Monster from the Ocean Floor is a creature feature film, notable for being the first film iconic director Roger Corman produced. Directed by Wyott Ordung (who also had a small role in the movie), this classic super low-budget B-movie is about a sea creature which lives at the bottom of the sea at a Mexican cove who comes out at night during the full moon.
Artist Julie Blair (Anne Kimbell, Roughly Speaking) is in the middle of her vacation, and gets caught up in the hoopla about a sea monster that lives at the bottom of the sea. Believing in the legendary tales of the sea beast, Julie decides to pursue her gut feeling about there really being a monster, but nobody, including marine biologist Steve Dunning (Stuart Wade) believes her.
The monster is a cyclops-octopus creature which I think is a neat design and was effective. Many would argue Monster from the Ocean Floor is not a good movie and the monster is ridiculous, and in all honestly, many would agree, but I personally love it. The best part of the film is the eerie Jaws-style haunting musical score at the end with the monster made it all worth while. The film is dialogue heavy and some might lose focus but if you stick with it, it could be an enjoyable experience. The feature has a creepy atmospheric vibe at various points throughout the picture.
Monster from the Ocean Floor is one of my favorite low-budget sea creature pictures. Even though Corman did not direct the movie, it was produced by him and has a small role in the movie as does Corman regular Jonathan Haze. I consider it to be an EC (early Corman) film and what’s not to like about a film that has Roger Corman’s name attached to it?
Thanks to Film Masters, Monster from the Ocean Floor has received a Region Free Blu-ray release which surprised a lot of us. It has been given a 4k scan from original 35mm elements. As with all the Film Masters Blu-ray offerings, the picture quality is excellent overall with a clean black and white image. It went through extensive clean-up as the dirt and debris were removed. The scenery and the characters show a great deal of detail. The underwater scenes do look somewhat different in some spots but show a wealth of film grain which gives the picture an organic look, and matches how the various DVD releases appeared, but the Blu-ray looks far superior.
English Dolby Digital and DTS HD- Master Audio 2.0 are the usual audio options used by Film Masters and had no issues with either one. I think the DTS 2.0 soundtrack was a tad stronger. Dialogue and action noises, basically consisting of ocean waves as they crash into the sand all come in quite clear. Andre Brummer’s musical scores also blends in nicely. No drop-offs, hissing or crackling were detected. English SDH subtitles are available for this Blu-ray.
Monster from the Ocean Floor has a vast number of supplemental materials that should be of interest to fans.
Commentary legend Tom Weaver and The Weaver Players provide a full-length commentary track. There is nobody better suited to talk about classic black and white monster movies than Tom Weaver. He has a great voice to listen to, and I bet he could literally talk forever discussing all the different stories about these movies that he has accumulated over the years. This commentary track includes archival contributions from Roger Corman.
As with all of Film Masters’ Blu-ray offerings, there is a booklet with informative linear notes. Tom Weaver provides the notes which contains plenty of information about the film.
Other features include:
Ballyhoo Motion Pictures presents a new documentary, “Bob Baker: From Monsters to Marionettes”. Film historian Justin Humpries talks about Bob Baker and his puppeteering career. Films that he did marionettes, animation and puppeteering work include features by George Pal, Escape from Witch Mountain and other projects for Disney, The Angry Red Planet, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and of course Monster from the Ocean Floor!
Another documentary also courtesy of Ballyhoo Motion Pictures, called “Roger Corman: Becoming a B-Movie Maker”, where the legendary director talks about his early films.
There is an original 35mm theatrical trailer, and a re-cut 2024 Trailer.
Another extra is a still gallery courtesy of Mike Barnum.
Monster from the Ocean Floor on Blu-ray is a dream come true for me and many other fans of this genre. The amazingly fantastic audio and video plus all the bonus features make this release another highly recommended one. We can only hope Film Masters can license similar creature feature and other obscure lesser-known movies that include The Hideous Sun Demon, Lost Continent, The Night Caller from Outer Space, The Brute Man, Day of the Triffids, The Snow Creature, Navy vs. the Night Monsters, The Crawling Hand, The Slime People, The Tell-Tale Heart, Cosmic Monsters, The Flame Barrier, Pharaohs Curse among other wonderous delights from that era!
Monster from the Ocean Floor
Director – Wyott Ordung
Cast- Anne Kimball, Jonathan Haze, Stuart Wade
Country of Origin-USA
Distributor – Film Masters
Number of Discs –1
Reviewed by – David Steigman
Date – 2/2/2025