Octaman (1971)

Octaman (1971) is of note because its title monster was the first professional creation of Rick Baker and it was Pier Angeli's last film before her death that same year.Beyond that, there is little of distinction about it.  It really does feel like a film out of its time - a low budget B monster flick which would have been at home in the fifties, it looks completely out of place in the seventies.  In many ways, it can be seen as a variation on The Creature From the Black Lagoon (1954), with its title monster being discovered by scientist living in a remote lake somewhere South of the border and taking a liking to the expedition's female member.  The sub-plot about the efforts of the showman financing the expidition to capture the monster for display in his circus echoes plot elements of one of the Creature sequels: Revenge of the Creature and The Creature Walks Among Us.  None of which is surprising, as writer-director Harry Essex, (a veteran of the B-movie scene), had scripted the first Creature and one of Octaman's stars, Jeff Morrow, had been in the second sequel.   Whereas the Creature From the Black Lagoon had been a prehistoric survival, the titular monster of Octaman is the product of environmental pollution, (a common theme in seventies science fiction and horror films - sadly the environmental message fell on deaf ears, judging by the current state of the world).  

Bearing in mind the sort of budget he must have been working with, Baker's monster costume is something of a triumph.  To be sure, it is in no way convincing as a humanoid octopus, but it is far better than most of the creatures you see in B-movies.  Unfortunately, the rest of the film shows less ingenuity.  The plot is repetitive and and one point it, quite literally, goes around in circles after the protagonists are chased into a cave by the monster.  The day-for-night shooting is so murky that, at times, it is difficult to discern exactly what is going on.  Most damagingly, the pace is ponderous, with the film feeling much longer than its seventy six minutes.  You can't help but feel that, having been involved in film and TV productions since the forties, director Harry Essex had simply run out of steam, not to mention ideas.  The film has nothing new to offer. Even some of the cast feel like retreads, with both leading men - Kerwin Matthews and Jeff Morrow - being genre veterans nearing the end of their careers.  It is also somewhat sad to see Pier Angeli, who had once won a Golden Globe and starred in some prestige productions, reduced to appearing in a B-movie.  Sadly, before the film was released, she was dead from an overdose at the age of thirty nine.

While Octaman is far from the worst monster movie I've ever seen, it is also far from being the best.  It is a curious throwback, made at a time when, outside of TV, there was just no market for this kind of movie.  Sadly, it fails to capture any of the crude verve and energy of classic monster movies of the fifties and sixties, undermined by its lacklustre execution.  Ultimately, only the title monster lingers in the memory, simply because it is so bizarre.