Julie Blair (Anne Kimbell) is a commercial illustrator currently on vacay down in ol’ Mexico.
While trying to paint the sea she is treated to not only a sad-sack tale from one of the local children who blames his father’s watery death on a sea monster, but constant blabbing about the sea from marine biologist Steve Dunning (Stuart Wade) who’s doing research along with his colleague Dr. Baldwin (Dick Pinner) by mostly tooling ’round in his one man submarine (a craft that completely baffles Julie who has seemingly never heard of a submarine).
Anyway, these two naturally hit it off, and before long Julie (who swerves from artist to pro cryptid hunter within seconds) and Steve begin looking for the creature beneath the waves as more folks turn up missing which is mostly comprised of Julie annoying marine life and hasslin’ the locals for info (including Pablo portrayed by the film’s director Wyott Ordung, who wrote the legendary drive-in creature feature Robot Monster).
Before long the not even trying day-for-night sky reveals a full moon which Julie quickly learns is when the beast goes a-hunting and soon her and Steve are up to their asses in tentacled, cyclopean horror!
Monster From the Ocean Floor is important for being the first feature film produced by legendary B-movie maven Roger Corman (Death Race 2000), but is it a good monster picture?
Having been shot for next to nothing over the course of six days, Monster From the Ocean Floor does fall victim to a few of the traps of cheaply-produced drive-in fare… it’s talky, it’s padded (despite it’s scant sixty-four minute runtime) with science-based stock footage and underwater shots that you can tell the filmmakers were excited to include (and include, and include… )… plus plenty of screen time is given to that previously mentioned one-man submarine that Corman sweet-talked his way into borrowing for the shoot.
That being said, the production does feature a strong cast with a fun narrative… but the real draw for monster-lovin’ maniacs is the eponymous beast; a mass of tentacles and bad times with one evil eye brought about by that hoary ol’ chestnut; nuclear testing… that, while seen briefly, is nevertheless a fun bit of puppetry and design courtesy of puppeteer Bob Baker (The Angry Red Planet, Close Encounters of the Third Kind)!
And you’ll learn all about Baker’s fascinating career thanks to a featurette included on this Blu-ray release from Film Masters! Of course that isn’t the only bonus material present here as also included are an interview with Corman, the film’s original and re-cut trailers, a still gallery, and an incredibly listenable and informative audio commentary from film historian Tom Weaver (who also penned an essay for the included booklet) that fills us in on the film’s production via Weaver’s patented sarcastic and scholarly manner!
Featuring a good cast and imaginative creature design, Monster from the Ocean Floor is a fun if slightly padded old school creature feature that is more than worth a wicked whirl!
