The Sea Serpent
The Sea Serpent
| 26 April 1985 (USA)
The Sea Serpent Trailers

A serpent, created by radioactivity, threatens a Spanish coastal town.

Reviews
ma-cortes

Thrilling film in low budget plenty of chills , screams and lots of silly amusement . I admire creative effort to keep budget down , but this time is too little . It deals with an American Air Force jet carrying a atomic bomb is forced to drop it in the Ocean. Then , there takes place a nuclear detonation in the Atlantic that re-animates a giant sea monster . The creature terrorizes the Spanish coastline , capable of causing death and destruction . 1985 , Galicia , Spain , a sea captain , along with a seaman (Jared Martin) aboard a boat called ¨Alcantara¨ and set out in fishing when the strange monster attacks , being sunk and the crew devoured alive . Later on , the captain , whose ship was sunk by the monster , is condemned , but he escapes and join forces with an American tourist (Taryn Power , Tyrone Power's daughter) whose best friend was eaten by the monster in Estoril , Portugal . The couple goes to Lisbon asking for help a respected as well as likable professor (this film was Ray Milland's last theatrical feature) and both of whom team up to stop the beast ."Hydra" is a humdrum adaptation based on monster movies from a story and screenplay by the same director , Amando De Ossorio . This is a middlingly entertaining European monster movie in the 50s style , though packs absurd situations and cheesy frames when takes place monster appearance , attacking swimmers, boats and lighthouses without mercy . ¨Sea serpent¨ is an atmospheric as well as eerie movie that contains bemusing scenes when appear the giant monster and take place his attacks in some ridiculously made scenes , including primitive special effects . The picture has numerous "older technique" FX such as transparency , miniatures , matte paintings, scale models , reverse-footage , trains and helicopter similarly to toys ; all of them were made by Amando De Ossorio and makeup artist Fernando Florido . It's a slight fun with professional make-up , naive special effects , functional art direction and passable set decoration by Jose Luis Galicia who designed several Paella Western . You will watch it and think it is either awful , hilarious, a masterpiece, or all three . It's a simple entertainment with embarrassing images , naive special effects , campy production design and evocative setting . Although critics do not appreciate much this picture ; however has a kind of loopy , Ed Wood quality that must be endured to be totally considered . The fable is mostly silly and laughable , though a few Naif effects and action are professionally made . Some illogical parts in the argument are more than compensated for the excitement provided by the monster appearance though some scenes are a little bit cheesy and ridiculous . While not a hit during its original run, the film has got a limited gossip , when reissued many years later considered to be one of the best worst monster films of cinema history ."Hydra: Monster of the Deep" was lousily directed by Amando De Ossorio . Amando was a slick craftsman who began in films as a writer and assistant director and continued his career by making short films and industrial documentaries . He was one of the main directors of the Spanish horror boom in the 70s, specially for his quartet of films about the living dead Templars which started with his first great success and immensely popular ¨Tombs of the Blind dead¨ which to be continued by a trilogy : ¨Return of evil dead¨ , ¨Ship of Zombies or Blind dead 2¨ and ¨Blind dead 3 or The night of the sea gulls¨ . Amando owns his own studio and created and/or designed many of the simple special effects sequences you see in any of his many imaginative undertakings . Amando who recently passed away was a good craftsman who realized a lot of amusing as well as entertaining films . He displayed a varied career and specialized on all kind of genres as Western in "Rebels in Canada" and "Grave of the Gunfighter" , Monster movie as ¨Serpent of sea¨ and , of course, Terror as ¨Malenka¨ , The possessed¨ and ¨night of witches¨ . Ossorio also studied painting and photography , moreover, he also made his living as a painter of creepy images of the Knights Templar in his later years.

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Coventry

"Hydra – The Sea Serpent" is fantastic and downright brilliant entertainment. That is to say; at least if you're into stupid, cheesy, trashy, tacky and totally incompetent euro-Exploitation material. From the creator of some really great and highly respected European horror landmarks, such as "Tombs of the Blind Dead" and "The Lorelei's Grasp", comes this must-be-seen-to-be-believed piece of 80's incompetence that you simply cannot bring yourself to hate. The film begins with a really cheesy sequence of a military airplane, code name "baby", in contact with the radio base, code name "mother", and receiving the order to drop a nuclear bomb, code name "baby's bottle", in the Atlantic Ocean. The explosion instantly causes a regular-sized sea serpent, as the only living thing in the entire ocean, to mutate into a giant and radioactive monster. And yes, all this even happen before the opening credits! Even after the exhilarating opening sequence, the monster doesn't waste any time and promptly devours half the crew of a Spanish fisherman's boat and a female American tourist who thought it was a brilliant idea to go swimming in an unlit and unguarded area whilst completely drunk. Of all stupid people I ever watched dying in horror films, she deserved it the most! Her traumatized friend teams up with banished fisherman Pedro, but obviously nobody believes in the existence of a massive sea creature and they call in the help of the eminent professor Timothy Wallace; who actually should have been retired for at least two decades already. "Hydra – The Sea Serpent" is indescribably entertaining for all the wrong reasons. Whenever the film attempts to be spectacular and terrifying, you'll find yourself practically laughing your lungs out. The monster is an adorably ridiculous sock-puppet who likes to twist itself around cardboard lighthouses and swallows entire mannequin dolls without even chewing. At a certain point in the film, the critter even manages to grab a helicopter out of the sky and munch it. Also, pay attention to the catchy but nevertheless knocked-off Jaws music whenever the monster threatens to pop its head out of the water. Okay, the film is too long in parts, especially since Amando De Ossorio insisted to provide the obligatory "let's-fall-in-love" montage and several more completely irrelevant sub plots, but overall "Hydra – The Sea Serpent" is the type of garbage I instantly fall in love with.

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martoni64

and abysmal, over-the-top acting, you might enjoy this rubbish flick.Apparently atomic bombs makes life mutate in about a day or two (or according to other viewers, wake them up). Or so it seems. And apparently massive atomic explosions off the coast of Spain doesn't make anyone ask any questions at all. Coming to think of it, the plot doesn't make sense in any way whatsoever (why would evil sock puppets attack lighthouses?), so the nukes going off for no reason at all doesn't stand out too much.OK, getting past this, and the fact that the "monster" is a glorified thing you make of socks in kindergarten, you may actually be able to stand this. But for once the complete lack of gore doesn't help, leaving the monster attacks in all their naked rock-bottom-budget "glory".I doubt you'll be able to watch this though, so better stay well away.

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reptilicus

Just when you thought movies had stopped blaming nuclear radiation for evrything along comes this movie from Amando De Ossorio. Taking a break from the "Blind Dead" series Senior De Ossorio offers us science fiction with a touch of Cold War propaganda. An Air Force jet carrying a new type of atomic bomb is forced to jettison it in the Pacific. It explodes on contact (don't you HATE when that happens?) and quicker than you can say "Horror of Party Beach" a tiny fish mutates into the title character. He is a fearsome sight, huge white eyes, rudimentary wings, sharp teeth; he is as realistic looking as REPTILICUS . . .and that should tell you how realistic looking he is! Peoples reaction to hearing about the sea monster are pretty much the way people would really react. One man (Timothy Bottoms) loses his captains license when he reports his ship being sunk and his crew eaten alive. A woman (Taryn Power) who saw her best friend devoured, is put into a mental hospital! The two form an alliance (which in true tradition of movies turns into love) to prove the beast exists and talk a crotchety old professor (Ray Milland in his next to last role) into joining them. Watch for director Leon Klimovsky (VAMPIRES NIGHT ORGY) playing a Naval officer at a court martial. Actor Victor Israel (LA RESIDENCIA) shows up as a drunken night watchman long enough to get eaten. The action is great but don't expect eye popping special effects; miniatures are well done but obvious. The scene of the beast attacking a railroad bridge is still quite good, low budget or not. This is the sort of movie we used to go see on Saturday afternoon. Heat up some popcorn and watch this on a double bill with THE CRATER LAKE MONSTER and you will certainly have fun.

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