Devil Fish (1984)

Undisturbed for a thousand years, the devil has now awoken.

Devil Fish

I guess everything old is new again because a film based on a genetically engineered, man-eating shark with tentacles was already done by Lamberto Bava 26 years before SyFy came out with Sharktopus in 2010.  And Devil Fish, aka Monster Shark, isn't even original.  It's just another Jaws ripoff and not an especially good one.  In fact, one might even go so far as to call this movie terrible.  Not me.  I found it entertaining with enough explosions, boobies and horrible special effects to hold my attention.  Who doesn't want to see dubbed Italian actors rolling around with rubber shark tentacles?

The plot.  Well, there really isn't much of one and I guess when you have a prehistoric shark with tentacles terrorizing Italians pretending to be Americans, you don't really need one.  I mean that pretty much is the entire plot.  This sea monster starts killing people and a team of beer drinking scientists get in their boat and try to track this thing down with their fishfinder to figure out what it is.  Some get eaten, some don't.  The ones that don't get eaten discover that it's a genetically engineered bioweapon: a cross between an octopus and a prehistoric fish called a Dunkleosteus.  But that's not all.  It's capable of reproducing asexually and the only way to destroy it is with fire!  With fire!

Mystery Science Theater 3000 did an episode with this movie which may make it more watchable for some people, but I haven't seen their version so I really don't know.  Of course, the MST3K version won't contain any boobies.  Yes, this is just another twisted and "crappy" Italian version of an American film but for me, that's a selling point.  I like these kinds of films if you haven't noticed.

Violence Rating: 3 out of 5

Booby Rating: 2.5 out of 5