Kraken: Tentacles of the Deep (2006) (TV)

Director:

Tibor Takács

Writers:

Nicholas Garland (co-writer)
Sean Keller (written by)

Release Date:

23 September 2006 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Sci-Fi

Plot:

Thirty years ago, Ray Reiter witnessed the brutal death of his parents at sea by a strange, octopus-like creature...

Plot Keywords:

Kraken | Scuba | Loss Of Mother | Artifact | Babe Scientist

Cast

Charlie O'Connell	...	Ray
Victoria Pratt	...	Nicole
Kristi Angus	...	Jenny
Cory Monteith	...	Michael
Jack Scalia	...	Maxwell
Aleks Paunovic	...	Ike
Nicole McKay	...	Kate
Michal Yannai	...	Sally (as Michal Yanai)
Kyle Morven Tejpar	...	Young Ray
Mike Dopud	...	David
Emy Aneke	...	Firefighter
Elias Toufexis	...	Keith
Christa Campbell	...	Emily

Also Known As:

Deadly Water (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for some violence.

Runtime:

Canada:88 min

Country:

USA | Canada

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

USA:R

Filming Locations:

Britannia Beach, British Columbia, Canada

Company:

Brightlight Pictures

Trivia:

Young Ray (Kyle Morven Tejpar) seen reading a book "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" by Jules Verne. The book was influenced by Tennyson's poem the "The Kraken"

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Jim, the skipper, is beheaded and thrown over-board by the wire, we see the actor swimming in the water. Moments later, we see him again moving around in the water as the Kraken's tentacles grab him.

Quotes:

Michael: We need a bigger boat, man!

Movie Connections:

References Jaws (1975)

Soundtrack:

If I Say

All right killer sea creature feature

"Kraken: Tentacles of the Deep" is an all-right creature feature.

**SPOILERS**

Off the coast of, a diving crew, Nicole, (Victoria Pratt) Jenny, (Kristi Angus) and Michael, (Cory Montkeith) find a collection of sunken ships from throughout different time periods sunk in the area. Ray, (Charlie O'Connell) hears this and offers his help. After going on a dive, they are attacked by a giant squid, and barely make it back. Maxwell Odemus, (Jack Scalia) an old rival of Nicole's, arrives and offers a reluctant Nicole a proposition about the creature. After finding the true nature of the treasure found earlier, the two teams race to find it before being killed by the protective squid.

The Good News: As far as giant squid movies go, this one wasn't all that bad. The best aspect is that it decides not to spend all the time on the creature and instead weaves into the lives of others, rather than just being stuck over a single night of carnage. It takes place over a couple days, and that's a rare sight for a film like this. It was also a pretty nice idea to not make it just a biological mutation and was instead just a regular creature. That makes for a far more believable monster. The underwater action is all great, combining to make some great moments. The first attack near the wreck is pretty suspenseful, as it's hard to really get a sense of what's going on in the scene and there's an air that something isn't quite right. It's one of the few scenes around that features a similar idea that's successfully executed right, making the suspense out of what is on-screen through the elements presented. The second dive does the suspense to a much lesser degree, but it makes up for it with the addition of a couple kills and some gore to the mix that is a little welcome. The few non-dragging deaths in here was also nice, but it's only too bad that it hardly ever happened.

The Bad News: Frankly, this one suffers from one nagging problem that all similar films suffer from; the use of bad, cheap, phony looking CGI to render the monster. It looks very bad, hardly ever meshes with the actors on the screen, and doesn't really gel with the general rest of the film. It even changes sizes a couple times, making it less of threat. It really should be stopped. The only other really big gripe with the film is that it has a majority of deaths that just involve pulling someone under the water. Most of the kills are done that way, and it really didn't do a lot to establish a general feel for the creature. a couple of different methods would've made it a little more of a frightening creature. There's still a couple of other little moments in here that didn't work or were examples of the usual disregard for logic, plot, continuity or whatever else the Sci-Fi Channel's originals are consistently missing, which are in abundance here as well.

The Final Verdict: It's a pretty decent film, but there's still some decent work in there along the way. The biggest thing is that the killer in the film isn't all that threatening, which can really destroy many films. Had that been fixed, it would've been an alright film at best.

Rated : Violence and some language