It Came from Beneath the Sea
Year: 1955
Director: Robert Gordon
Written by: George Worthing Yates, Hal Smith
Threat: Giant Octopus
Weapon of Choice: Torpedo
Color/B&W/3D: Black & White
IMDb page: 
It Came from Beneath the SeaYear: 1955 Director: Robert Gordon Written by: George Worthing Yates, Hal Smith Threat: Giant Octopus Weapon of Choice: Torpedo Color/B&W/3D: Black & White IMDb page: |
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Rish's Reviews
I grabbed this one after seeing It
Came From Outer Space, thinking it would be cool to see all the "It Came
From"s. I only made it through two, though.
1955's It Came From Beneath the Sea tells of a submarine's encounter with
something strange in the ocean, which, when the scientists are brought in to explain,
turns out to be an octopus, grown to giant size due to radiation. As it closes in on the
West Coast, attacking everything in its path, the military and the scientists team up to
destroy it, before it destroys San Francisco.
Starring Kenneth Tobey from The
Thing From Another World, the famousest name involved in the production
was Ray Harryhausen. His creation is fascinating to look at and is easily the best thing
about the film.
Unfortunately, the film is pretty dull for extended stretches. It didn't garner a lot of
Skulls either. Sorry, Mom. I found it odd that sailors wouldn't know what tentacles
are or what might have them. It's also funny that the film has a narrator. When was
the last time you saw a movie (even a kids one) with one of those?
I used to constantly bad-mouth the movies of the Fifties. I've probably been unjustly
harsh. For example, I recently watched the two Creature From the Black Lagoon
sequels and have reconsidered on them. I had given Revenge
of the Creature a wildly negative review, but hey, it really wasn't so bad. When
the Creature goes on his rampage, the movie is actually pretty good. I just gotta remember
that all Horror and Sci-Fi films were B-movies in those days, and neither big stars nor
big budgets went into them.
Though we have to wait through twenty-seven minutes of talk to see it, the stop-motion
octopus is really quite impressive. There was lots and lots of rear-projection. The
Harryhausen effects range from interestingly semi-realistic to ludicrously fake. Some
of the destruction is neat, though. I really liked when the tentacle was attacking San
Francisco, tearing down the Golden Gate Bridge. They say that really happened in
1958, so this movie was strangely prescient.
I'd Recommend It To: If this sort of thing is up your alley, you'll probably have a good
time. If not, then you'd best stay away.
Posted: March 23, 2006
Total Skulls: 3
| Sequel | ||
| Sequel setup | ||
| Rips off earlier film | ||
| Horror film showing on TV/in theater in movie | ||
| Future celebrity appears | ||
| Former celebrity appears | ||
| Bad title | ||
| Bad premise | ||
| Bad acting | ||
| Bad dialogue | ||
| Bad execution | ||
| MTV Editing | ||
| OTS | ||
| Girl unnecessarily gets naked | ||
| Wanton sex | ||
| Death associated with sex | ||
| Unfulfilled promise of nudity | ||
| Characters forget about threat | ||
| Secluded location | ||
| Power is cut | ||
| Phone lines are cut | ||
| Someone investigates a strange noise | ||
| Someone runs up stairs instead of going out front door | ||
| Camera is the killer | ||
| Victims cower in front of a window/door | ||
| Victim locks self in with killer | ||
| Victim running from killer inexplicably falls | ||
| Toilet stall scene | ||
| Shower/bath scene | ||
| Car stalls or won't start | ||
| Cat jumps out | ||
| Fake scare | ||
| Laughable scare | ||
| Stupid discovery of corpse | ||
| Dream sequence | ||
| Hallucination/Vision | ||
| No one believes only witness |  |
|
| Crazy, drunk, old man knows the truth | ||
| Warning goes unheeded | ||
| Music detracts from scene | ||
| Death in first five minutes | ||
| x years before/later | ||
| Flashback sequence | ||
| Dark and stormy night | ||
| Killer doesn't stay dead | ||
| Killer wears a mask | ||
| Killer is in closet | ||
| Killer is in car with victim | ||
| Villain is more sympathetic than heroes | ||
| Unscary villain/monster | |
|
| Beheading | ||
| Blood fountain | ||
| Blood spatters - camera, wall, etc. | ||
| Poor death effect | ||
| Excessive gore | ||
| No one dies at all | ||
| Virgin survives | |
|
| Geek/Nerd survives | ||
| Little kid lamely survives | ||
| Dog/Pet miraculously survives | ||
| Unresolved subplots | ||
| "It was all a dream" ending | ||
| Unbelievably happy ending | ||
| Unbelievably crappy ending | ||
| What the hell? |