Triclops (2016)
Directed by Brett Piper
Starring:
Matthew Crawley
Steve Diasparra
Richard Lounello
Erin Waterhouse
A couple of stills from this movie on Facebook caught my interest. I looked it up on Amazon and the DVD was cheap enough to take a chance. The film contains typical B-movie acting and a typical B-movie story-line, However, the stop motion animation had a 1950’s sci-fi monster film charm to it. So, I pretended the film was from the 1950s (despite being in color) and I got along fine with it. The animated creatures were numerous; some kind of horned dinosaur, a giant Venus fly trap, a few different types of giant bugs, A mutant scorpion, and a poofy giant tic looking creature. Oh yes, we also have a giant, three eyed, mutant, humanoid known as the Triclops. The effects were quite decent and smoothly filmed for a movie with a micro budget. 
Samantha is on a search mission for her husband, an air force pilot whose plane went down in a giant meteor crater which is an off limit area like Area 51. She and her brother-in-law seek out a drunken unemployed pilot with a reputation for accepting questionable jobs. They set off, flying under radar into the ancient crater. When they land, they discover strange beasts and mutant giant insects. Samantha is kidnapped by the Triclops and the rest of the team sets out to find her. After some cat and mouse antics they eventually outsmart the 3-eyed giant and find Sam’s husband. They use a map with an alternative escape route from the crater to escape the exploding meteor within it.
Brett Piper, (director/producer/special fx/writer) has been doing effects for z-budget films since the 1980s. He had spent some years as FX man and editor at EI/Seductive Cinema adding minimal storylines and FX to cheap soft-core sex flicks (a real waste of his talent IMO). However, this is Brett’s, 4th or 5th recent film with a definitive direction in mind, to keep the B-movie and Creature Feature style films of the 1950’s alive by producing new films in that subgenre. He has an affinity and talent for stop-motion which puts him in a good position to do just that and in recent years his mantra seems to be giving him new recognition and a cult following. It kind of reminds me of how Full Moon grew to popularity in the late 80s. The film’s are mostly campy fair with nostalgic effects so if that is something you would like, look up some of his films. Triclops would be a good place to start. The next film from Piper I’ll watch is going to be Queen Crab.
Nostalgic stop-motion is the main point of this b-movie monster-fest.
I give it 3.4 mutant monsters from far off stars out of 5 on the creature feature fun scale.
(note: some of these pics are screenshots and the quality is not as good as you would see in the actual film)
parlor of horror 
Sounds fun. The effects look to be some of this guy’s best work. I will always love Drainiac. It’s a weird little movie with such a great title. I exchanged a few emails with Mr. Piper years back. He was very nice and sent me a screener for his most recent project. I’ve also been wanting to see Queen Crab. Nice review!
Oh you remember Draniac? I don’t think a lot of people saw that movie 🙂
I bought it because the name made me laugh and it didn’t disappoint. I’ve seen a handful of Brett Piper’s movies. I will have to add this to my DVD shelf.
Hm, interesting and informative read. Looks like a cool concept, and I’ve never even heard of Brett Piper. I now want to check this or one of his other movies out.
Looks like a lot of fun!
Looks not too shabby!
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