Devil Fish (1984) User Reviews

Utterly derivative movie , made even worse by a poor dub

[lemon_magic · 3/10 · 9 April 2005]

Sometimes it's hard to judge how bad a film made in Italy or Spain really is, because they all seem to use the same stable of 9-10 ESL trained voice actors to supply the English voices for release in the US. And things are always lost in translation anyway -dialog, character shtick and plot elements written for the expectations of European audiences may not go too well with our American ideas of what is funny, hip, or dramatic. I imagine that the team responsible for making the translation for the sound track of this movie to English had about 3 days to do it from start to finish, and they probably each earned the equivalent of an installment payment on their used Fiat to do it. In other words, pure hackwork, tossed off in one or two takes and never reviewed or redone by someone with a real ear for the American language.

Watching "Devil Fish", I can imagine that if you were an Italian watching this presented in your native language, you might find it a mildly amusing little piece of fluff. You'd laugh at the 'in jokes' and the amusing drunk, you'd gasp at the monster and the villainy of the bad guys, and you'd ogle at the attractive pair of Peter and not-quite-Daryll Hannah as they couple on the beach for no apparent reason in the middle of a search for clues about a man-eating monster who has already killed one of their friends.

But since the jarring voice acting and tin-eared dialog keep yanking we Americans out of the film experience, we can't help but notice that the editors had serious Attention Deficit Disorder, that no one on screen can really act so much as project an Attitude, that the stated reason for the creation of the monster makes absolutely no sense, that the action sequences have all the impact of a cereal bowl full of cooked oatmeal and that the director, screenwriters and producers really hate women.

Don't even THINK about buying or renting this movie - watch only on cable TV on Saturday afternoon with one of several beers in your fist, or with the help and protection of Mike and the Bots on MST3K.

Review for original U.S. version DEVIL FISH.

[capkronos · 4/10 · 8 May 2003]

A "40 foot long" giant mutant squid with five tentacles, razor fangs and the ability to reproduce it's own cells terrorizes a small Florida town. Various marine biologists, doctors and cops plot to kill it. Meanwhile, a human monster named Miller offs people who discover the "Devilfish" is a manmade creation used for the greedy benefit of some evil doctors! Miller attacks a female researcher, strangles her, drowns her in the bathtub, tosses in a hairdryer, then rips the panties off her dead body!

Lots of false alarms are set when our heroes Peter, Stella, Janet and Bob set out on a high tech (high tech for 1984, anyway) "Seaquarium" boat to catch the creature, who is frequently seen in close up or hilariously obvious speeded-up film to seem more menacing. And only fire can destroy it, which leads to a flamethrower-armed posse vs. aquatic beast finale.

This JAWS cash-in is pretty tame (other than a legless corpse and a decapitation) but watchable and benefits from an excellent Antony Barrymore score and a decent (again, for 1984) monster design. Luigi Cozzi and Sergio Martino wrote the original story.

Score: 4 out of 10

Devouring Waves will devour audience's intellect

[videorama-759-859391 · 2/10 · 16 May 2014]

I remember hiring this about ten years ago. There was a little slip left inside the video box. Written on it was an unsavory comment. Now I really had to see it. I only watched it for Michael Sopkiw, as he was an actor who fascinated me, but sadly he only did 7 films. This one is of grinning embarrassment. Oh how right the last renter was. But still, Italian cheapies are fun, and what is so amusing about this, is that the whole pathetic laughable affair is really taken seriously. It's like us, the audience have been tested to swallow his bologne. Now I happen to like this bologne, but not this bologne. We have a ginormous, and octopus, who can eat victims like Piranha, due to an experiment gone wrong. As you can guess, the victims die some pretty horrific deaths, may'be it would of been safer i Dinosaur Valley. The whole affair is unbelievably corny, though from the effort of the writers, we almost wish we could believe it. Here, watch it, but look at it more as a comedy, as it will come off better with you. This devil fish has nothing on Jaws.

The Italian Jaws.

[Nightman85 · 5/10 · 17 January 2006]

Marine biologists in Florida discover that a monstrous shark-like creature has been behind some recent deaths and seek to solve the problem.

Best known as 'Devil Fish' in America (this film has numerous titles) this rather cheap-looking Jaws take from Italy was directed by none other than Mario Bava Jr and believe me, it's far from his best work! Having said that, Devil Fish is mainly a movie for the schlock or trash horror lovers out there. After all our hero's balls do pop out of his shorts in one low-angle shot!! The film is a bit on the sloppy side as far as story and direction goes. The creature FX aren't bad at times (there's some fairly gory scenes to be had) but over all they are uneven. A decent enough cast and music score does help to redeem the film, even if the cast is dubbed something awful.

For those looking for a good Bava Jr film check out Macabrae (1980) or A Blade in the Dark (1983), but those that enjoy trashy Euro-horror might just like this one.

** out of ****

My god..this was Lamberto Bava?

[pslock · 3 August 2001]

I actually saw Devil Fish long before its infamous MST3K showing. The majority of the horrible editing and pacing were actually from some kind of strange censoring in the print that MST used. There's a lot more gore and violence in th eoriginal cut. Now, don't misinterpret that as praise...Devil Fish is crap and I'm utterly blown away that Lamberto Bava ghost-directed this. Mario Bava must've spun in his grave. Granted, Lamberto has done some dumb movies, but Devil Fish is practically not even a movie...just random crap strung together with a bad storyline. The gore of the uncut version made it BARELY watchable, but not by much. It's still a hilarious movie, though, and MST did it right.

Movie stinko in any "oceano"....

[Mister-6 · 1/10 · 25 August 2001]

Italians movie-makers love to rip off American movies. All of our movies, and as often as possible.

I'm not stating that as a slur against Italy as a whole, but I would like to further observe that the Italian film industry does itself great harm by allowing travesties like this to go overseas to be seen by the world at large. That's all I'm saying.

And no more grave injury do the Italian people subject themselves to than by not sticking a harsh penalty upon those who made the world watch "Shark rosso nell'oceano" - which is, admittedly, a ripoff of the far-superior "Jaws" (as if you didn't know).

Let's dive into the plot (Get it? Haw-haw...): this huge monstrous swimming thing that looks like a cross between an octopus, a shark and Steven Tyler attacks many innocent Americans (ie: Italians) off the coast of Florida (ie: Italy) and the intrepid, beer-swilling Peter (Sopkiw) sails out with his anorexic, beer-swilling girlfriend and other beer-swilling people whose main purposes are to be eaten by the creature, killed by mysterious forces who want the creature left alone or just stand around and be otherwise useless (and swill beer)...or be the doctor in this film who defibrilates dying patients repeatedly (20, maybe 30 times in a row) without waiting for his paddles to recharge (must be one heck of a good battery there, doc).

Then there's the monster...brother, if you thought the "Jaws" shark was fake, look herein and have your mind changed IMMEDIATELY.

This is a movie that was directed as an afterthought (by a Bava!), edited with an onion chopper, acted by ambulatory (beer-swilling) pieces of driftwood and written by (PRESUMABLY beer-swilling) people who should never ever ever ever be let near a typewriter, movie studio or major city in the world ever again. If this is how the people who made this film think real people act in such a situation, they've obviously made one too many of them zombie movies. Or swilled too much beer.

Need I say this movie is bad? It is: bad like green cottage cheese; bad like a Hawaiian shirt at a formal wedding; bad like the "Bad Theatre" skits Dan Aykroyd used to host on "Saturday Night Live"; bad like Calista Flockhart Weight Gain Tablets - get it? Good.

Mike and the SOL gang slap this beer-drunk beauty upside the head repeatedly and reveal this "horror" film as what it is: horrible. Though, with a certain European charm: it's charming, when watched by a European - preferably a beer-swilling one.

No stars for the waterlogged, dead fish known as "Shark rosso nell'oceano"; six stars for the MST3K version. ...and now, anyone for a beer?

Rubber Fest '84!

[tilapia · 5/10 · 29 September 2002]

Very entertaining, hilariously schlocky italian monster movie, which by the way has nothing to do with sharks what so ever. Monster Octopus would have been a far more appropiate title, but if the italians wanted to squeeze the last buck out of the shark craze it's ok with me. Lamberto Bava obviously didn't inherit his fathers talent for grand filmmaking, but at least he had the sense to make his stupid little movies fun and fast paced. Monster Shark is no exception, plus it's a feast for lovers of rubber monsters and italian homoerotism.

more like a beer commercial than a movie

[zenoki · 1/10 · 18 December 1998]

Muscular 'scientists', unpleasantly thin females in swimsuits, lots of beer drinking.. Yet it's too long to be a beer commercial. Oh, okay, there's some plot about a big shark-like monster that's killing people and stuff. But it's nothing you haven't seen before.

Tolerable.

[gridoon · 5/10 · 29 August 2002]

Tolerable, that is, if you set your expectations low. Which isn't hard to do if you've read the other reviews about it. Actually, when you read so many negative comments about a movie, usually you can count on it not being all THAT bad after all. I, for one, don't see how this film can be considered any worse than "Tentacles", "Piranha II" (by James Cameron!) or even "Jaws 3-D" for that matter. The shark-octopus monster looks rubbery, of course, but don't worry; the director probably knew that and he never gives you the chance to get a clear look at it. And the sight of leading lady Valentine Monnier in a swimsuit is almost worth the price of admission anyway. (**)

If only Jaws had eaten the copies of this film...

[Oosterhartbabe · 1/10 · 29 November 2005]

boring, horrible piece of Italian euro-trash about a scientist who seems to spend most of his time guzzling beer(this is what makes him American, right? Our scientists spend most of their academic life soused out of their minds, sure. That's where all the really great theories come from), who's studying something(dolphin calls, fish migration patterns, who knows). He hears a weird sound through his headphones, proving that his radio is picking up a station in Jamaica. At the same time, a Jack Skellington girl with one of the worst, most bleached manes of bad 80's hair that it has ever been my pleasure to witness is trying to calm down the dolphins in the Seaquarium she works at, as they're apparently upset about the amount of fish she's been doling out lately. The beginning of the film was a really badly colored storyline about two annoying, very Italian people who's boat is attacked by something unseen under the water. The whiny woman is never seen again(best part of the story), and the guys' corpse is found with no legs. The dim, alcoholic scientist(who has an inexplicable, English- American- Italian accent) and the stick girl with the hay hair begin to theorize that there's some kind of giant monster lurking under the seas off the coast of Italy...err..Florida.

They enlist the help of an electrician to set up an underwater mike, so that the monster can sing karaoke. This guy has a beautiful girlfriend, who's only drawback is that she pronounces Peter "Pey-tah", but for some reason he's sexually drawn to the anatomical skeleton with the frizzly hair, a situation that leaves one blinking.

The dubbing is awful, the editor a spaz, and the storyline generally a yawn. There's a bit about how this weird scientific corporation genetically engineered this monster giant shark-squid-barracuda thing for some reason that makes no sense, and a really unpleasant greasy haired guy goes around killing women, again for no apparent reason. A stupid sheriff and his bulked up deputy are along for the ride, along with a female scientist(who we know is smart because she wears huge glasses). At one time the woman scientist takes on the huge, terrible monster(yeah, right, Ed Wood's giant octopus was more believable) with only a small handaxe, and she wins the contest. Hooray for skinny little women, who obviously make the best monster hunters!

The solution to the problem of the giant thing is to blow up half of the Everglades, leaving a dead zone for several miles in every direction. To Hell with ecology and the environment, right? We have to kill this giant monster! At the end, the electrician and his broomstick love ride off into the sunset on her Vespa, which is o.k. since she's gotten over her colleagues' death and he's not very upset that his girlfriend got whacked by the crazy guy with the greasy hair. Hooray for true love! Wait a minute, isn't there something fishy about all this...

Edited for the A.D.D. part in all of us

[thehardyboyz2043 · 1/10 · 14 October 2001]

I'm not sure what the director and editor were thinking when they were editing this poor excuse for a film, but whatever they thought of didn't help this movie, it only hurt it, and it hurt this film badly. The acting, for once, isn't the problem, it's the horrible editing, scenes will end for no apparent reason, while in the middle of an action sequence or people will be cut off in mid sentence. I'm not sure what the story was, but it didn't really matter, since what I did see was fairly uninteresting. Just bad all around, a huge "Jaws" rip-off and not a good one at that. The MST version was funny though. 7 for that, none for the film itself.

2,7 rating??? have we really seen the same movie?

[nicolailaros · 10/10 · 24 November 2021]

Hard to believe that nowadays, with all these CGI botoxed movies (Suicide Squad 2 anyone?!?) generating a new disease, the rating of this wonderful movie still stays so low! What a shame/pitty!

Oh, I see: The whole thing is "just" an Italian rip off Jaws??? No kiddin' folks! Wow, what a scoop! So what, isn't it the reason why open minded kino-goers cherrish this kind of treat? And this one for sure is thanks to Lamberto Bava (one of his better efforts), Luigi Cozzi and the great Sergio Martino: what a team: Thanks guys!

By the way, "Jaws rip off"... hum... really? As far as I can remember this film (I saw it once again yesterday...), exception made of the old couple on a boat being attacked, no other tourists in sight, so WTF???

This is just a fantasy extravaganza, an exploitation flick (low budget but plenty of joy!) beautifully shot, with (damn!) hot chicks and boobs (no CGI-lifting in sight here as added to customise Mila Jovovic in Resident Evil 4 or Scarlet in Black Widow) a low but effective body count and, last but not least, a GREAT rubber monster (very well made when it is shown under water)! Wow!

So relax and enzzZzoy (Enzo G. Castellari style;-) this almost 40 years old Gem. You... can't regret it! So give it a try.

Below par, even for Italian Jaws rip-offs!

[The_Void · 6/10 · 26 September 2006]

I really wanted to like this film as I have admiration for Italian rip-off cinema (especially Jaws rip-offs!), but the simple fact of the matter is that Monster Shark isn't very good. All the signs of this being a great piece of trash are there; we've got one of the kings of trashy cult cinema, Lamberto Bava, in the director's chair - one of the best ridiculous cult actors, Michael Sopkiw, taking the lead role, and a central creature stupid enough to give even the best that this sort of film has to offer a run for it's money, yet somehow the film still manages to be rather stale. The fact that the 'monster shark' doesn't feature too often is probably a good thing given the creature design, but there's never enough elsewhere to pull the film through without it. The plot focuses on a resort off the south coast of Florida (or rather, somewhere in Italy) where several local people have turned up in the water with arms and legs missing. It's not long before the local authorities decide that this creature has never been seen before, and it's up to a motley crew of various sea experts to catch it alive!

The main problem with this film is that it always feels very pointless, and since there is little in the way of characters or plot development, even the least demanding of viewers are likely to start getting bored before long. This sort of film is hardly famous for being brilliant, although the fun element of films such as 'The Last Shark' and 'Killer Fish' is unfortunately absent for most of the running time. The thing I love about lead actor Michael Sopkiw is that he always seems like he's taking himself seriously no matter what film he's in (although he only ever made four). This is certainly the case here, although Bava never really allows him to completely dive in, and often he feels as much like a spare wheel as the rest of the film. Much of the runtime is spent watching the various characters sup American lager, and it's not very fascinating; although Bava does manage to come good by the end with an entertaining flurry of action as the central monster finally gets to wreak havoc upon its would-be captors. Overall, there really isn't much to recommend this film for. As mentioned, I really like this sort of stuff and even I found myself bored on numerous occasions. For hardcore Italian horror fans only!

Mediocre rip-off by Lamberto Bava with chills, thrills and bloody attacks

[ma-cortes · 5/10 · 15 September 2022]

Shark: Rosso nell'oceano(1984) or Devil Fish is a scary, thrilling and sometimes hilarious movie about the struggle to kill a giant sea monster . At the beginning it's terrorizing a sea location , then our starring Peter (Michael Sopkiw) , local Sheriff Gordon (Gianni Garco) , marine biologist, dolphin trainer Dr Stella Dickens (Valentine Monnier) and Prof. Research scientist Donald West (William Berger) set out to investigate . All of them attempt to hunt down a large sea monster, a shark/octopus hybrid, that is devouring cruelly people off a south Florida coast. The impressive monster attacks and victims run afoul, while doing a real carnage and those serving for lunch. Along the way some scientists find evidence of the terrible truth while attempting to save a number of swimmers in the coastal resort . Sink your teeth into pure terror !. Wave goodbye...Undisturbed for a thousand years, the devil has now awoken !. A quiet, restful summer in a lazy town abruptly to end!. You're what's for dinner !.

This is a so-so Shark style movie in which a monster proceeds to cause terror and chaos , including average creation of tension , thrills, and brief gore. It is an attempt to cash from Steven Spielberg classic : "Jaws" that follow other inferior sequels : "Jaws 2" by Jeannot Szwarc , "Jaws 3" by Joe Alves, "Jaws the vengeance" by Joseph Sargent, but this "Shark Rosso nell'oceano" results to be a shameful and absurd rip-off with little connection to the previous Jaws saga , here the large squid results to be an underwater mutated monstrosity that is devouring unsuspecting fishermen , scientists , and swimmers alike . The monster attacks deliver the goods with functional special effects , though the final climax is really ridiculous and disconcerting. While staying in Georgia, US , directing ¨Blastfighter¨ starrred by Michael Sopkiw , filmmaker Lamberto Bava immediately afterwards directed this Jaws (1975)-like thriller Rosso nell'oceano (1984), which was shot in Florida and co-written byby prolific Dardano Sacchetti and writer/director Luigi Cozzi or Lewis Coates. On both films Lamberto was purely a director for hire and had nothing to do with the script or production end . ¨Devil Killer¨ features ordinary interpretations with no much interest . Stars two tarnished Italian actors of short career : Michael Sopkiw who only starred four films (2019: After the Fall of New York , Blastfighter , Stranded in Dinosaur Valley) and the beautiful Valentine Monnier. Being accompanied by familiar faces from B Italian films , such as : Gianni Garko, William Berger , Iris Peynado , Cinzia de Ponti , Dagmar Lassander , among others.

The motion picture was regularly directed by Lamberto Bava . He entered the cinema as his father's personal assistant, starting with Planet of the vampires (1965). Little by little he gained experience from his father, who made him the assistant director for most of the rest of his films. He even co-wrote the screenplay for ¨Mario Bava's Schock¨. His first film was the acceptable horror 'Macabro" that was not the wanted box-office hit and, as a result, Lamberto went back to assistant directing. He worked with Dario Argento again in 1982 with ¨Tenebre¨ (1982). In 1983 Lamberto was offered to direct another film, titled ¨Blades in the dark¨ (1983), which was a violent mystery thriller shot in only three weeks on a tight budget and filmed almost entirely in a producer friend's house. Next he directed the action-flick ¨Blastfighter¨ (1984) and this ¨Devil Killer¨ . He used the pseudonym of "John Old Jr" for this film, which was a tribute to his father Mario, who often used the pseudonym "John M. Old". He enjoyed his best commercial success to date with ¨Demons¨ (1985) ("Demons"), produced by Dario Argento,and filmed in West Berlin, Germany. This films international success allowed him to co-write, produce and direct a sequel, ¨Demons 2¨ (1986). Lamberto returned to "giallo" thrillers with ¨Delirium: Photo of Gioia¨(1987) . In the late 1980s the Italian cinema turned moribund and Lamberto, like most of his colleagues, turned to making films for Italian television as he also directed a remake of his father's Mask of the devil (1960) and TV Mini Series such as ¨Pirates¨ , ¨Alisea¨ , ¨Fantaghiro¨ , ¨Desideria e l'anello del drago¨ , ¨The princess and the pauper¨ , among others .

Fun monster, fun gore, lousy story

[horrorbargainbin · 11 September 2002]

It's a poorly edited film with lots of loose ends and plots that go nowhere. A hit-man character would be better off cut, if not for the scene where he strips an informer naked and throws her into the bathtub with an on hairdryer. There is some more hardcore horror with bit-off limbs and a decapitation where the man's body is inside the fish.

It's the popular view to think of the fish itself as being cheap looking. I disagree. It's pretty lifelike for an 80's rubber monster effect and a lot more enjoyable to me than the video game styled fish in 'The Phantom Menace'.

unintentional comedy classic, not actually good hough

[a-twetman · 4/10 · 10 November 2013]

This is pretty much just your standard sea monster movie of the 80's, you have a monster attacking and killing random people that have seemingly been put there for that very purpose. You have the local sheriff concerned with the safety of the towns residents and the evil corporation who want to capture the monster and sell it to the navy as a weapon; there is the marine biologist who helps the sheriff locate the fish, and the bikini babe who just sort bikinis around. Strangely enough it is not the sheriff who is the hero, but instead it is marine biologists engineering type friend who pulls off his shirt and goes into battle with the monster shark.

Naturally the monster was released by the evil corporation and they want to recapture it, the odd thing is, a disproportionately large part of the movie is spent on the cover up involving a couple of goons killing people who know too much. Other than that, it is pretty much the same as every other shark movie out there. That is to say, it is not actually a good movie, but a pleasantly predictable, rather silly, bad one.

Badly strung together Euro-trash

[NateW · 1/10 · 25 August 2001]

There's really not a whole lot to say about this. It's just really, really bad. The acting is bad, the script is bad, and the editing is probably one of the worst jobs ever. It's so sloppy and choppy that it serves only to confuse the audience. There's no real to plot to speak of, mostly it's a really fake looking monster fish attacking Europeans trying to pass themselves off as Americans. Pass on this one.

Seriously, Not That Bad

[gavin6942 · 5/10 · 30 December 2013]

A marine biologist, a dolphin trainer, a research scientist, and a local sheriff try to hunt down a large sea monster, a shark/octopus hybrid, that is devouring swimmers and fishermen off a south Florida coast.

This film has an incredibly low rating, and the only explanation for that is because it has appeared on "Mystery Science Theater 3000". After a film is on there, it seems fans of the show come here and give the movies a 1, to ensure the film a place on the Bottom 100.

I love MST3K as much as anyone, but I do think this is a bad practice, often because the show is relying on inferior copies. While "Manos" is bad no matter how you look at it, the same might not be said for "Devil Fish". The star of the film has said that Lamberto Bava did a great job and the main problem was the budget. I have met Bava and seen much of of his work -- clearly, he was not the problem.

Only the Male Lead Makes This One Watchable

[dsl · 5/10 · 17 August 1998]

Sure, the plot of "Devil Fish" (a.k.a. "Shark rosso nell'oceano") follows a hokey, overworked sea-monster-from-the-deep storyline, but it's a real gem for admirers of the masculine physique. The guy who plays the hero looks terrific in a bathing suit (and, fortunately for the audience, he spends most of the movie in swimming trunks). Central casting also found a great -looking Herculean weightlifter to play one of the sheriff's deputies in this movie, but alas he only turns up in a couple of scenes. Those seeking the feminine form are better off skipping this picture; even I recognized that the female lead was not (shall we say) "buxom."

Sharktopus was better than this deep sea monstrosity

[williampsamuel · 2/10 · 7 December 2014]

Based on the title, you're probably guessing that this is some low-budget shark attack movie filmed in Malibu by the Sci-Fi channel. But no! It's actually a low-budget prehistoric sea monster movie shot in Italy by people pretending to be from Florida. As you might expect, it's pretty lousy, with cheesy acting, bad dialogue, and very low production values.

The plot, such as it is, follows a group of marine biologists, their rivals from the better funded research lab across town, the surprisingly buff electrical engineer who builds their equipment, plus some other people who are only here to get eaten. The first shot involves a stereotypical middle-aged American couple who are eaten, along with their boat, by a creature that we see very little of. This will set a pattern for later scenes. There are more monster attacks, attempts by the scientists to track the creature, scenes where scientists sit around trading theories about the creature, and attacks by unnamed thugs whose motives aren't entirely clear. And for good measure there's semi-obligatory music video involving two of the researchers.

Unsurprisingly, there is a mad scientist involved, but it's not who you think, or for the reasons you would expect. The monster itself is some sort of prehistoric shark with multi-colored scales and tentacles. Not that you ever see the entire monster, except in one distant, incredibly murky shot. Mostly you just get quick glimpses of part of the monster, so you have to piece together its appearance from multiple sightings.

It also turns out that the monster can re-grow from parts of itself, so after the coast guard has taken the effort to place explosive buoys, they have to go back and shoot the buoys before the shark-thing swims into them. Rarely has there been a less exciting use for pyrotechnics. Eventually after much bumbling and quite a few scenes that aren't entirely necessary, the monster is destroyed using a method that I'm quite certain has never been used before or since to dispatch a sea monster.

Anyway the actors aren't very good and can't hide their Italian accents; the soundtrack consists mainly of generic, rather sedate new wave tunes, and there are many long periods without much happening. The photography isn't very good by eighties standards, but at least the beaches are pretty. The dialogue is worth special notice for its sheer awfulness, much of which may be a result of its translation from the Italian. Just how bad is it? Let me give you some examples.

"What they don't understand is that at WOI we deal in genetics, not fish." "How would you know, you electrician?" "I'll decide it was a murder." "You're too old for science." "He would sit on his mother's head if he thought it would gain him an advantage." And my personal favorite, "From a woman with the sensitivity of a slut I will not accept lessons."

I sincerely hope that the writers of this flop did not moonlight as English teachers. I also hope you will see the MST3K based on this film, but avoid the original like a rotten fish.

Rubbish Jaws rip-off number nine-hundred and ninety nine.

[BA_Harrison · 3/10 · 9 March 2011]

The monstrous star of 2010 CGI creature-feature Sharktopus is (rather obviously) half-shark-half-octopus, which probably sounds like a fairly unique concept unless you've been unfortunate enough to experience Monster Shark, Lamberto Bava's god-awful movie from 1984, which also features this particular genetic mash-up. Italian horror film-makers are renowned for following US trends, but for once it seems like they actually got there first (and by a whole 26 years).

Don't expect much else in the way of originality from Bava, though: strip away a poorly developed subplot about a shady geneticist out to protect the vicious sea-creature and what you have is just another in a long line of uninspired low-budget Jaws rip-offs, terribly acted, poorly directed, and much more likely to bore than to horrify.

Admittedly, the incredibly bad monster does provide some unintentional giggles, and supplies the film with a few moments of shoddy gore as it chomps down on its prey, and Bava throws in a couple of enjoyably exploitative scenes in which a murderous hired thug (played with gleeful menace by Paul Branco) bumps off a few defenceless victims, but these 'high' points are few and far between; for the majority of the time, Monster Shark is a dull, derivative mess.

Coastal town menaced by giant floating turd

[HaemovoreRex · 2/10 · 12 February 2008]

A perennial fixture in the IMDb Bottom 100, upon viewing this it's not hard to see exactly why for it proves to fail utterly miserably in just about every bloody department going!

Take the editing for a start; to call this choppy would be overly complimentary! Indeed, had the makers of this got drunk one night and sliced and diced the film reels with some scissors and children's glue, then the resulting mess could hardly have been any worse than what we actually have here. Added to this, the inane story drags on mercilessly for what seems like a torturous infinity before we finally reach the decidedly lacklustre climax.

Aside from the ever game Michael Sopkiw, poor performances from most of the rest of the cast don't exactly help matters any either and the actual beastie that is causing all the troubles is somewhat less than convincing to put it mildly. Yay verily, all in all this is a complete pile of crap if ever I've seen one.

Deary, deary me....and to think that Lamberto Bava directed this to....tut, tut indeed.

Note: This was released in the UK under the alternative title of Devouring Waves, although bereft of most of its gore scenes, which ironically are just about the only reason that this may have been worth watching.

One of the best Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes

[robertmurray-70637 · 10/10 · 25 September 2019]

Plot: silly low budget rip-off of "Jaws." A ridiculous monster is chased around by sexy people in bathing suits. This is one of those a "bad" movies that is fun to watch, especially if you see the MST3K version with jokes added by Mike and the Bots. Beautifully shot in color on location in Florida with a cast of physically attractive Europeans pretending they are Americans. They can't quite pull it off but they wear skimpy clothes so you don't care. The monster is supposed to be half shark and half octopus which makes no sense and must have been very hard for the special effects people to design, so they solved the problem by never showing you the entire monster, just little bits of it. As I noted, the cinematography is great and this film will make you want to spend your next vacation in a Florida beach town. Warning: wear lots of sunscreen. It is obvious in the film that many of the Europeans in the cast got badly sunburned.

Laughably bad Italian "Jaws" rip-off.

[HumanoidOfFlesh · 6/10 · 3 December 2010]

In Lamberto Bava's "Monster Shark" there is a killer shark with tentacles.The beast is terrorizing the waters off the Southern Florida coast and devouring alive some stupid people.It's up to Michael Sopkiw to stop the predator..."Devilfish" aka "Monster Shark" is an incredibly moronic monster flick co-scripted by Luigi Cozzi and Sergio Martino.There is a bit of gore and nudity,but overall the film is pretty tame.The story is hackneyed,the subplots are dumb and the acting is mediocre.The monster is a a genetically-created hybrid of an octopus and a prehistoric proto-shark.There is a bit of misogynistic violence for exploitation fans-the women are beaten whilst being semi-naked.If you are into cheesy Italian trash "Monster Shark" will leave you stunned.6 sharks out of 10.

"Blows" me away **minor spoilers**

[Hancock_the_Superb · 1/10 · 11 July 2002]

This stupid, anti-environment wannabe "Jaws" is sad, pathetic, boring, poorly dubbed, and stupid. There is nothing redeeming about it.

Plot follows some shark/octopus creature-thingy that appears off the coast of Florida and kills some people (including a boring, stupid couple with a whiny wife and a silent husband who stabs himself with a fork for some reason). His ascent to the surface is always represented by a vague sideshot of something bumpy over and over. It makes no sense, it's horribly boring, and it's conspiracy plot sucks.

There are moments of camp that cannot be ignored: the same shot of the boat of the couple of the opening sequence THREE TIMES; the doctor slamming a dying patient's chest twenty times with a difibulator without stopping, even though he's clearly dead; the porno-esque soundtrack; the shot of the couple making love on the beach, with three different thems ("That us is getting ahead of us!") doing this; the ancient computer that sounds like Kermit the Frog; a beer-guzzling scientist screaming "I know!" a la Dr. Smith; the list goes on and on.

Oh, and everyone drinks at least thirty bears in the course of the movie (much noticed by Mike and the 'Bots) . . .

The MST3K version is their best episode, but it's certainly better than the movie itself. "This is how I like to go fishing, guys . . . with a flashlight and a flamethrower . . ." - Crow

One star for "Devil Fish"; seven for the MST3K version