Blood Tide

[CoreyHeldpen]

 Ever seen a movie that just ticked you off? Blood Tide ticked me off just a little. It takes place on a small Greek island. James Earl Jones plays a nutso archeologist. He finds a cave with strange temple in it. Of course, he blows it up and unleashes the monster inside. This monster appears to be the lovechild of Godzilla and the Gillman. He likes to eat women and hates James Earl Jones for disturbing his slumber. He's also very camera shy, as he only gets about 4 SECONDS OF SCREENTIME. That's why Blood Tide ticked me off.

 So who else here has seen this lame early Eighties horror flick? Who else sat through the end credits just to hear that pop song?

[Shadow]

tentatively raises hand

I saw it.

Twice.

I was also annoyed that the monster didn't show up for long on screen, though seeing Lydia Cornell in skimpy outfits somewhat made up for it. I had the hots for her back when she was on the Ted Knight comedy Too Close For Comfort.

[Jordan]

I bought this flick for a buck (came with a Yul Brenner mafia film too) and I too was disapointed to discover that the monster is only seen for a very short span during the film (pity, because it sort of looked cool... I think). I plan on watching this dreadful little film again when I take notes and prepare to review it, but that's a while down the road. Definitely a movie worth skipping.

[Dennis]

I have this one in a boxed collection of horror movies, read the description of this particular film in the  booklet that came with the set, James Earl Jones, Jose Ferrer, and of course Lydia Cornell. Myths, monsters, virgin sacrifices, whats not to like, so I watched it and found out, the little blurb in the booklet was way more fun than the actual movie. 

[Scott]

For some reason I liked BLOOD TIDE. Maybe it was just the Greek setting and yes they did wait a little bit long to show the monster, but it wasn't all that bad. Depends on what your looking for.

  (5 out of 10 Stars) I dare say it's worth 5 stars. 

[Menard]

I'm about 50/50 on this movie. What I got was something that was different than promised on the box (like that's the first time that's happened). Of course, Lydia Cornell takes the sting away from anything. But the ending; ewww.

[CoreyHeldpen]

For some reason I liked BLOOD TIDE. Maybe it was just the Greek setting and yes they did wait a little bit long to show the monster, but it wasn't all that bad. Depends on what your looking for.

  (5 out of 10 Stars) I dare say it's worth 5 stars. 

Well, it isn't the worst movie ever made. The Greek setting did at least give it a bit of atmosphere and originality. But they didn't just make us wait too long to see the monster, they hardly showed it! I'm pretty sure that when your making a monster movie, you need to give the monster a bit more than three seconds of screentime.

[Kester Pelagius]

I, too, have seen it.  All I remember about it was I liked it.  Actually, if memory serves, I was astonished I liked it as it was one of those bargain bin finds whose print quality was so-so.

I'll have to revisit it.  See what I think of it now.

[Yaddo 42]

I have the same $1 DVD double feature Jordan has.

Has a good cast, setting, and the elements for a fun movie, but it was just drab and dull to me. I had more fun laughing at how much of his dialogue Jones was probably improvising since he was quoting Shakespeare lines every chance he could. Probably to relieve the boredom. You get to go to the Greek Isles to make a movie, and you spend half the time stuck in waterlogged caves lying on your belly talking to a monster too cheap looking to show on screen very much.

All in all I liked the Yul Brynner film better. Not that great a film either but I'd watch it again before I'd watch Blood Tide again.

[trekgeezer]

I have the $1 DVD with this and the Yul Brenner movie, but I haven't watched either of them.

[Joe]

i saw it yesterday in the store, double dvd with the "the snow beast" if the creature looks cool in blood tide, and snow beast is any good i might pick it up. anyone seen "the snow beast"?

[Dennis]

The Snow Beast, if it's the one with Yvette Mimeux and Clint Walker is actually pretty good. It was an ABC movie of the week and is actually pretty well done.

[Just Plain Horse]

i saw it yesterday in the store, double dvd with the "the snow beast" if the creature looks cool in blood tide, and snow beast is any good i might pick it up. anyone seen "the snow beast"?

I used to have that DVD...

Snowbeast is a rather gruesome TV movie about another rarely seen monster that sort of looks like a caveman in a white fur coat. They only show him a couple of times and you barely even see the face... I hope Andrew reviews it sometime- the scene where the dead guy falls out of the hay loft while the couple are gazing into each other's eyes is pure Bad ovie screen magic. It's the kind of shot you'd expect to see here.

As for Blood Tide, I'm with Dennis and Scott... It's actually rather good. Not showing the monster for the first two thirds- and then a close up shot of it shredding some victim's arm underwater- is a pretty good way to set up just how nasty this thing is. The attack on the nunnery was another nice bit... a sort of clash between modern religion and old pagan beliefs seems to exist faintly behind the scenes.  I was a little disappointed by the ending, because I think it would have worked better with a downbeat or tragic twist, instead of the typical rescue they went with... but James Earl Jones quoting just about everything in Shakespeare's writings was kind of quirky, but I have to feel sorry for his character- despite his greed. The line I'll always remember from this movie: "Gobble, gobble." Not a bad film... not a four star movie, but defintly better than what I expected.

 

[Jordan]

Don't forget that "Snowbeast" also stars Bo Svenson! (He was in those fairly obscure "Walking Tall" sequels and had a bit part in "Kill Bill Volume 2.") "Snowbeast" is definitely better than "Bloodtide."