Whilst drilling for copper in the Arctic Circle in Lapland a team of miners drill through what seems to be a living creature deep underground. The skin and blood they retrieve is examined by Professors from Copenhagen and are amazed to discover that the flesh seems to be from a reptile from 70-100 million years ago. The team excavate a tail and take it back to the Danish capital for further studies. Once there the tail is kept in a frozen state within the laboratory … mehruntil one night one of the professors, working late, takes a sample from the tail and fails to close the door properly. He then falls asleep and the tails begins to thaw. The next morning the discovery of the thawed out tail is discovered but amazingly it is starting to heal itself from wounds received many years ago and seems to be regenerating itself. The tail continues to regenerate itself and then once it is complete the beast, now dubbed 'Reptilicus' goes on the rampage through Denmark. The might of the World's military is brought in to try and combat against the creature but it seems like nothing can stop Reptilicus.

Reptilicus was originally filmed twice. The first version was a version where the actors spoke their native Danish language and the second version was for the English spoken language audience. It is the second version that is included on this disc with an alternate dubbing. All the actors in the film were in both versions except Bodil Miller who starred in the Danish version but was replaced by Marlies Berhens for the English version as Miller did not speak English. The English version was then picked up by American International Pictures (AIP) and heavily edited and re-dubbed by the studio. The Director, Sydney Pink, was strongly against this move by AIP and initially tried to sue the studio. The film itself has something of a cult following in it's native Denmark as it's the only monster movie ever to come out of this country. Such is the following that Sydney Pink lobbied for funds to make a sequel/remake after the success of the 1998 version of Godzilla but these plans fell apart after Pink died in 2002. The film is fairly standard fair for 1962. What does make it stand out is the fairly gruesome effects for the tail of Reptilicus and the funny script, some of it is even intentional, I'm sure. The model work for the creature is of a pretty decent standard for this type of schlock and it's nice to see a different location being used and Pink makes extensive use of Copenhagen. The cast perform gamely with such a ridiculous script and attempt to give the material a real gravitas but despite their efforts this a film to be laughed at (with?) rather than be scared of. Still, considering it's age and rather fanciful subject matter Reptilicus is still an enjoyable watch that rattles through it's storyline and quite a lick so even though some of the lines and some of the effects are quite ludicrous one barely has time to pause and think about it. weniger