DanTheMan 2
AIP Version
Reptilicus holds the unique distinction of being Denmark's only giant monster movie to date and an odd collaboration between the US and Danish to produce what is often described as one of the worst giant monster movies of all time. I don't think it's been helped by the lacklustre home media releases over time, I had to settle with the extremely bare-bones Fabulous Films release, which is literally just the film itself with nothing else and I mean nothing else, not even subtitles.
Copper miners in the tundras of Lapland discover a frozen piece of reptilian tail belonging to some unknown prehistoric creature. Taking the specimen to an aquarium in Copenhagen, Professor Martens gets more than he bargained for when the tail regenerates into a giant, acid-spitting monster that terrorizes the country.
After a lengthy legal battle with the English version's director, Sidney W. Pink, the film finally saw a release after a multitude of production woes and mishaps. If you are at all familiar with the giant monster genre, there's a chance you've at least heard of this film and a slim chance you might have even seen it, be it via the MST3000 crowd or its various home media releases. Either way, its reputation proceeds it as one of the most poorly executed films of its kind but like most of these films, it has a cult following.
Nothing will ever prepare you for the sheer insanity of awfulness you will find if you wish to experience Reptilicus for yourself. Utterly lifeless and completely inept at telling a story that it becomes comical. I'll admit that the initial set-up is kind of interesting and Reptilicus is a conceptually interesting creature, however, the film completely falls apart and devolves into a typical monster movie doing exactly what you'd expect it to do, beat for beat.
There's plenty of stiff stilted acting and awkward dubbing that gives the film a really eerie and surreal like quality but don't be fooled into thinking this film is good, cause it is far from it. There are some extremely sad attempts at comic relief, the direction is bland, the lighting poor, the visual effects shocking; some of which had to be cut out of the AIP cut due to them being too terrible.
But the icing on the cake is that the film comes to a crashing halt about halfway through to deliver a tourist board information film about Copenhagen. It's a thinly disguised advert for the city where the only purpose is to show off some of the more famous landmarks than deliver on advancing any sort of plot the movie attempts to tell in its very limited 81-minute runtime.
Is Reptilicus a serious creature feature or a comical farse? Both the movie and viewer are utterly baffled as to what it wants to be, given the filmmaking, it would seem to be the former but by the rest of the film's qualities, you'd expect it to be the latter. Either way by the end, you'll be left scratching your head as to what it is you've just witnessed. The whole film was more disorientating than entertaining with its editing with some shots barely lasting a second in the rather action-packed climax. Definitely an attempt to disguise the extremely crude puppet of Reptilicus itself and the poor models it destroys.
Overall, Reptilicus is unlikely to satisfy anyone who witnesses it, if you're looking for an underrated gem of a monster film, you won't find it here or if you're looking for some cheap thrills, you still won't find it here. At the end of the day, it's a film to be marvelled at for its status within its own country but isn't worth any sense of deep thought or deconstruction you could often throw these sorts of films. I paid £5 for this DVD just so I could add it to my collection of Kaiju films... even then I feel slightly cheated.
Rated 1/5 Stars •
Rated 1 out of 5 stars
02/16/23
Full Review
Liam D
Denmark's filmmaking answer to the Kaiju genre is a boring mess filled with bad dubbing, bland plot and cheap effects but it's a movie that didn't anger me and I'll probably forget about it in the next few days
Rated 2/5 Stars •
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
08/17/22
Full Review
Audience Member
Ugh. A horrendous script that lent itself well to lackluster and unemotional acting performances by the cast. Toss in a gigantic reptile that spits goo at the camera via not-so-spectacular 1960s-era "special effects" and what do you get? A movie that is so bad one MUST watch the entire torturous 82 minutes just to see if it improves before the unsurprising "twist" at the end... "Reptilicus" never fails to disappoint, and the nearer one gets to the closing credits, the more logical it seems to cheer for the giant reptile. Perhaps this is why this film was released in Blu-ray format in 2015. Definitely one to add to a small collection of sci-fi monster flicks that serves to highlight how far the movie industry has progressed in little over a half century.
BUT, would I watch it again? Yes. And I would still cheer for the monster in my best MST3K fashion.
Rated 0.5/5 Stars •
Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars
01/20/23
Full Review
Audience Member
With special effects that look like they're out of a middle schooler's inept home movie, there's something rotten in the state of Denmark, and its name is: Reptilicus.
Cannonical scale: 5/5 — the titular creature of this feature may not have been made well, but it's perfectly made for riffing.
Rated 1/5 Stars •
Rated 1 out of 5 stars
01/30/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Just as terrible as when I saw it as a kid. Makes Ed Wood look like George Lucas. The MST3K robots made watching it again bearable but just by a hair.
Rated 1/5 Stars •
Rated 1 out of 5 stars
01/24/23
Full Review
pepe l
horrific, but not for the story.
Rated 0.5/5 Stars •
Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars
03/30/23
Full Review
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