Octopus's garden

Monsters

Crit

It Happened One Night, with enormous menacing semiaquatic cephalopods. And with significantly less attractive and vastly less appealing romantic leads, such that you don't really get the mutual attraction. And without the good writing or Capraesque set pieces or quirky minor characters. And with a fiancé instead of a husband, and with the father in favor of him. But otherwise, pretty much the same movie.

Also a bit of a primer on minuscule-budget sci-fi flicks:

1. show terrified anticipation of your aliens lots more than the aliens themselves;
2. when you do show your aliens, mostly show them in the dark;
3. when you do show them in the light, show only probing tentacle tips or decomposing parts of dead bodies;
4. if you can manage an alien sex scene without its looking ridiculous, go for it;
5. leave yourself plenty of room for a bigger-budget sequel in case this one is an unlikely hit.