Story: The crew of the Bumpo are hunting great white sharks, hoping to sell one to an aquarium. But when a killer whale – an Orca – saves a diver for a certain shark death, they repay the species by trying to snag a whale. Oops, caught and accidentally killed a female orca from a bonded pair. The crew tries to move on, but her mate is screaming for vengeance. “There is no way out except the sea.” I’m sure that’ll go well.

Scares: A few here and there, but of the “gotcha!” variety.

Splat factor: Some blood, but not much. A scene where the orca mauls someone in an above-water stilted home packs a surprising amount of shock, and a touch of gore.

Closing scene “shocker”: Nada. This film came before all that. Thank goodness.

Remake, Sequel or OG (Original Ghoul): Original, unless you count the parallels to Moby Dick, Jaws and perhaps the windmill-tilting Don Quixote.

Trick or Treat?:  This film got a lot of flak because folks thought it was too much like Jaws, which had come out two years earlier. But I think of this film more like a Moby Dick adaptation. Complete with Shakespearean actor Richard Harris playing Captain Ahab Nolan (he’d go on to play the real Ahab in . A pre-10 Bo Derek plays Annie, the only member of the Bumpo that survives the carnage more or less intact.

The back & forth between first person and third person is jarring. Hey, Dino De Laurentis ain’t known for his highbrow directorial style. But the beginning of the film has you firmly on the side of the whales (the scene where orca’s mate is captured is truly heartbreaking), making the violence that come to the various crew members a bit less frightening and almost like satisfaction. Almost. Well played, Dino. The Ennio Morricone soundtrack lends just the right amount of cheesy goodness to the festivities.

Orca would make a fun double feature with Jaws, on a night when you want monsters that are more realistic, a light touch of horror and gore, and a bit of the sea.

Score:
3 out of 5 pumpkins