Screengrab: Dross, Dregs and Sharktopus

by Richard Lutz

Let’s start at the bottom and, don’t fret, some people like bottoms. To put it more succinctly: what’s on the satchannel Syfy this week?

Well, in one 24 hour burst, you have such classics as Princess of Mars (Wed; 3.00pm) Mongolian Death Worm (Wed; 23.00), and, the most intriguing, Sharktopus (Thurs; 04.00). The channel really does offer some drastic movies, some dregs and a lot of drech (look up that word in your Yiddish dictionary)

But wait a minute among the dross comes that last one- Sharktopus. And if you look closely at the credits (which, ahem, I never do not being a film creep) you will find it is  produced by none other than Roger Corman.

He’s the guy who gave us the never ending run of shlock horror motorcycle movies that never won awards, never got tv advertising but seemed to be always around: Death Race 2000, Monster form the Ocean Floor and, God bless it, Little Shop of Horrors.

In an industry sense he is even more important. He gave entry level lessons to big stars on both sides of the camera such as Jack Nicholson, Martin Scorsese , Ron Howard and Robert de Niro.
He is the great grandfather of grindhouse…check out Sharktopus.

Other stuff? Monty Pythons Meaning of Life (Tues; ITV4, 22.30) can leave you rolling in the aisles, if you actually have aisles in your living room with its 46 inch flatscreen. The Electric Horseman (Thur; Ch4, 12.50) gives us a sly take on the modern wild west, And Play Misty for Me (Fri; 23.00, ITV4) is Clint Eastwood’s first directorial run-out, a nice piece of psycho drama and you get to see The Man With No Name in his underwear if you are so inclined.

Lean pickings this week. Stick to Sharktopus.