Reptilicus

Reptilicus (1961)

Let me give you guys some insight into my life. I’m standing in our soon to close Hollywood video and notice a Midnite Movie that I don’t own. I pick up the box and say to my friend, “So there is this movie about a prehistoric dinosaur that grows from it’s own tail and runs amok in Denmark. Oh yeah I need to watch this bad boy!” Without missing a beat he says to me, “Of course you do.” And that ladies (hey it could happen) and gentlemen of the reading audience is how I became the proud owner of my very own copy of Reptilicus.

The story is very simple. While drilling for gas or something the drill spits up some skin and blood. This leads to the discovery of a tail. It is accidentally thawed out by a careless scientist and starts to grow the dinosaur monster known as Reptilicus. Eventually he breaks free, eats some people, spits some acid, does battle with the Danish military, and generally makes a nuisance of himself. Now they can’t kill him because each bit would regenerate into another Reptilicus, so instead they just get him stoned and the movie is over with the big guy sleeping in the middle of the city. What can you say except that this is simply awesome.

I know that a lot of people say that they love bad movies, but I really do. I’m not just into the ones that everyone digs either. I find things to enjoy in films that other people run away from. Hell I’m a bit Bill Rebane (Demons of Ludlow) fan for crying out loud! In no way should anyone consider Reptilicus a good movie. The acting is mediocre and only made worse by the awful dubbing. The story is silly and really doesn’t make much sense. The attempts at comic relief are kind of funny, but really don’t fit with the rest of the movie and end up being disruptive. This is especially ironic because while the intentionally comedic bits aren’t terribly funny the rest of the story is unintentionally hilarious. When I sat down to watch the movie my lovely wife was in the room and in spite of not meaning to ended up sitting thru the entire movie, laughing all the way.

I tell you though nothing I’ve talked about yet comes anywhere near the funniest and most memorable part of Reptilicus. That of course is the creature itself. This is the 2nd worst attempt at creating a giant monster that I’ve ever seen on the screen. Just in case you were wondering I don’t think anything will ever beat the Giant Claw for goofiest looking monster. But Reptilicus comes as close as anything I’ve seen so far. I swear to god this is a marionette that is hopping along thru some miniature sets. And I’m pretty sure they are using the same puppet in all the shots, regardless of the scale of the buildings and backgrounds, which keep changing! Just writing this is putting a smile on my face with how cheesy it is.

I found Reptilicus good cheesy harmless fun that most creature feature nerds like myself will get a kick out of. But be warned if you don’t have a sense of humor and can get a kick out of some bad filmmaking you might want to steer clear of this one. Now to the actual score I give the movie. While I had fun with Reptilicus I can’t bring my self to rat it that highly, but this seems about right.

2 ½ out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer