Giant Octopus Movies

Mysterious Island, The

Loosely based on a Jules Verne novel, the movie features Barrymore as an inventor under attack by evil men who want to use his submarine as a weapon. Originally made as a silent film, sound sequences were added later. Features an appearance by a giant octopus and some sort of dinosaur, probably an alligator "in costume."

It Came From Beneath The Sea

Giant, radioactive octopus attacks an atomic submarine and then moves on to destroy San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge. Special effects, in particular the stop-motion animated octopus, were created by Ray Harryhausen. The one major flaw? In most scenes, the beast only has five arms. Maybe he was using the other three to tread water.

Review: 3-B Theater

Mysterious Island

Ray Harryhausen provided a number of giant monster to this adaptation of the Jules Verne's sequel to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. A balloon carrying Civl War soldiers is caught in a huge storm and stranded on a remote island. The soldiers, along with a shipwrecked cutie, must survive a giant octopus, a giant bird, giant bees and a volcanic eruption. It's all in good fun.

King Kong vs. Godzilla

A turning point in the evolution of our favorite radioactive dinosaur, King Kong vs. Godzilla marks the beginning of such movies as elaborate, colorful fantasy romps instead of dark, brooding disaster films. The plot is pure puff pastry: Corporation sends expedition to remote island to harvest rare berries. Expedition finds berries, island natives, and King Kong. Expedition brings back berries and Kong as a souvenir.

Of course, Kong gets loose and begins loping around Japan, much to the consternation of Godzilla, who has chosen the exact same minute to do the exact same thing. Rather than playing together and making mankind miserable, they proceed to tear hell out of one another. One might think it would be a lopsided match -- one whiff of Godzilla's fire breath should set the big fuzzball alight -- but the odds are evened when it turns out that Kong thrives on electric current, while the big G can't stand the stuff. Good, goofy fun, even when watching the butchered U.S. cut, which removes large portions of dialogue and plot.

Note: despite what you may have heard or read elsewhere, there are no "alternate endings" for this film. A more complete examination of the rumors regarding different outcomes from the King Kong / Godzilla deathmatch can be found at the Urban Legends Reference Pages.

Reviews: Stomp Tokyo.

Frankenstein Conquers the World

Frankenstein's immortal heart spawns a creature in Hiroshima after the city is atom bombed. Twenty years later the monster is captured by three scientists studying radiation. When the monster escapes the scientists have to hunt it down, a process complicated by Baragon, an underground dwelling dinosaur also terrorizing Japan.

The ending of the film originally had Frankenstein fighting a giant octopus, but it was cut. War of the Gargantuas is a sequel to this movie.

War of the Gargantuas, The

A semi-sequel to Frankenstein Conquers the World, this movie features two hairy giants loose in Japan. The brown one, Sanda, is freindly to humans, while the green one, Gaira likes to eat humans. While Sanda tries to get his giant brother under control the Japanese army decides that the only good giant monster is a dead giant monster. Obviously made with U.S. in mind (hence Russ Tamblyn in the main character), War of the Gargantuas still has more than it's share of surreal moments, especially the musical number thankfully interrupted by Gaira.

Yog: Monster From Space

A space probe returning from Jupiter brings back unexpected guests. But hey, guess what? Those guests are not giant monsters! Nope, they're parasitic spore thingies who take over regular Earth critters and turn them into giant monsters. Akira Kubo is, as usual, an excellent hero, but one wonders how the great Ishiro Honda could have helmed such an otherwise mediocre movie.

Tentacles

Low-budget Italian Jaws rip-off has a cast that must be seen to be believed. John Huston and Shelley Winters are in the thick of it, except for the fact that they never come in contact with the monster at all. Huston's a reporter investigating the shady offshore-drilling business dealings of one Mr. Whitehead (Henry Fonda, who literally phones in his performance), which may be enraging the octopus and causing its killing spree. Winters is a nattering mother with two kids who looks suspiciously like Octopus Chow. By the end of the film we're rooting for two pre-Willy killer whales to chomp the octopus to bits. Unfortunately, it looks like two hand-puppet orcas destroy a real octopus for the movie's final scenes, which seems like a pretty senseless waste of a good octopus.

Reviews: Stomp Tokyo,

Octopus

Look at that video cover. How could this movie possibly be so boring? Somehow it manages. An American sub transporting some kind of super-terrorist comes under attack by a giant octopus. Incredibly, there was a sequel.

Octopus 2: River of Fear

We want to know who asked for this sequel. A giant octopus lurks in New York harbor, occasionally killing people while our cop/hero tries to convince everybody there really is a huge cephalopod. The best scene in the film is also the biggest cheat. On July 4th the octopus climbs up the Statue of Liberty, knocking the statue down. But it's actually a dream, and only serves to remind viewers of how cool this movie could have been.