I know I’ve probably talked about this in some of my previous reviews, but one of my goals was accomplished in 2001 when I got to meet Ray Harryhausen and sit in on a seminar he gave at a local college here on Long Island about his life achievements in stop motion animation and special effect in film. He even had the original Medea model with him that was used in Jason and the Argonauts. He wouldn’t let anyone touch it, but I got to breath on it. That’s how close up he let everyone look at it. It Came From Beneath the Sea is one of the many films Mr. Harryhausen is known for working on using his many techniques to establish the visual and special effects for the film. While they don’t compare to the technology that is used today to make effects look more realistic, one has to remember that it’s people like Ray Harryhausen that paved the way for the many visual effects we see in films today.
It Came From Beneath The Sea is about huge giant radioactive octopus roaming around the Pacific Ocean when it comes into contact and attacks a Navy submarine. The commander of the sub; Captain Pete Mathews’ (Kenneth Tobey) is intrigued by this beast and begins a man hunt to track down the octopus before it can do damage to any other boats or even worse, coastal cities. That’s just what happens as the giant octopus evolves and is able to reek havoc on the California coast and the city of San Francisco. Now the military must figure out a way to destroy this beast before it does more damage, and takes more lives.
The script is kind of silly, beck in 1955, after World War II, Science Fiction cinema took a big leap and a lot of odd monster movies were being made. The nuclear bomb was still a big thing after what it did to Japan so the idea of creature mutating was still fresh in the minds of many people. This script banked off that idea in some ways, but it bought to much of scientific feel to the film. Instead of making it an action packed thriller right away, the majority of the beginning of the film was like one big science class, full of theories of how this giant octopus came to be. The dialogue was full of big words that I’m sure even back then turned off viewers whom just wanted to be entertained. But the second act is where the film picks up and this fifties sci-fi picture makes a name for itself.
The acting in the film is not half bad, especially for the time period in which the film was shot. Back in the fifties actors knew how to act, and did it for the love of the craft instead of the million dollar pay check. The cast for this picture included many sci-fi acting veterans of that time including Kenneth Tobey (The Thing From Another World, The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms), Faith Domergue (This Island Earth) and Donald Curtis (Earth vs. the Flying Saucers) as well as actor Harry Lauter whom to his name has credited appearances in over 279 pictures and veteran actor Ian Keith. The acting in the movie is not half bad, and the performances are just what the doctor ordered for this sci-fi classic.
For it’s time, It Came From Beneath The Sea had the best production money could buy, or maybe not. I’m not going to say that for it’s time that this fifties sci-fi flick had the major studio cash behind it to make it a blockbuster, but the production value was decent. One minor thing however is the fact that the main star of this film, the octopus only had six arms instead of eight. This was actually because of the productions budget so two arms had to go. Ray Harryhausen effects however are the real star of this film. Many people will agree that the hard work he put into his effects always paid off with not only the way they looked by the flow of the action that he was able to accomplish with such precision is amazing. This film is a true testament to the hard work of cinema’s past where computers didn’t make movie monsters come to life, people did.
Overall, While I can’t sit here and write that It Came From Beneath The Sea is a great film, I will say that for it’s time it was a decent one. I always find it hard to sit down and watch a film with limited effects that to the spoiled eye of CGI just don’t look real. But one can’t sit down and not respect the hard working men and women who put all their effort into making films like It Came From Beneath The Sea which help pave the way for Sci-fi films of the future and the great special effects we have in our films today.
– Horror Bob
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
