RICHARD FREEMAN: Eight Arms to Hold You

The photographs shown in the story "Octopus Terror of the Deep" in Friswell's Freaky Features seems to me to be a model. For starters, it takes place in the Atlantic where no octopi that large are known to exist. There are unconfirmed and perfectly plausible stories of a giant octopus called the `lusca` in Bahaman waters, so it could be countered that this one (who at 24 feet equals the largest size of the Pacific giant octopus but falls far short of the lusca's alledged size) was a young lusca.

However, take a look at its eyes: don't they look like painted tennis balls to you? And is it me or do the tentacles seem to bend in a very stiff and unnatural way as if made of rubber or foam?

Actually the octopus in these photos looks less convincing than the one in Edward D Wood Jr's Bride of the Monster with Bela Lugosi and Tor Johnson.