Tentacles Blu-ray - John Huston

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S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

(aka "Tentacoli")

Directed by Ovidio G. Assonitis (as Oliver Hellman)
Italy 1977

It’s angry. It’s hungry. It’s extremely well-armed—and it’s descending on a small seaside town to sample the local cuisine! When a giant, bloodthirsty octopus emerges from the deep, John Huston (Winter Kills), Shelley Winters (Bloody Mama), Bo Hopkins (White Lightning) and Henry Fonda (Meteor) do all they can to keep the marine menace from turning their sleepy village into a one-stop snack-shop. Cult movie maven Ovidio G. Assonitis, the twisted mind behind Beyond the Door, The Visitor, Madhouse and The Curse, serves up a slimy scare-fest with a pounding score by Italian genre great Stelvio Cipriani (A Bay of Blood, What Have They Done to Your Daughters?) It’s a fast-paced thriller that’ll grip you with relentless terror—and never let go!

***

Having ripped off The Exorcist with Devil Within Her, Oliver Hellman here does a follow-up Italian job on Jaws. Taking Tentacles to the lab for analysis would reveal many similarities to its finny predecessor, with the following exceptions: wit, imagination, storytelling skill. Huston is grotesque as the type of grizzled investigative journalist who wears his nightdress on the porch. Winters is worse in yet another of her fat flustered parts, and Fonda must have needed the few days' work as 'Mr Whitehead', whose drilling company sends the octopus mad with its vibrations. One scene Jaws doesn't have, thankfully, is ichthyologist Bo Hopkins addressing his killer whales as though they were long-lost buddies from 'the streets' whence he came. They duly dispatch the monster, which incidentally seems of quite normal size, as in Grizzly.

Excerpt from Timeout Film Guide located HERE

Posters

Theatrical Release: February 25th, 1977

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Review: Kino - Region 'A' - Blu-ray

Box Cover		CLICK to order from: Bonus Captures:
Distribution	Kino - Region 'A' - Blu-ray
Runtime	1:42:11.250
Video	2.35:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 36,596,517,368 bytes Feature: 33,327,415,296 bytes Video Bitrate: 39.34 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate Blu-ray:
Audio	DTS-HD Master Audio English 2005 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 2005 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit)
Subtitles	English, None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Kino 2.35:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 36,596,517,368 bytes Feature: 33,327,415,296 bytes Video Bitrate: 39.34 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video Edition Details: • Radio Spot (0:57) • Trailer (1:01) Blu-ray Release Date: April 12th, 2022 Standard Blu-ray Case inside slipcase Chapters 9

Comments:

NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Kino Blu-ray (April 2022): Kino have transferred Oliver Hellman's Tentacles to Blu-ray. In 2015 Shout! Factory produced a Double Feature Blu-ray with Reptilicus and Tentacles (reviewed HERE.) It is now out-of-print. Kino's transfer is dual-layered with a max'ed out bitrate and is a notch above the Shout! It still has many speckles and light marks plus the colors are pale. It's from the same weak source - probably the best available. The Kino 1080P shows slightly more detail - but I didn't find it a deal-breaker.

NOTE: We have added 60 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Kino use a DTS-HD Master 2.0 channel track (24-bit) in the original post-DUB'ed English language with some apparent syncing. Tentacles has plenty of underwater sequences but they aren't remarkable for any particular effectiveness - probably 'stock'. The score is by Stelvio Cipriani (The Laughing Woman, Colt 38 Special Squad, The Night Child, Nightmare City, The Blood Stained Shadow, Killer Cop, Rabid Dogs, Baron Blood, A Bay of Blood) but it can't save the film - nothing could. Kino offer optional English subtitles on their Region 'A' Blu-ray.

The Kino Blu-ray offers only a Radio Spot and trailer - no commentary. Perhaps Lee Gambin - author of Massacred by Mother Nature: Exploring the Natural Horror Film - would have been a good choice.

Ovidio G. Assonitis's Tentacles is absolute rubbish. Hank Fonda, John Huston, Shelley Winters were slumming it - for a paycheck perhaps - with their trifecta inclusion as the only appeal to watching it. Fonda is in it for a cup of coffee while Huston's scenes are a bright spark - ditto for Claude Akins. Tentacles is terrible though. The Kino Blu-ray is priced right at around $10 at the writing of this review - and for that, some may see value as a torturous start to a Sunday afternoon double-feature.