Tonypulp Three dangerous vixens, one giant tentacle monster.. it's a recipe for a good old fashioned disaster. In a good way, of course. In this brand new ozploitation flick, the glorious classic elements of the exploitation and the input of several characteristics of the monster genre collide. It's the best of both worlds. I wasn't expecting much, but the first few minutes caused my jaw to drop and my drool to escape. Just a figure of speech..It starts off with the three ladies hanging around in the middle of the desert in their broken down car, all shot in classy black/white, steady photography. Australian director Stuart Simpson is obviously paying a tribute to Russ Meyer's monumental classic 'Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!'. It's an effective start and it immediately brings a certain attitude and vibe to it that fans of the traditional action/crime genre will definitely love.The happy, cheery vibe changes as we witness a terrible crime committed by the, apparently, hit-man-chicks. Monstro Del Mar shows a serious side, but at the same time it will never forget the essence of a great monster flick; taking a breath every once in a while and have a laugh. Plenty of room for silly activities, exploiting the female presence without getting to sexual or cheap.With only 75 minutes on the clock there will be little time to get distracted or bored with the ladies, the monster or the epic combination of both. The ending is one to remember and the fact that they used practical effects for the most part is something that made me smile from cheek to cheek. Stuart Simpson knows what's right, resulting in a mixture of genres that will entertain you in a way that most other modern exploitation revivals fail to do.It's not easy to point out exactly what makes Monstro del Mar that much different from the rest. We've all seen it before for as long as we can remember. Maybe it's the lack of convincing new material that makes this traditionally built piece of horror worth your while. Why change a killer recipe, right? The three vixens, Beretta, Blondie and Snowball are all played by first time actresses, making their part even more impressive. They play their roles as if they are having a good time, not as if they're trying to act.I could just repeat the above and call it an end, but I'd like to point out that it really is a refreshing film in the midst of all the crap released lately. Stuart Gordon, who began his career at Troma (where else?), has convinced me of his talent in a way that very few are capable of nowadays. Check this Australian masterpiece out whenever you can, it will be worth your time!

bigchowdah Skeleton Man is the worst just so you have a comparison. Wow! Wow! This movie was a steaming dogpile of wretched octopus vomit. Who are you people that are reviewing this with lauded gusto? Holy Balls, I will never get my hour and whatever odd minutes of life back. The effects? The tentacles were all sock puppets. Someone literally bought a hundred plus socks, painted them green and put them on peoples hands. The plot? There were two of them, Hell if I understood any of them. The only redeeming quality was Kate Watts and that's only because I have a thing for Betty Page bangs. My IQ dropped 43 points from watching this alone. The best part about it is somehow it won like 400 awards. Seriously? They are weird awards like "Best movie 2010" from the Hoboken Community College claymation foundation, but they are awards. I thought this would be a fun movie. It was not. El Monstro Del Mar are there many people who speak Spanish in Queensland?

Red-Barracuda Monstro! is one of those films that sounds like it's going to be a sure-fire winner when read about. It even has a cool poster. In truth, it doesn't live up to its potential. Its story has three bad girls on the run for a double murder. They wind up at a small seaside town that is terrorised by a tentacled sea monster. It should be fairly obvious from the above synopsis that this is a movie with more than a passing debt to the exploitation classic Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! Furthermore, it even features the quite specific detail of a wheelchair bound misogynistic old man, which also aligns it with Russ Meyer's film. But this is a far less interesting movie sadly. The three girls here are a far cry from the Pussycats unfortunately and aren't nearly alluring enough to carry the film too far, although they are still the best thing about it.Irrespective of the bad girl trio, it's essentially a low budget Australian creature feature. The monster of the title does pitch up every so often and gets involved in some gory killings. We don't really see too much of it beyond tentacles until the pretty decent finale. But the very combination of the three bad girls on the run with a creature feature is quite odd and does feel like two entirely different films colliding head on; which I am sure was the intention of the writer/director. There's also a pretty good soundtrack of retro tunes which adds some value to proceedings.I would have to classify this as a bit of a miss considering the great possibilities it suggests. But overall it is fairly entertaining and doesn't ever get boring. And at 75 minutes it never out stays its welcome.

filmbizarro I'm a big supporter of Stuart Simpson and I remember when I reviewed his first film "The Demons Among Us" a few years back. I had to get in contact with him straight away and get an interview set up. And so I did. Ever since then I have been eagerly awaiting something new from him, which first was "The Dark Psychosis", but when one of the shorts for that collection became a movie of its own, "El Monstro Del Mar!", that one became my main focus. This was gonna be a wild independent monster movie and anyone who knows me have heard me complain about the lack of good monster films nowadays. Hell, people don't even make very good werewolf movies anymore. Because of this the expectations have been on top since day one and I haven't even stopped for a second to think that maybe this movie won't live up to all of this. But now after finally (after the first package was lost in the mail) having seen the film I can say that it's exactly what it needed to be.It starts off in black and white with three big breasted rockabilly sweethearts with serious attitude (sound familiar? Yes, this movie in many way a tribute to "Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!" and the likes) in a car by the side of the road. They soon see a car with guys in it, and clearly they are stopping for these beauties! They slit the throats of the guys and take their car and head to a small town by the sea. There they meet the good old "don't go in the water" man in a wheel chair who warns them about the water. His granddaughter Hannah gets interested in these three ladies and goes to hang out with them later that night. While she parties with them, fishermen are being killed off one by one on a boat out in the sea, and later that morning the girls find the remains. The old man knows what's going on - the sea monster is back.How original, right? No, not at all. And that's the point. "El Monstro Del Mar!" is constructed to take bits and pieces of Russ Meyer films as well as the good, serious monster movies. Of any decade, really. At times it feels exactly like the 80's did with their fun attitude and gore, but at other times it's straight out of a 50's monster movie. The movie doesn't take itself too serious, but when it comes to being a monster movie it actually does. It doesn't fool around trying to make the monsters funny even though they indeed do look like they could've been in a 50's film. And that's what makes it so much stronger than all of these films "homage films" that are so popular nowadays. The monster scenes are serious, fantastic and actually intense! The monster is pretty much an octopus with the arms/tentacles that eat. Much like the film "Deep Rising", I would say. For the most part we only see the tentacles, and as I said the effects feel like it is out of a classic monster movie, but I am pretty sure that was the case yet again. The tentacles are for the most part controlled by hand puppets and that makes the movement a bit restricted, but I must say I am very impressed by the finale because of how crazy it gets. Monster tentacles everywhere! I don't have any complaint at all against how the monsters looked because it worked so well with the rest of the movie. The gore also looked very good (some occasional blood color that felt a little off) and there is plenty to go around. The effects that I didn't like was some very brief CGI shots and some of the green screen shots. But there are also good CGI and green screen shots, which is very important to point out as well (example of good green screen is when it is for the monster, but bad is when it is for the background when the girls are on top of a hill).Norman Yemm did a phenomenal job in his role as the worried old man and I don't think there was a second in the movie where he didn't have me convinced. I absolutely loved his character and you actually felt sorry for him! The girls did a good job as well, but they had a lot more outrageous scenes to play out so of course there are some bits that feel a bit awkward. But they also did a great job as these bad ass chicks with a thing for murder. Together the assembly make for a very good cast that fit the style of the movie, both in their acting and their look.There isn't much more to say about "El Monstro Del Mar!". It's a fantastic little independent monster movie that I am pretty sure I will be watching again within the near future. "The Demons Among Us" was a good first film from Stuart Simpson, but this one is so much better and is proof that we have a future legend here. The short runtime here makes it straight on and focused, but I wouldn't have complained if it was another 10 minutes. There is no reason you should skip this movie if you enjoy monster movies, and even if you don't there are plenty of hot babes to look at while they shake their bodies on screen on more than one occasion. Good job Stuart and the team for making a monster movie that actually knows what is required to play with the big guys, and thank you for not making it into a slapstick splatter for cheap laughs.More reviews at FilmBizarro.com