Double Feature Friday: Orca and Up from the Depths

Finishing up underwater disasters this week...

Here's the ad for the 1977 killer whale movie, Orca. I love how they built up the killer whale in advertisements for this movie. Watch the trailer, they pretty much do everything except say, "Killer Whales are better than humans". And they almost kind of say that.

Jaws The Revenge sort of borrowed the animal revenge plot aspects of this movie. A killer whale witnesses Richard Harris kill his mate and child. The whale then goes on a killing rampage in the fisherman's village trying to lure the fisherman into a confrontation.

I also love the text on the ad. The killer whale is one of the most intelligent creatures in the universe?! That's a rather bold statement. And the whale will hunt down that person across time? Is there time travel in this movie?  He he hunting for hundreds of years?  It just sounds hilarious.

Here we have an ad for the 1979 monster flick, Up from the Depths. The movie is very C-grade horror about a heretofore unknown species of shark that is awakened and starts killing people at a beach resort.  I love the picture of that crazy ass looking shark on the ad.  You can see the monster better in the poster.

Check out other underwater movies here.


See the trailer for Orca:


See the trailer for Up from the Depths:

Deepstar Six - 1989

This week's theme continues last week's, underwater movies.

Here's an ad for Deepstar Six. I've always loved the look of this movie's poster, but I've never seen the actual movie. The synopsis is very similar to The Abyss; a group of underwater explorers in a nuclear sub disturb an alien presence on the bottom of the ocean. It stars Greg Evigan, Nia Peeples and Miguel Ferrer.

See other underwater movies here.

See the trailer:

The Abyss - Aug 11, 1989

Continuing my look at underwater movies.

Here's an ad for James Cameron's The Abyss starring Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrontonio and Michael Biehn.  It's about a group of deep sea divers and oil drillers that discover they aren't the only thing inhabiting the bottom of the ocean.  The effects in this movie, particularly the water tentacle, were done by ILM and were what convinced George Lucas that the tech was there to start development of the Star Wars prequels.

See more underwater movies here.

See the Trailer:

Leviathan - Mar 17, 1989

I'm going to continue my theme from last week of underwater movies.

Here's an ad for 1989's Leviathan.  The story involves underwater divers who discover a wrecked Soviet ship and bring back some cargo to their base on the ocean floor. One by one, the diving team is hunted and killed by something they brought back.

The movie starred Peter Weller, Richard Crenna, Amanda Pays, Ernie Hudson and Hector Elizondo.

See more underwater movies here.

See the trailer:

Triple Feature Friday: Pinocchio, Omega Man, Evel Knievel

Chuck Heston week was really last week.  However, last Friday was April Fool's Day so I felt I had to post the April Fool's Day ad.  So, better late than never, here's an awesome triple feature ad featuring another Heston classic, Omega Man. Omega Man was an adaptation of Richard Matheson's novel I Am Legend.

Also on this advertisement you'll see an ad for Disney's Pinocchio which turned 31 in 1971.  On the bottom you'll see the movie Evel Knievel starring George Hamilton as the titular daredevil.  Evel Knievel was a biographical movie about the daredevil filmed primarily in his hometown of Butte, Montana.  It should not be confused with the unbelievably awesome Viva Knievel! movie from 1977 that starred the real life Evel Knievel.

Here's the Omega Man trailer:


Here's the Evel Knievel trailer:

War Gods of the Deep - Sep 10, 1965

Continuing our theme of underwater mayhem...

Here's an ad for War Gods of the Deep. The movie was alternately titled City in the Sea.  Set in 1903, the film features a group of people discovering an underwater society of smugglers who never age living in a lost underwater city along with their gill-man slaves. Honestly, yes, that sounds awesome, but the movie plods along with lots of scenes of dialog. It's not easy to watch.  It starred Vincent Price and Tab Hunter.  Boris Karloff originally was supposed to play the part of Reverend Ives but was replaced by John Le Mesurier.  Also starring was David Tomlinson who is better known for his Disney roles in Bedknobs & Broomsticks (Emelius Brown) and Mary Poppins (Mr Banks).

As the second feature you can see an ad for Face of Terror, which was released in 1962.  It's a Spanish horror movie about a scientist that creates a cure for scar tissue and mistakenly tests it on the face of a disfigured woman who is also an escaped mental patient.

The third feature is Fun in Acapulco starring Elvis Presley and Ursula Andress.

See the trailer for War Gods of the Deep:


Here's a video for Elvis' song Fun in Acapulco featuring scenes from the movie:

The Deep - Jun 24, 1977

We saw Jaws yesterday. Now let's look at another underwater monster movie...

This movie was ridiculously similar to Jaws. It featured a giant sea creature attacking humans (a moray eel and a bunch of tiger sharks). It starred Robert Shaw (Quint in original Jaws) and Louis Gossett Jr (Bouchard in Jaws 3D). And it was based on a book written by Peter Benchley. Not sure how much more similar you can get.  The movie also starred the gorgeous Jacqueline Bisset and an impossibly young Nick Nolte.

I love the offer of free scuba lessons.  I'm not sure how many people would actually want to go scuba diving after watching this movie.

See the trailer:

Jaws - Jun 20, 1975

Yesterday was Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea featuring a battle with a giant squid.  I'm continuing that theme today with more underwater mayhem.

The original blockbuster. One of the greatest scary movies ever made. The original Jaws. This ad is from opening day, 1975.

See the trailer:

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea - Dec 24, 1954

Here's an ad for Walt Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea starring Kirk Douglas, James Mason and Peter Lorre. It was based on the book by Jules Verne. This was Disney's first feature film to use the new CinemaScope filming process.

You have to love the 50s, here's a 4 minute trailer for the movie:

April Fool's Day - Mar 28, 1986

Happy April Fool's Day! Here's an ad for the 1986 horror movie, April Fool's Day. It stars Deborah Foreman as Muffy St John who invites 8 people to her island mansion to spend the night. At dinner, the attendees discover each other's secrets and suddenly they start dying off one by one.  It's a cross between Clue and Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None.

This movie is pretty good. I enjoyed it when it was released on video. I even had the poster on my wall growing up. The star, the adorable Deborah Foreman, has been in a ton of stuff including Valley Girl, Real Genius, Family Ties, My Chauffeur and TJ Hooker. Also in this movie was Griffin O'Neal (The Wraith) and Thomas F Wilson (Biff from Back to the Future).

See the trailer: