Made a full ten years before JAWS: THE REVENGE, ORCA weaves a similar tale of anthropomorphic aquatic revenge. The titular whale is a happy-go-lucky scamp whose whale wife is accidentally harpooned by our “hero,” Captain Nolan (Richard Harris). To make whale-related matters worse, Misses Orca is with child and after she’s hauled onto the deck of Nolan’s ship, the now-dead fetus shoots out of her like a rock stuck in the mouth of Old Faithful, in a so-gross-it’s-hilarious moment of tasteless horror.

Orca is understandably pissed off, and this being the 1970s, some violent revenge is the only way to go about things. Becoming a Punisher with dorsal fins, Orca sets out to destroy the lives of those who took his family. They, in turn, oblige his wishes by staying as close to water as possible so that Orca has plenty of opportunities to bump them off.

One wouldn’t expect a whale capable of effective revenge on land-bound creatures, but Orca acquits himself admirably. Lacking the opposable thumbs necessary for a flame-thrower or big weighty stick, Orca swims into things; creating holes in boats or knocking over buildings. In one surprisingly effective move, Orca bangs into stuff that knocks over some other garbage, and through a chain reaction that would make Rube Goldberg blush, the entire town bursts into flames (Their fault for skimping on painters who use propane as a top coat). Nolan seems visibly shaken throughout by the threat of death by whale smooshing, yet he never considers taking a few steps away from the water where the beast would be incapable of attacking him (Presumably; while we never see it, it’s possible Orca could be a land-walking whale).

And, in the end, the love Nolan makes (zero) is equal to the love he takes, meaning he faces off with Orca on a huge block of ice for a mano-a-whalo showdown of Shamuian proportions. ORCA is so dead serious throughout - with dialogue that seems fashioned from a discarded Mad Lib - that by this point you’re actually rooting for the crazy whale to knock off these humorless losers. A whale destroying a single town from his watery home is funny in and of itself, but Orca caps each act by leaping out of the water, and belly-flopping, cackling with whale-laughter. He’s the Dennis the Menace of movie slasher animals.

ORCA: THE KILLER WHALE has that certain something that all truly ugly movies must have; that sense that everything you are watching seemed like a good idea on paper, in story meetings, on the set. No one thought to question a movie about a angry, spiteful whale. Inevitably, the translation to film took the best of intentions and turned them into a endlessly entertaining, intensely quirky film. Bonus points for telling a cautionary tale of human greed and environmental conservation in the bloodiest, strangest way possible. Be nice to nature people, or else!