A very low budget and barmy monster flick from the 1970's in which a mutant octopus-man terrorizes about 6 people on a jungle expedition. Not widely known or seen, Octaman doesn't really do much with it's central idea, but then again what really is the scope for a film where the threat is one single man in an octopus suit? The story is slim: a wildlife expedition finds a little octopus with big starey eyes on a riverbank and take it back to their tent for study. Later that night a big daddy Octaman with even bigger starey eyes come to reclaim his little-un! Things go on like this for a while, with lots of nighttime scenes showing the rubbery menace stomping around the compound looking for trouble and whacking people to death with his tentacles. Unfortunately it's very easy to see right from the start that Octaman is a guy in a rubber suit with an extra fake tentacle on each arm and an extra fake tentacle on each leg...these don't move much and the effect is sadly mostly unconvincing. The old motto that "less is more" could have worked well here: if the monsters ugly face and flailing limbs were seen a bit less clearly, the audience might find things a bit more intriguing, but after the first 30 minutes, the Octaman has been seen very clearly from every angle multiple times, and I was getting bored of him! Especially as the majority film never leaves the same wretched riverbank for almost an hour, and just shows Octaman coming out of the water to camp, attacking people and then going back in again.
Acting is so-so, but acceptable, from the limited cast of 6, and at least the monster is fun to watch. Although I did find two things a bit silly – the POV "Octa-vision" shots show his vision to be faceted into hexagons like a fly-eye view might be, even though he has big round single lens eyes. And his permanently wide open mouth has plenty of angry looking sharp teeth but no throat opening at all – it just looks like a teeth-fringed green saucer! For these reasons and the very underwhelming climax, I can understand why "Octaman" has not become a cult hit..shame really, but it's just not very exciting.
Acting is so-so, but acceptable, from the limited cast of 6, and at least the monster is fun to watch. Although I did find two things a bit silly – the POV "Octa-vision" shots show his vision to be faceted into hexagons like a fly-eye view might be, even though he has big round single lens eyes. And his permanently wide open mouth has plenty of angry looking sharp teeth but no throat opening at all – it just looks like a teeth-fringed green saucer! For these reasons and the very underwhelming climax, I can understand why "Octaman" has not become a cult hit..shame really, but it's just not very exciting.