One of the best films i have seen

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

n upbeat, typically sixties animated credits sequence leads us into this strange but not totally successful flesh-eating plant film. If you're going to deliver a weird plant film – give us more weird plants and less inter-personal drama!A group of rubes are talked into taking a short cruise an a botanical tour of an almost deserted island. Amongst those travelling are a drunken slutty wife and her boring husband, a lady who loves talking pictures of everything, a young girl (Elisa Montes – a regular Western actress), a young guy, and a botanist, who is the only person who would realistically want to go on a tour like this. Things take a turn for the worst almost right away when an old man covered in weird wounds stumbles in front of the car and dies. Cameron Mitchell shows up as the Baron who own the usual big scary mansion and tells everyone not to worry about the dead guy as he was insane and sick anyway (the old woman takes a picture of the corpse for good measure). Cameron, who is dubbed by someone else, explains that he's got all sorts of weird plants everyone can have a look at (and I admit I drifted away from his botanical jibber jabber – and I have an allotment!). He's still gibbering on about nitrogen in the soil or what not during dinner, but at least he dishes up a cucumber that tastes like beef! This leads to more jibber jabber, plus there's the twin brother of the dead guy that frightens the crap out of people, and apart from the strange porcupine plants he shows them, the film settles in for people bickering for a while when we should have more footage of whatever strange plant is sucking people's blood out.I guess people go on about the ending as it's the only really interesting part of the film. Turns out there's this huge tree that attacks people and Cameron wanted to feed it the tourist, plus the thing spews blood everywhere when you hit it with an axe. It's very possibly that I would have liked this film more if the print wasn't full screen, jerky and twitchy, but then again the film did say 'Starring Cameron Mitchell' so what was I expecting?Killer plants will return to Euro-cinema in Contamination .7!Cameron Mitchell will return to crappy films as a mad doctor in Nightmare In Wax, a crappy overacting criminal in Greek giallo Medusa, a member of the KKK in the Klansman, as whatever he was in the slasher film Haunts, a terrible psychic in shitty South African slasher film The Demon, a cop versus Satan in The Nightmare Never Ends, a mumbling cult leader in Martial Arse film Low Blow, a grizzled bar owner in great eighties action film Codename: Vengeance, and also as a crooked country park owner in Memorial Valley Massacre – and those are just the Cameron Mitchell films I own!

"Maneater of Hydra" (1966) was a delirious Spanish-German horror tale that aired 5 times on Pittsburgh's CHILLER THEATER from 1969-1972 (I missed it, too young). The dubbing isn't as bad as it could have been, and Cameron Mitchell does not dub his own voice, but it certainly had a weird atmosphere that 1962's "The Day of the Triffids" couldn't match. Obscure in its day, and even more so now, this is a perfect example of the types of features that we enjoyed in the days of late night movies-till-dawn, replaced by dull-as-dishwater paid programming and network gabfests indulging pseudo-hipsters with rabid young audiences that have never experienced anything else. These titles can be difficult to find, and this one was no exception, with a starring role for Cameron Mitchell, who gets to dominate the screen from start to finish. It doesn't work as a mystery because we already know that Baron v. Weser is up to something with his carnivorous plants, feeding a mouse to one, while a fellow botanist steals a cute bunny rabbit to do the same with an unseen creation outside. The director is veteran Roger Corman actor Mel Welles (working behind the camera primarily in Europe), immortalized for his marvelous turn in 1960's "The Little Shop of Horrors," which also dealt with a bloodthirsty plant (he would later direct 1972's "Lady Frankenstein" for Corman's New World Pictures). Welles had just finished an acting part in 1965's "The She-Beast," shot in Italy and Yugoslavia by 21 year old cult director Michael Reeves, and remained in Europe for the remainder of the decade. Cameron Mitchell was coming off a starring role in "Nightmare in Wax," another CHILLER THEATER regular, no stranger to European cinema, whose best work came in the Swedish "Face of Fire" (1958), in a rare sympathetic turn. This must rank as one of his best horrors, with a remarkably grisly climax for its period. He remained busiest in Italy, and frequently collaborated with genre pioneer Mario Bava, particularly on the 1964 cult classic "Blood and Black Lace," which aired 6 times on CHILLER THEATER (quite a showcase for rabid horror fans like myself). "Maneater of Hydra" may not be a classic, but I never found it dull, definitely worth a look.

It's always quite a painful and embarrassing establishment having to admit after watching a movie that the opening credits were, in fact, the best part. My mate and I got suckered into watching this Spanish/German co-production because of the appealing title in English – "Man Eater of Hydra" – and because we saw a little preview of the credits, which are animated and really look like a lot of fun. The film itself, unfortunately, never at one point surpasses the level of mediocrity, but it's still very endurable in case you're a tolerant fan of cheap 60's Euro-exploitation and/or an admirer of the charismatic B-movie villain Cameron Mitchell. I was quite intrigued to discover here on the IMDb that director Mel Welles also co-directed the Roger Corman vehicle "Little Shop of Horrors" (albeit unaccredited), as that particular no- budget classic actually has fairly many components in common with this "Man Eater of Hydra". With a slight bit of imagination, this film could even have been titled "Little Shop on Horror Island", because it likewise deals with murderous plants on a rampage. An assembly of stereotypical, and thus very dim-witted, tourists goes on an excursion to Baron Von Weser's island to visit the famous botanical gardens. Immediately upon their arrival, the witness the gruesome death of one of the Baron's servants, but he assures the group that this man was ill since a very long time already. Still, the cadavers start piling up and all the blood has been drained from their bodies. The stupider guests begin to believe in the old legend of a vampire living on the island, but the smarter ones gradually discover that the Baron is secretly experiencing with crossbreeding flesh-eating plants. "Man Eater of Hydra" is slow-paced and cheaply produced, but it could still be entertaining if you watch it with the right mindset. Instead of anticipating suspense and bloody carnage, please yourself with spotting all silly dialogs and obligatory horror clichés, like thunderstorms and grisly looking servants. The film could also be discovered as some sort of homage to those typical "Mad Scientist" horror movies of the 30's and 40's, in which the role of evil genius on his private island was standard played by either Boris Karloff or Bela Lugosi. From that point of view, Cameron Mitchell was a terrific choice to play the Baron, as he always drags this sinister aura around with him. And hey, even if you end up hating the film, at least admit that the crazy animated opening credits were fantastic.

I hadn't watched this film for about 15 years, but after watching it again I must say that it works quite well. There is an excellent sense of atmosphere created, and Cameron Mitchell underplays his part more in the manner of a Karloff than of a Lugosi (as this is really an update of the old "mad doctor" films of the 30s and 40s). We take six diverse people--an unhappy married couple with a younger wife, a scientist, an older eccentric lady who is voiced in a Fran Drescher manner, a heroic young man (George Martin), and a desirable young woman for him to be interested in--who choose to vacation at the estate of a Count who is engaged in odd scientific research, and watch them deal with the gradual sense of doom...and the gradually more aggressive killer plants developed by Cameron Mitchell. The film is well-paced, and it leads to an exciting climax. MANEATER OF HYDRA/ISLAND OF THE DOOMED must have looked great on a massive drive-in screen back in 1967--it's still worth seeing today for the fan of 60's Euro-horror and for fans of the great Cameron Mitchell (although Mitchell does not dub his own voice).