This isn't something you haven't seen before, but it's still a really fun watch. You can definitely see elements of many other films, most obviously Jaws and Creature from the Black Lagoon. Once the creatures really start attacking, things kick up a notch. Good fun.

Rubber suit creature effects limbo through the night out for your dog. The aquatic setup is great and plot feels ambitious. Eerie music and scuba footage go a long way here then come the explosions. "I dont got time to run around looking for no fake monsters." The seaweed soaked ground and glistening creature are a weird mix of obviously fake and still gnarly. The fish festival americana is fun and the fishmen steal the show. Scenes like that suggest the humanoids arent just attacking people, they're attacking "American values" and family down to the pet dog - I love the subplot of the mother protecting her child. Fishmen need love too.

That's a really good way to put it.

I'm surprised I haven't seen this before, because this is exactly the sort of late-70s/early-80s horror garbage that I rented on VHS all the time in middle school, high school, and college.

This movie sees a kid as the first victim within the first 7 minutes and a dog as the second victim within the first 10 minutes. This movie tells you exactly what you're in store for right away!

I will say I got uncomfortable further into the movie when the characters find one of the women alive and you figure out that the women weren't eaten but were assaulted. Yikes.

And that said, the sexiness and nudity was definitely exploitive and oh look, that's what Roger Corman was going for. Reading this bit of trivia at IMDB, exactly zero of this surprises me:

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Yep, this is what I was coming here to post first thing. All bets are off when you kill a kid in the first few minutes and then the next victim is a dog, onscreen no doubt!

Please all the men are gored to death and the women are raped by the creatures. No one to watch with the wife.

All that being said, this movie is so much fun. It is definitely an updated throwback to the old 50's monster movies but just with lots of gore, nudity and ridiculously large explosions. Literally almost every man gets gored or punched in a fist fight in this movie. Even the guy not fighting. Then all the women lose their tops except for the brash young female scientist. The creatures are wet, slimy and gross but and only slightly more interesting than Robot Monster.

You get crazy huge CHiPs explosions everywhere there is gasoline. And if there isn't gasoline somewhere, they find a way to spray it there. I have zero idea why the two main protagonists decide to coat the entire bay in gasoline when the creatures are all mostly on land at the moment, but whatever. I was only disappointed they didn't blow up every boat in the bay...but the meager budget probably didn't allow that.

The beach is literally the most uninviting beach in the world, and it doesn't even look like fun walking on it. Yet we have people sunbathing, taking walks on the jagged killer rocks and even camping in a tent on it. And speaking of the tent scene, it may have to be one of the funniest scenes in a horror movie. The dummy talking erotically and hilariously to the naked woman (which for my money, has one of the best bodies in a horror movie, ever). Umm...what the hell?

Plus you get the Vic Morrow as the unrepentant racist who not only gets redemption by saving the child but also gets saved by the Indian who he hates. Bonus!!! Really, was Vic Morrow a racist in real life, because between this and Twilight Zone The Movie, the dude plays the perfect racist asshole. Is he a blatant racist in any of his other movies?

For some reason the movie slows to a crawl with any scene with our dull, charmless hero Doug McClure. He was only 45 when he filmed this! Anyway, the guy has as much personality in this as a doorknob.

This movie will always have a special place in my heart because it was one of the first movies I saw in HD on my VOOM HD satellite service. Most people forget that cable and the other pay services were quite slow in getting us HD programming back in the day. There was where VOOM came in. I loved that service, and I loved the Monsters channel they had.



Anyway, I digress. this is a fun movie that knows exactly what it is, and it delivers it all in spades. Not the greatest flick but enjoyable throughout. Plus, you get a disgusting creature pregnancy ala Alien to send you home. Fantastic!

My rating: **** out of *****

Classic Roger Corman. You cant go wrong

The exploitation bothers me a bit now, but my 14 year old self loved all the boobies.

It took me forever to find this today. I totally forgot the alternate title is Monster. That’s the reverse art I have in the case.
I’ve seen this a few times. Usually when I’m in the mood to turn off my brain and watch crazy happen.
I’m not a fan of the dog death though.

This movie's not fucking around! Felt bad for Baron the dog ... he was a good boy. Jackie the kid on the other hand ... he had it coming. Even if they weren't attacked by monsters, he was probably going to blow the boat up.

And after the monster was attacking them ... wasn't the dummy still moving it's head and eyes?

The DJ calling all the action during the monster attack made me laugh too. Reminded me of Les Nessman on WKRP when the turkeys fell. Although it annoyed me how he kept pronouncing the "l" in "salmon". Does anyone do that?

I loved this movie the first time I saw it maybe five years ago. And I loved it today. I have a soft spot for "creatures attack a small town" movies. Harbor horrors are also fun. This film reminds me of The Fog, There's a nice mix of small town characters in this with the petty rivalries. The science explanation makes more sense in this film (the growth hormone) than in most of these kinds of films. I'm glad this was on the checklist.

Good bit of rubber suit fun. I really thought the 'humanoids' were really kick ass, and glad we had a real bloodbath at the end with a whole colony joining the party. Man, that Molotov BLEW up that shack. Must have hit a gas line...

I have the Shout steelbook, but couldn't' put my hands on it fast enough. Ended up finding Monster on Shudder.

Nice write-up Spiderbite. I completely forgot about the puppet. That whole scene had me rolling. Yes the dummy was still talking when the guys hands were elsewhere.

I sure felt the monster bloodbath was enough, and even that got topped with the Alien ending.

Don't forget Vic Morrow was also the slave owner on Roots who had LeVar whipped during that Kunta Kinte scene.

I’m really glad everyone enjoyed this one! It was one of the first Corman titles I saw years ago, and I’ve always considered it as one of my favorites from him. This is definitely one of the more insane movies I’ve seen and I still think it’s a blast.