A very feeble attempt at affirmatie action

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Typical grade-Z junk from the Philippines, but not without base charm. This jungle adventure-cum-horror romp from popular directors Eddie Romero and Gerardo de Leon is a kind of 'unofficial' entry in the drive-in BLOOD ISLAND trilogy, the first of the films to be made, and one which doesn't really have any relevance on the two successors. The film itself has a very familiar plot, involving a dedicated scientist turning into a hideous monster at night. Yes, it's the old Jekyll/Hyde trick given yet another re-run, although annoyingly the identity of the monster in its human form is utterly apparent from the start. It still takes a long hour for our dimwitted heroes to actually realise it. The first hour of the film is pretty unappealing, demanding the kind of patience you need if you sit through a lot of Filipino movies.Expect the following: poor production values. The budgets these guys had made '50s AIP movies look like Hollywood blockbusters. Shoddy camera-work, day for night filming, and lots of action scenes just being too darned dark. That comes with the territory. There is also some badly dubbed dialogue, some wooden performances, and a lot of unappealing supporting characters. John Ashley, although a familiar face in these films, is nothing more than an action man hero and particularly lifeless in this production. More interest comes from the sweaty Mario Montenegro as the monster and long-timer Kent Taylor as the stuffy, impotent scientist. Some-time model Beverly Powers (THE COMEDY OF TERRORS) supplies the glamour as a blonde vixen with a line in low-cut negligee.On to the good stuff. I can't totally dismiss a film which has a group of native dwarf actors posing as manservants. Any film with exploitational dwarfs in has got to be worth a watch. Secondly, the killer foliage the film offers us. Yet, the special effects consist of nothing more than a few branches and rubber tubing being waved around on strings by guys hiding behind trees, but these carnivorous plants are still appealing and strangely frightening, mainly because they're shot in the murk and thus it becomes difficult to distinguish what it is you're actually watching. Then there are the exploitation staples – nudity and gore. Both are brief and the latter is limited to a few severed body parts hanging around, but you realise you're definitely not watching a television movie. Anything might happen and this puts you on edge.Finally, the much-derided monster; basically a guy in a poorly-constructed and immobile monster mask. I enjoyed it and especially the dubbed in heavy breathing that follows the poor creature around, like he's an out-of-breath asthmatic searching for his inhaler. Despite poor production values, ISLAND OF LIVING HORROR offers us some interesting relationships, some fun exploitation and a surprising amount of charm amid the boredom. Dated, daft Z-movie fun.

"Doctor Paul Henderson" (Kent Taylor) and his beautiful, sex-starved wife, "Carla" (Beverly Powers) venture to an island in the South Pacific to study the effects of an atomic bomb test which were conducted in the general vicinity. Traveling with them is a representative of the Peace Corps named, "Jim Farrell" (John Ashley) who is there to help the natives to better provide for themselves. When they get there they are told by the village chieftain, "Arcadio" (Andres Centenera) that the villagers have reverted to their primitive ways and both he and his grand-daughter, "Alma" (Eva Darren) are ashamed. At first the new visitors don't understand what Arcadio is talking about. They soon find out that the villagers are sacrificing young women to a beast of some sort near a large altar. It turns out that radiation from the atomic bomb tests have greatly affected the island. Not only do the trees become carnivorous at night but what is even worse is that a monster also appears at night and rapes and disembodies the women at the altar. Now, this film is the first movie in the "Blood Collection" series and while I am curious to see how the other 2 or 3 turn out, I am apprehensive at the same time. I say this because typically sequels are seldom as good as the original. And while this film was a low-budget production and had two very pretty actresses in Beverly Powers and Eva Darren, I must admit that the costume used for the monster was probably the silliest thing I have ever seen. You really have to see it to believe it. All things considered then, I rate this film as slightly below average.

Well, you've got your cold, unemotional scientist explorer, you've got your typical hot, sexy, unfulfilled wife, you've got your intrepid, smoothly handsome hero; you've got native girls on a tropical island, sinister henchmen, a mysterious monster (or two) lurking around and assaulting the tropical girls; you've even got the Men's Adventure magazine analog to anime tentacle rape in the living tree vines that wrap around their victims and try to crush them, or eat them, or something. In short, it's as if someone took a cover story for Argosy magazine in the late 60's and brought it to life in movie form! Adjust your expectations accordingly.All the movie was missing was Nazis, or a dungeon scene. Production values, acting, dialog, sound design,etc. are all over the place varying wildly from decent to jaw-droppingly cheap and silly. Some scenes have a fair amount of energy (for all their goofiness), while some scenes just drag endlessly with exposition or walking or flatly delivered dialog that doesn't do a thing to advance the plot or develop character or dynamics within the cast.But I kind of liked it anyway, for whatever reasons. I actually did not think through the bit with the plot point when the plantation owner revealed his "exposure" to radiation in previous years, and while it wasn't a huge surprise to find out who the monster was, it did add a nice jolt of energy to the film.My only real quibble with the movie was that the islanders seemed to be sacrificing their virgin daughters to the monster at the rate of one or two every night (at least in movie time)and apparently had been for quite some time...you'd think they'd be running low on young women after a while.

This plot synopsis may sound kind of vague...but so is the movie! U.S. government worker Jim Farrell (John Ashley) is going to a remote island to help the natives build houses and irrigation ditches. He's joined by doctor Paul Henderson (Kent Taylor) and his sex bomb wife Carla (Beverly Hills!). They encounter moving trees, strange vegetation and meet Stephan (Mario Montenegro) who seems to run the island (I think). There's also a hysterically stupid monster that pops up every once in a while to rape and kill the native girls. Why he does this is never explained.Pretty silly with a (to put it nicely) pointless script. I realize this film (along with the other "Blood" pictures) have a following but I can't see why. It's full of hilariously inappropriate music and mismatched stock footage (the sunsets they see keep seeing never match the people looking at it). With the sole exceptions of Ashley and Montenegro the acting is pretty bad--Hills is easily the worst. The special effects are beyond terrible--I could actually see the wires holding the "killer" moth and moving the tree limbs! The get up on the monster was uproariously stupid. People took him seriously??? Still this is a prime example of late 1960s exploitation with minor gore and nudity (all female of course). It's amusing to realize that this played on Saturday afternoon TV uncut in the 1970s for all the kids to see! Not really good but, in a strange sort of way, kind of fun. The DVD version by Image is a full frame version with scratches and jumps galore. The color is strong though. This is probably the only available uncut version we'll ever see. I give it a 4.