn’t want to, but basically because I don’t remember it ever being aired again.

I finally managed to catch up with it back in the summer of 2011 when THIS-TV aired it. I was intensely curious if it was going to live up to that Easter Sunday memory. As I have learned, on occasion, reliving a movie you’ve seen in childhood can be a crapshoot, and was half expecting this one to bore me in the first fifteen minutes. It did not, and because of that I was able to enjoy it right to the end.

This is a much sought after movie by collectors and it’s amazing that it’s taken this long for it to get an official release here in the states. You can thank filmmaker, Fred Olen Ray, for that. This wouldn’t have happened had he not purchased Harry Essex’s film library.

For those who aren’t aware Harry Essex is most famous for writing the screenplays of two science fiction classics from the ‘50s, IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE (1953) and THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON (1954). Decades later he apparently wanted to try his hand at directing a creature feature, OCTAMAN was the result, and even though it was made in the early 70s, it feels more like a film that belongs in the 1950s. Kerwin Matthews (THE 7^th VOYAGE OF SINBAD), his girlfriend, Pier Angeli, and a group of learned men/cowboy/carnival showman venture into Central America to search for this mythical creature that Matthews believes is a result of atomic radiation.

It’s no surprise the beats of the movie are similar to CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, right from the start when the first expedition is left to look after a biological find in the form of a weird looking octopus. The Octaman attacks kills the guy in the tent and flees into the lake with what I can only assume is some kind of offspring. CREATURE has a similar scene in the beginning and both movies share another similar scene when Matthews and crew return and finds the compatriot they left behind has met an unnatural death at the hands of the local myth.

Right from the start we see the Octaman and this being Rick Baker’s very first FX job he created a very nice throwback to 50s monster cinema. Not sure if the choice to film it at every conceivable angle, close ups at times, and in the bright light of day was the smart way to go, and with this new remaster you can see every fine detail of the rubbery suit.

Like CREATURE, Octaman grows fond of the leading lady, and like what the Gillman did with Julie Adams, he suddenly reaches a point where his obsession with Angeli becomes so great the only logical thing he can do next is kidnap her. We all know how that went for the Gillman; and it goes pretty much the same way for the man who is octopus, but before that fateful end, where I admit I felt sorry for the Lovecraftian menace, he manages to create a lot of general b-movie mayhem, which is fun to watch.

Unlike Essex first foray into creatures from the briny deep, Octaman is smattered with moments of light gore. The aforementioned eye sucking being one, another being the killing of two locals he stalks back to town and ambushes one night, stabbing one poor dude through the chest with his tentacle and getting red paint all over him, I mean, blood. He later attacks two of Matthew’s men near their RV and smacks the lips right off the poor scientist who shows up to aid the man the creature has wrapped it’s grubby mitts, I mean, tentacles, around.

There are a couple of shots that reminded me of another favorite movie of mine—EQUINOX (1970). Did these two movies share the same shooting location? According to IMDB they did. Seems like Bronson Canyon in Griffith Park, California is a real popular spot for moviemakers, especially that cave.

This movie also has it’s share of unintentional gaffes, namely in the form of a snapping wire that supposed to keep the lower tentacles in rampaging tune with the upper ones. The right, lower tentacle, Octaman’s right, I mean. In a couple of scenes, it’ll snap and you can see it go limp as the other three continue to swing around. No, this is not a perfect B-movie flick by any means, but Baker’s fine creature suit, the gore FX and a commitment by the actors to treat it seriously makes it a damn fun watch in the bedroom cinema.

The print BayView Entertainment has released here is a 35mm one from Essex’s library, and, visually, it is quite stunning, certainly ten times better than what I saw on THIS-TV. MGM owns a copy of this flick, and from what I understand it runs, on occasion, on their MGM-HD channel. Unfortunately, I don’t have access to that channel and so have never seen their version.

Audio wise the movie has a kind of “problem,” but one I can only pick up on my cordless headphones. I use them all the time when watching movies and could discern a “subtle, low-grade, crackling”(best way I can describe it) in the background throughout the entire movie. At first it was distracting, so I resorted to listening to the movie through the TV’s speakers, and could not hear any audio anomalies whatsoever. I watched the movie a second time, with the headphones on, and, yes, it is something you can get used to. I guess it all depends on your threshold for distraction. Dialogue, sound FX and music are all clearly discernable, but during quite moments the “crackling” prevails.

There are no extras for this movie, trailer or otherwise.

Now we come to the only other genre feature Harry Essex directed—THE CREMATORS—which has been included on this disc as an extra. Don’t think I ever knew this movie existed until a couple of years ago, and when I did, I found not a lot of people had good things to say about it. Yes, it falls into the “bad film” category, but it’s a good bad film, not as good as OCTAMAN, I’ll admit, but I personally found it very watchable, and quite relaxing.

The movie starts out 300 years in the past when this fiery meteor crashes into the planet, and runs this Indian down; rolling it’s burning body right over him and cremating him on the spot. Back in the present, biologist, Ian Thorn (Marvin Howard) discovers these odd-looking stones in the water at his isolated island home. They glow and make funny sounds. Enter love interest, Jeanne (Maria De Aragon), who shows up on the island. No reason is given as to why she’s there, but she and Ian went to high school together, and as their relationship blossoms, this lumpy, ball of fire rises out of the lake and proceeds to cremate anyone who comes into contact with those glowing stones.

I love the fact that when the body of one victim is found, the sheriff proclaims it an act of God and says lightening killed him. Really?! I wasn’t aware lightening strikes have the potential to cremate you. Anyway, Ian learns of this legend of a ‘Doom Roller’ that rises out of its underwater cave every hundred years, and cuts a swath of fire as it rolls through the surrounding woods. But what has triggered its activity now? A reason is never given. All we learn is it’s attracted to those glowing stones, and that they may be a part of it.

The transfer here is widescreen (1.78:1), but it isn’t anamorphic. Those with tube televisions don’t have to worry about this matter; those with HD TVs will have to zoom in to make the picture look normal. The audio here is also sub par and even with my headphones I had trouble making out dialogue in certain scenes. That “audio anomaly” that plagued OCTAMAN is absent on this film.

Retromedia did release this movie before back in the early 2000s, and that version was full frame, so you can consider this one somewhat of a step up for, at least, it did get letterboxed this time around. The extras features from that DVD, which include an eight-minute interview with actress, Maria De Aragon, and the Fred And Kim Intro (1:39), have been ported over. A trailer for the film is the only new extra added.

All in all, for those who are big fans of OCTAMAN and have been dying for someone to release a good, anamorphic DVD of it, well, the wait is over!