Low budget sci-fi fantasy films have a moderately well defined market to satisfy and ‘Mega Shark versus Giant Octopus’ is certainly a production that would seem to follow a well-established theme. While, personally, I have no particular love of this class of film, not least because the cast consists of largely Z-list wannabes and the production values are frequently laughable to say the least, I am sure that its appeal to people prepared not to peer too deeply into the abyss will be monumental.

It was certainly amusing to observe the number of near fatal errors that a more serious movie genre would have turfed onto the cutting room floor, long before any public release. A shiver of hammerhead sharks (and, yes, that is the correct collective noun for them) finding themselves in the frozen Arctic Ocean was but one. Sadly, the enormous Great White and the aforementioned Octopus of the title are sorely missing in their special effects forms, which, when they do appear, are so poor in their execution that they make some of the Japanese attempts to produce similar sci-fi extravaganzas look somewhat closer to art-films.

Therefore, one might hope in vain that the acting might take precedence. Unfortunately, the some-time pop-singer, Deborah Gibson (as ‘Emma MacNeil’), has started to look and sound more like a seriously second-rate porn star in her on-screen style and presence. Supposedly a renegade scientist, a factor that was made abundantly clear by her wearing of an immaculate white coat for much of the film, and when she was not wearing it, she donned an enormous identity badge, with which she ‘fooled’ every security man and official also scripted into this simply awful production, her impeccable make-up and unsound verbiage merely added to the need to grapple for an emergency sick-bag on one too many occasions. As she was the only ‘name’ on the cast, apart from Lorenzo Lamas as her sidekick ‘Allan Baxter’, my recommendation is not to waste your money and invest in a decent comedy instead. While it will have a cult appeal, I believe that this film’s existence will be strictly limited.