It Came from Beneath the Sea

MOVIE #1,863 • 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿 • 07.31.24 Fascinating scene introducing the three leads. You can't see their faces…

I'd like to think this is some savvy commentary on how the characters in these films, even the main ones, are usually an afterthought. Maybe I'm grasping at straws but I choose to believe. Anyway, they waste no time getting into the extremely dry exposition to set up what we already know: there's a massive, atomic octopus on the loose. We get out first look at the big ‘pus nearly thirty minutes in, mostly via back projection but a few lovely miniatures…


Wasn't expecting such a distinct romantic subplot, either. Haven't come across this plot aspect on my kaiju journey as of yet. Also, the major transparency with the press is the least believable aspect of this picture about a mutant, possibly radioactive octopus. Our government would never.

The film seems to pivot away from the nuclear angle by insinuating that this is just an ancient creature? A good chunk of this already tiny runtime is devoted to exposition, and that's understandable: this is a tricky stop-motion monster to animate. It starts the attack proper with about ten minutes left. This is not the legendary FX man RayHarryhausen's best work (to reiterate, I think an octopus has to be one of the hardest creatures to animate in this style), but there's some fun shots…




The big guy starts its climactic carnage on the Golden Gate Bridge. RIP, Golden Gate Bridge (1933-1955)...



So they chase it back to the sea and wrap things up in a very ho-hum fashion. This last conversation is really something…


That's very bad in 2024 but I appreciated how they tried to create real human characters in a genre where they're hard to come by (and Lead actress, sometimes called one of the first “scream queens” is charming). It's probably better than the average 50s B-movie at least. FUN FACT: The director was once a child actor and he was the last surviving cast member of The Jazz Singer. Oh (and I'm sorry, this review is all over the place), I also REALLY loved the design of its opening credits...

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⫷ MOVIE #1,862 - (YOU ARE HERE) - MOVIE #1,864 ⫸

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It Came from Beneath the Sea is a 1955 American science fiction monster horror film from Columbia Pictures, produced by Sam Katzman and Charles Schneer, directed by Robert Gordon, that stars Kenneth Tobey, Faith Domergue, and Donald Curtis. The screenplay by George Worthing Yates was designed to showcase the stop motion animation special effects of Ray Harryhausen. For Reichardt completists only. It was released on July 1, 1955.