Julie, an American on vacation in Mexico, spots a giant, one-eyed amoeba rising from the ocean, but when she tries to tell the authorities, no one believes her. She finally teams up with a marine biologist in an attempt to destroy it.
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Reviews
Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!
Powerful
Fantastic!
Excellent, Without a doubt!!
Roger Corman is the most consistent person on Earth.He has consistently churned out garbage for over half a century and shows no signs of stopping anytime soon. With only 1 hour to work with,Corman still manages to kill half the time with lots of nothing.I guess that's his trademark.His use of the two person tight shot makes having a budget completely unnecessary.Why have a story or set when you can just have tight shots of nothing? So the "story" is about a woman who goes on vacation to Mexico,alone.She quickly befriends a fatherless child(not weird at all) and then meets a guy with a submarine.The submarine is human powered,very slow,can not move in a straight line and is not air tight(you need scuba gear to ride in this thing).The entire concept of the thing makes no sense yet we are treated to 15 minutes of it traveling underwater. All the Mexicans have eastern European accents while still managing to throw in 1 Spanish word per sentence.Did I mention the woman faints every 5 minutes? She's obsessed with finding this mysterious monster yet every time she goes looking she gets terrified and runs,when she doesn't faint. One time she sees an octopus and says she thought it was the monster.When we finally see the monster,IT LOOKS LIKE AN OCTOPUS! Then the Corman genius kicks in and we only see the monster out of focus while the woman moves in fast motion. Never watch this or any other Roger Corman movie.
When American tourist Anne Kimball learns from a Mexican boy that a sea monster has been rumored to be responsible for the disappearance of several locals, she becomes curious and begins to investigate. While deep sea diving, she comes across a scientist (Stuart Wade) in a floating contraption that looks somewhat like a giant Tylenol, she questions him about the alleged sea monster. Upon her own, she discovers a huge, one-eyed monster that looks like a combination squid/octopus that has a cute wiggle while it walks. Old local legend has it that a beautiful woman sacrificed to the monster will satisfy it enough to go away, and guess who is chosen. One of the local wise-men refers to the octopus as "the coward of the sea", but there's no Bert Lahr lion in this monster. Horribly bad acting and dialog (Wade actually tells Kimball to slip out of her bathing suit into a dry martini!) abound, this has no real conclusion, making the other giant octopus movie, "The Bride of the Monster", look like "King Kong" in comparison.
The first production from Roger Corman is Monster from the Ocean Floor about a giant octopus terrorizing locals and visitors off a beach cove in Mexico. Anne Kimbell was the shining star of this movie having a terrific role and playing it stellar. The rest of the cast I didn't feel the same either being poor actors or didn't have enough in their character to seem relevant in the film. The worst part about the movie though was the choppy scene to scene editing and dialogue. Monster from the Ocean Floor just never drew me in and never kept me attached and waiting to see what happens next. The monster itself had potential but in the end was kind of silly looking and I was a little turned off about that. Monster from the Ocean Floor is a little below and subpar and I'd advise to see something else.
"Monster from the Ocean Floor" is historically important as the very first film produced by a young Roger Corman, so it's a shame it's not more entertaining than it is. It does have some schlocky charm, but owing to an obviously very low budget, it gets bogged down in talk and becomes fairly dull. It's not even that much fun on the "so bad it's good" level. It's too bad, because if you're a B movie enthusiast you'd certainly *want* to like it. It does have its moments, but they're spread too far apart.There is some enjoyment to be had from watching the amateurish acting. The pretty Anne Kimbell plays Julie Blair, an American artist on vacation in Mexico. She hears stories of locals disappearing from the waters and learns that there's a legend believed by the natives. She meets a handsome marine biologist named Steve Dunning (Stuart Wade) - their initial encounter is amusing, to say the least - and while he's a practical, hard headed kind of guy, she becomes convinced some sort of mysterious beast is the culprit - and she's right, of course.It's naturally a good thing that the monster in this film - resembling an octopus with one great big red eye - is seen so little. Our anticipation is built up, and the payoff isn't bad. I can believe that people who'd seen this movie as little children would have been frightened. The problem is that for a movie running only one hour and five minutes, there's too much padding on this thing. Still, "Monster from the Ocean Floor" isn't without its assets. Corman works with ace cinematographer Floyd Crosby - who shot his colourful, widescreen Edgar Allan Poe adaptations - and Crosby creates good atmosphere. The underwater photography is likewise well done. Kimbell has one harrowing scene with a shark. And the original music by Andre Brummer is enjoyable.Cormans' stock company player Jonathan Haze (billed as Jack Hayes) makes his film debut as the character Joe, director Wyott Ordung plays the key supporting role of Pablo, and Corman himself makes an uncredited on-screen appearance as Tommy.This does have high curiosity value just to see the humble beginnings of one of the great independent filmmakers of all time.Four out of 10.