Tentacles (film)
| Tentacles | |
|---|---|
.jpg) French film poster | |
| Directed by |
Ovidio G. Assonitis (as Oliver Hellman) |
| Produced by |
Ovidio G. Assonitis Enzo Doria |
| Written by |
Steven W. Carabatsos Tito Carpi Jerome Max Sonia Molteni |
| Starring |
John Huston Shelley Winters Bo Hopkins Henry Fonda |
| Music by | Stelvio Cipriani |
| Cinematography | Roberto D'Ettorre Piazzoli |
| Edited by | Angelo Curi |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | American International Pictures |
Release dates | 25 February 1977 |
Running time | 90 minutes |
| Country |
Italy United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $750,000 |
| Box office | $3,000,000[1] |
Tentacles (Italian title: Tentacoli) is a 1977 Italian-American horror film directed by Ovidio G. Assonitis and starring John Huston, Shelley Winters, Bo Hopkins and Henry Fonda. Although the film was intended to cash-in of the success of Jaws, Tentacles also bears numerous resemblences to the 1955 science fiction horror film It Came from Beneath the Sea.
Plot
Ocean Beach, a seaside tourist resort, has come under attack by a giant octopus, which captures and devours human swimmers and boaters, picking the skeletons clean of flesh and bone marrow. Marine expert Will Gleason (Bo Hopkins) and crusading newspaper reporter Ned Turner (John Huston) suspect the construction of an underwater tunnel by the Trojan company, owned by Mr. Whitehead (Henry Fonda). Trojan has been using radio signals that have been "above regulated levels", somehow maddening the octopus and causing it to attack human beings. In the end, the octopus is killed by Gleason's pair of killer whales.
Cast
- John Huston as Ned Turner
- Shelley Winters as Tillie Turner
- Bo Hopkins as Will Gleason
- Henry Fonda as Mr. Whitehead, President of Trojan Construction
- Delia Boccardo as Vicky Gleason
- Cesare Danova as John Corey
- Claude Akins as Sheriff Robards
- Alan Boyd as Mike
- Sherry Buchanan as Judy
- Franco Diogene as Chuck
- Marc Fiorini as Don
- Helena Mäkelä as Jane's Mother
- Alessandro Poggi
- Roberto Poggi
- Giancarlo Nacinelli
- Consolato Marciano
- Philip Dallas
- Leonard Lightfoot
- John White
- William Van Raaphorst
- Joanne Van Raaphorst
- Patrick Mulvihill
- Janet Myers
- Kristin M. Brekke
- Janet Raycraft
- Kenneth Lundeen
- Rita Real
- Alan Scharf
- Ross Gordon
- Ron Shapiro
- Joseph Johnson
- George Montage as Deputy Jacobson
Production
The film was produced to capitalize on the success of Steven Spielberg's Jaws.[2]
The film's score was done by Italian composer Stelvio Cipriani, who scored the similarly Jaws-inspired films The Great Alligator and Piranha II: The Spawning around the same time. He later recycled many of the cues from Tentacles in his later score for Concorde Affaire '79.
Release
It was released theatrically in the United States by American International Pictures on 15 June 1977.
The film was released on DVD by MGM in 2005 as part of their Midnite Movies series. The disc was a double feature release, pairing the film with Empire of the Ants.
Remake
Monster is a similar film produced by The Asylum in 2008.
References
- ↑ Richard Nowell, Blood Money: A History of the First Teen Slasher Film Cycle, Continuum, 2011, p. 257
- ↑ Tentacles at the MGM Archive
External links
- Tentacles at the Internet Movie Database
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