Once Steven Spielberg had changed the course of cinema forever with the game-changing release of Jaws in 1975, it was inevitable that multiplexes would be swamped with a deluge of thinly-veiled imitators, and even straight-up ripoffs. Orca: The Killer Whale is most definitely one such movie, but that appears to be part of its enduring charm.
To be fair, the 1977 hybrid of open water thriller and low-rent creator feature boasts a shocking amount of talent on either side of the camera, from the presence of legendary producer Dino De Laurentiis and The Dam Busters director Michael Anderson, via iconic composer Ennio Morricone and a cast that featured Richard Harris, Charlotte Rampling, Bo Derek, and Robert Carradine.
If you can’t glean it from the title, then the story finds a money-hungry fisherman inadvertently killing the mate of an intelligent killer whale. Obviously, the female orca is also pregnant, with the story evolving into a laughable hybrid of Jaws and Moby Dick as the aquatic predator seeks vengeance on those who wronged it.
A mere nine percent Rotten Tomatoes score and 33 percent user rating may have you thinking nobody even remembers Orca, never mind holds it close to their heart, but a recent Reddit thread shockingly reveals the opposite to be true.
It’s a very stupid film, and transparently designed to try and cash in on the success of Spielberg’s classic, but that’s one of the many reasons why folks seem to love it so much. High art it ain’t, but there’s something almost endearing about Orca: The Killer Whale that’s helped it secure cult favorite status, something barely any Jaws knockoffs have managed to attain.