I'm a freelance writer living in Perth, Western Australia.
Published August 2nd 2012
The original Sharktopus
Devilfish A.K.A. Monster Shark
Lamberto Bava's Devil Fish, a.k.a Monster Shark, has an original and extremely campy plot concerning a giant, genetically enhanced man eating "sharktopus", which looks more like an octopus with a strange looking, teeth filled mouth on the top of its head than a shark and emits a horrid frequency that sends dolphins, sharks, fish and sonar equipment into a frenzied panic.
The film tells the story of a marine biologist, a dolphin trainer, a research scientist and a local sheriff who try to hunt down a massive sea monster which is swimming around and devouring swimmers and fishermen across the south Florida coast.
For a terrible B-grade film out of the 80's, the acting and plot were surprising good, but the editing is entirely dreadful, though it does make for an amusing viewing experience, as some scenes just end for no apparent reason during the middle of an action sequence and people get cut off in mid sentence.
Devil Fish a.k.a Monster Shark, is a terribly made, passably campy film, with minimal gore, minimal nudity, minimal good shots of the monster and lots of women being pummelled about, so it is not for everyone, but if you're into your "death from the deep" films, or your campy Italian "Euro-trash" films, starring Gianni Garko, William Berger and Dagmer Lassander, then this film is for you.
For those of you interested in a better version of this film, you should also check out the MST3K (Mystery Science Theatre 3000) "Devil Fish" episode, in which the characters on the show add their own commentary to the original film, which is just hilarious!
Devil Fish is rated R 18 for sex and nudity, violence and gore, profanity, alcohol, and drug use, excessive smoking and frightening and intense scenes and was originally released on VHS in 1986.
