''Cyclone'' (

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: ** Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Ca ...

: ''El Ciclón''; also known as ''Terror Storm'') is a 1978

Mexican Mexican may refer to: Mexico and its culture *Being related to, from, or connected to the country of Mexico, in North America ** People *** Mexicans, inhabitants of the country Mexico and their descendants *** Mexica, ancient indigenous people ...

survival horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, a ...

directed by

René Cardona Jr. René Cardona Jr. (11 May 1939 – 5 February 2003) was a Mexican filmmaker and actor, son of Mexican director René Cardona, and the father of René Cardona III (also an actor and director). Biography Cardona Jr. began by acting in his f ...

and starring

Arthur Kennedy John Arthur Kennedy (February 17, 1914January 5, 1990) was an American stage and film actor known for his versatility in supporting film roles and his ability to create "an exceptional honesty and naturalness on stage", especially in the origi ...

Carroll Baker Carroll Baker (born May 28, 1931) is an American former actress. After studying under Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio, Baker began performing on Broadway in 1954. From there, she was recruited by director Elia Kazan to play the lead in th ...

, and

Lionel Stander Lionel Jay Stander (January 11, 1908 – November 30, 1994) was an American actor in films, radio, theater and television. He is best remembered for his role as majordomo Max on the 1980s mystery television series ''Hart to Hart''. Early ...

. The plot follows a group of passengers from a crashed airplane who find refuge on a small tour boat in the ocean, and who eventually resort to

cannibalism Cannibalism is the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food. Cannibalism is a common ecological interaction in the animal kingdom and has been recorded in more than 1,500 species. Human cannibalism is well documented, b ...

for survival. The film is purportedly based in part on

Alfred Hitchcock Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featur ...

's '' Lifeboat'' (1944).

Plot

The

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea ( es, Mar Caribe; french: Mer des Caraïbes; ht, Lanmè Karayib; jam, Kiaribiyan Sii; nl, Caraïbische Zee; pap, Laman Karibe) is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico ...

, somewhere on the coast of

Mexico Mexico ( Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guate ...

. The local authorities receive reports about an approaching cyclone and issue a general alert, but a small passenger plane, a tour boat and a fishing trawler fail to receive - or heed - the warning and are caught in the storm. The fishing vessel springs a leak and sinks, forcing the fishermen to abandon it; the airplane crashes into the sea, killing most of the passengers and forcing the rest to evacuate; the tour boat's motor is damaged, and one of the tourists is swept overboard and drowns. After the storm has abated, sharks are lured to the area by the dead inside the plane wreck, and subsequently kill one of the drifting survivors. Once the cyclone is gone, the Mexican coast guard starts a fruitless search for the missing, and after three days they abandon hope of finding any survivors. The plane passengers are picked up by the fishermen, and later they are taken in by the drifting tour boat, for a total of twenty-seven people trying to survive. As food and water run out, the fishermen kill a dog belonging to one of the tourists for them to eat. When one of the fishermen dies, he is used to bait a shark, but the shark manages to snatch the corpse away. When one of the tourists perishes, his body is cut up and his flesh cured and salted for food. In addition, one of the female tourists gives birth to a baby. As the days wear on and the situation becomes more and more desperate, it is decided that several of the passengers and Pitorro, the trawler's captain, use the lifeboat to go for help. The drifters are eventually picked up by a passing American yacht, and rescue efforts are initiated. As the night passes, a female passenger dies and is cast overboard by her grieving husband. The next day, when Taylor, a selfish passenger from the plane, tries to appropriate some of the sparse water supply for himself, a fight breaks out, in which course the glass bottom of the boat is shattered. The boat sinks, forcing the occupants into the water. As they float in the sea, sharks are attracted to the scene and devour almost half of the shipwrecked, including Taylor, before two seaplanes arrive and rescue the remaining survivors.

Cast

as The Priest *

as Sheila *

as Taylor *

Andrés García Andrés García (born May 24, 1941) is a Dominican-born Mexican actor. He has formerly served as a scuba diving instructor in Acapulco. Career García was born and raised in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. He is the son of Spanish exiles from ...

as Andrés *

Hugo Stiglitz Hugo Stiglitz López, better known simply as Hugo Stiglitz, (born August 28, 1940, in Mexico City) is a Mexican actor. Stiglitz is perhaps most well known for his film roles in the 1970s and 1980s in Mexico in such horror films as '' Tintorera' ...

as Pilot * Mario Almada as Pitorro * Olga Karlatos as Monica *Stefania D'Amario as Linda, the Stewardess *

Edith González Edith González Fuentes (; 10 December 1964 – 13 June 2019) was a Mexican actress. She is best remembered for working on multiple telenovelas produced by three different multimedia companies, which included Televisa, TV Azteca and Telemundo. G ...

as Tiersa

Release

The film was released in 1978, though the German and Italian releases were severely censored, toning down the cannibalism subplot. The original cut of the film, released internationally, runs at 114 minutes, while the cut German and Italian releases ran 97 minutes.

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, id=0075901 1978 films 1978 horror films English-language Mexican films Mexican disaster films Films shot in Mexico Films about cannibalism Films about survivors of seafaring accidents or incidents Films about shark attacks Films scored by Riz Ortolani Films about sharks Films set on boats Films set in Mexico Films set in the Caribbean 1970s English-language films 1970s Mexican films