A pensive monster, looking for a moment of introspection.
Much like the giant, possessed squid that’s shambling across this island, mysteriously upright on its tentacles, Space Amoeba (1970) is a shambling wreck of a movie. The general conceit of this mess is that space aliens, having hijacked our first ship to Jupiter, have returned it to Earth, ended up in the Pacific Ocean near a quaint little island full of quaint islanders, which is scheduled for commercial development. They then “possess” (think The Exorcist (1973)) some innocent squid. Well, the movie calls it an octopus, Anyways, it mysteriously grows to be maybe 80 feet tall, makes landfall, can walk on its tentacles, kills a few people, tosses the head priest of the islanders about, and then exits the island holding its head as bats pursue it.
My Arts Editor’s favorite bad special effects scene. That would be victim #1 on the right, and our octopus on the left, experiencing a growth spurt after eating Mr. Doan’s Liver Pills.
One of the foreigners, a smarmy corporate spy, is next on the hit parade, while a crab and a sea turtle joins him as other members of the possessed. The spy doesn’t grow like the octopus, but the turtle and crab do. The possessed spy is the mole in the human community. Meantime, somehow the doughty humans have figured out that the dominating space aliens have one weakness, and it’s not that fungal problem afflicting bats. I’ll leave it to be the movie’s little secret. The humans blow the crab into an outsized meal, while the octopus and the turtle, attacked with the human secret weapon, lose their minds, attack each other, and eventually fall into a conveniently suddenly active volcano. The corporate spy, still dressed like a fop, manages to save humanity by throwing himself into the volcano after them.
Wow. It’s just awful. The turtle really just looked like a guy in a rubber suit. And the rest of the special effects were wretched. So was the acting, story, and audio. Oddly enough, I liked the space trip, and while I’m sure the “wide angle” shot showing the ship heading for Jupiter consisted of a photo of Jupiter pasted to a black board speckled with sparkles, I really felt like that might be what you said. Too bad I didn’t find a frame of that portion of the flick.
But not much else.
Avoid.
