The Sea Serpent (1985)

So much average

A lot of fun.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

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.

"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.

This is the worst movie I have ever seen. A movie that is about a stupid looking monster from the ocean that threatens a small town which has to be filled with the dumbest people on earth. SPOILERS IF YOU EVEN CARE They can't even kill the damn thing by the end of the movie. The movie ends and they're like, "Well, some day we'll have to kill it."Avoid at all costs.

This strange horror/adventure film is worth watching it just for its main character... the sea-serpent. Yes, it´s a very realistic monster, at least to me. The actors are fine and the plot is quite intriguing. A nuclear bomb is the responsible for the giant serpent awakening and its rage... so never dump nuclear residues into the sea!!... that´s the lesson!!.