More to this then meets the eye
Reptilicus is truly a bad, but fun movie to watch. From the incredibly awful monster which was photographed in such an unconvincing manner as to look exactly as big as it was (about 2 feet long) to the routine "giant monster on the loose in the city" plot to the inept acting.However, this movie *does* have some decent moments. The first few minutes in the beginning when the drillers find the fairly gross pieces of meat and blood on the drill from boring into the hide of Reptilicus buried deep underground (with the movie's title literally leaping from the main character's blood stained hands) and the creepy sequence when the creature comes to life in the storm brings a few chills to the undemanding monster movie lover. A skinned cow's head also adds a bit of gore to the movie. Also, the dubbing is fairly good and not too noticeable. The dialog itself however, is comically bad.
Of course, the movie has an abundance of unintentional laughs and the monster itself is the main focus here. Reptilicus is probably the *worst* looking giant monster ever created. Looking like a bargain basement toy snake with an oversized head and fangs with some useless little feet and wings glued on it and some red glop slathered in it's mouth, it wobbles and swings its head as if a single fishing line from above controls all of it's movements. The detail in the crummy model houses and buildings it destroys is below an HO scale train set. Reptilicus occasionally vomits some crudely animated day-glow green "acid slime" at people but you never see it's affects on anyone. At one point, Reptilicus destroys a farm and eats some guy in a plaid shirt which is actually a very poorly animated cartoon figure!
Now here's a few tidbits not well known about this movie:
It was originally shot in Copenhagen in the native Danish language. There was about an additional 10 minutes of dialog that was cut in the US English dubbed release. Reptilicus did *not* spit acid goo, as this was added in the US release. There were no slow motion shots of the monster in the original version. Most importantly, Reptilicus actually *flew* in a few scenes! Very much like the Japanese original "Godzilla" movie, this movie was substantially altered for US release.
However, the original version is just as "bad" as the US version.
This movie was just released in August 2001 as a budget priced R1 dvd with a very nice, full frame transfer which includes a trailer for the movie.
score /10
thomasbell 30 August 2001
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw0079042/35748
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