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Tentacles

Play trailer Poster for Tentacles PG 1977 1h 30m Horror Play Trailer Watchlist
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0% Tomatometer 11 Reviews 10% Popcornmeter 250+ Ratings
When numerous people go missing in a seaside resort town, reporter Ned Turner (John Huston) helps to uncover the reason -- a gigantic rampaging octopus. As the eight-legged monster continues to terrorize the coast, marine biologist Will Gleason (Bo Hopkins) attempts to devise a way to stop the octopus before more tourists fall victim to the creature. Meanwhile, it appears that a corporation headed by Mr. Whitehead (Henry Fonda) may be connected to the cephalopod's violent behavior.
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Tentacles

Critics Reviews

View All (11) Critics Reviews
Adam Nayman eye WEEKLY Rated: 1/5 Nov 14, 2002 Full Review Bill Brownstein Montreal Gazette More lamentable than this snacking squid is watching Shelley Winters, John Huston and Henry Fonda earn a living by going through the motions in their respective roles. Mar 7, 2023 Full Review Grant Watson Fiction Machine As Jaws‘ Mayor Vaughn might say, ‘you yell “barracuda”, everybody says “huh? what?” You yell ‘octopus’… everybody probably still says ‘huh? what?’ Rated: 3/10 Jan 8, 2023 Full Review Matt Brunson Film Frenzy A Jaws rip-off from prolific producer Ovidio G. Assonitis (The Exorcist rip-off Beyond the Door, The Omen rip-off The Visitor). Rated: 1.5/4 Apr 16, 2022 Full Review James Kendrick Q Network Film Desk Like so many films of its ilk, Tentacles feels cheap and lazy, belying its healthy budget. Rated: 1.5/4 Apr 15, 2022 Full Review Jesús Fernández Santos El Pais (Spain) The movie sacrifices three great actors that are worthy of better enterprises. [Full Review in Spanish] Jul 24, 2019 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (75) audience reviews
Blu B This very well may take the cake as the most boring thing that isn't a 0 star film I have ever seen. Even the Comedians was slightly better than this. The music is terrible in a weird way. On it's own it's fine but for a horror/suspense film it feels so bizarrely out of place and the way it's used makes things even more boring. It sounds like spaghetti western music not a suspenseful horror soundtrack. This film has absolutely 0.00% concept of the idea of pacing in a movie. This never builds tension, never builds characters, and it doesn't have any sort of climax outside of some Orcas attacking stock footage of a octopus. It BARELY resembles a functioning story. How on earth do you do that with a idea like this? A giant octopus goes on a rampage and has to be stopped. This should easy picking for a fun B campy movie creature feature. This has no central character at all. John Huston & Hopkins are I guess the closest thing but they feel forgotten about for long stretche because this is so meandering and unfocused it's insane. This feels like 3 hours easily maybe 4. The cinematography, editing and acting is so horrifically bad. I get this is trying to keep the creature hidden for long spurts to copy the idea of Jaws which is logical of course. but you eventually you know.....have to SHOW IT eventually....not just stock footage closeups constantly and half the time it's so dark or murky you can barely see what is happening. The creature "illusion" is so horrifcally bad and out of place. You can so easily tell it's stock footage or cheap models/puppets. The setting should be memorable also but it's so forgettable and boring. A true testament to the most unique thing here. The truly amazing horiffically naive direction. It's so clueless with how boring and unfocused it is with it's camerawork which focuses on the wrong things, takes forever to pan, terrible lighting at night, and uninspired scenes at best. People just sit around and talk..and talk...and freakin TALK...Fonda, Winters and the kids those characters could be easily cut especially anything with Winters and the kids who are completely pointless. This just jumps around nonstop right from the start and takes such a basic idea and makes it so boring, so unfocused, and borderline incoherent at times it's remarkable. The best exhibit of this is the stupid scene that takes FOREVER for no reason at all when the ocotpus attacks at night and we pan to the crowd at the shoreline watching the boats come in for what feels like forever and showing the parade and it just goes on and on with no purpose and it feels like it has no idea how bad it is too. I'm truly amazed at the Ed Wood like complete lack of talent. (Even Wood would've done better with this idea I feel slightly) Skip This at all cost. One of the most boring things that's somewhat coherent I have ever EVER seen. Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 10/21/24 Full Review Monika S What a sad mess! I can’t believe that John Huston, Henry Fonda, and Shelley Winters would condescend to appear in this shockingly low end, amateur movie! How can their salaries for this shlock endeavor compensate for this abysmal embarrassment? Shame on them for agreeing to grovel here. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 08/22/24 Full Review CodyZamboni Z Embarrassing, Silly, Un-scary, Boring Italian Jaws rip off. Most shocking is Henry Fonda and John Huston agreed to star in this mess. Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 08/17/24 Full Review Ron H The story is unoriginal, poorly written, and even more poorly acted and made as a movie. The cinematography is atrocious. The underwater scenes are hardly visible and lack any aesthetics. The music isn't bad but does not fit the movie. It's a giant waste of time to watch. Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 06/23/24 Full Review nick s The movie was trying to hit all the same beats as Jaws but failed miserably. The tension wasn't there in the action scenes, the nerve jarring music score was missing, the characters were forgettable, and the octopus looked aquarium sized. Fun to see the noir starlet again though. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 01/20/24 Full Review SIMON T Inept unapologetic Jaws rip-off, featuring three Hollywood A-listers cashing cheques. All the best sequences from Spielberg's masterpiece are reproduced very very badly, with no sense of pacing or even coherence. And the cherry on the omelette is the truly awful music. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 07/31/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Tentacles

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Movie Info

Synopsis When numerous people go missing in a seaside resort town, reporter Ned Turner (John Huston) helps to uncover the reason -- a gigantic rampaging octopus. As the eight-legged monster continues to terrorize the coast, marine biologist Will Gleason (Bo Hopkins) attempts to devise a way to stop the octopus before more tourists fall victim to the creature. Meanwhile, it appears that a corporation headed by Mr. Whitehead (Henry Fonda) may be connected to the cephalopod's violent behavior.
Director
Ovidio G. Assonitis
Producer
E.F. Doria
Production Co
American International Pictures (AIP)
Rating
PG
Genre
Horror
Original Language
English
Release Date (Streaming)
Jan 17, 2017
Runtime
1h 30m
Aspect Ratio
Scope (2.35:1)
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