When I was little (the 70's), I used to love watching old horror films. Those were the days. They were on Friday nights and Saturday afternoons (in Chicago anyway). I remembered the "Blood Island" movies vaguely. I ordered this DVD and I am a satisfied customer.Three Americans travel to Blood Island. Upon arrival, they see that things aren't right. The villagers don't seem happy and there is a reason why.The movie arouses suspicion and sets an eerie atmosphere. I like John Ashley and he and Mario Montenegro give good performances. The DVD has a lot of fun trailers and extras. This is a unique and well done horror film. Check it out.

This is the second of the Blood Island films after Terror is a Man. Its not related to that film, only loosely to the two films that follow, Mad Doctor of Blood Island and Beast of Blood. All the films are nominally set on a remote island in the Pacific where strange experiments happen.Here a research team arrives at Blood Island to find that the natives have begun to return to their old superstitions. The reason is that the far off atomic testing has mutated some of the plants animals and people into killing machines. They have taken it so far that the natives sacrifice two virgins every night to the man beast that wanders the woods.Edgy and atmospheric this is a monster movie in the grand tradition. You have weird things going on, sexual tension between the cast members, and monsters running amok, what more could you ask for? This movie was a drive-in staple for years and its easy to see why since it gives you everything that a drive-in crowd would want sex blood and breasts. Its also lots of run, creepy and just a bit scary.The only place the movie falls down is the man beast. Its really silly. It looks like a drippy Michelin man with a stupid grin Until you get a really good long look at it towards the end of the movie it holds some ,ystery and fear, but once we see its face its all over. If you can get past that, knowing its gonna look dumb helps, you'll have a grand time with this movie. Lots of mindless fun.7 out of 10(FYI- This was the film picked by Cinematic Titanic, what Joel and friends are doing post MST3K, for their 2010 tour under the title Danger on Tiki Island)

I saw this movie on television years ago when I was a kid under the title "The Island of Living Horror". It seemed as wacky then as it does now. Even then I realized how goofy the special effects were, but I definitely got into the cheap spirit of the whole thing. The bizarre aspect is that the whole movie seems like it was designed to spook young kids, and yet the film in its uncut form also contains some gratuitous nudity and gore.The plot concerns a group of dummies who venture to "Blood Island", a place where nobody in their right mind would dare to visit. Surely the sailors who ferry our protagonists to Blood Island are aware that it's bad news, but they leave the fools there anyhow. We have a scientist, his nympho wife, a 'studly' adventurer, and some miscellaneous others who are aboard to be menaced, and boy are they ever. It seems some stray radiation from A-bomb testing has done strange things to the local flora and fauna. A butterfly bites someone on the hand. The trees have animated roots and make shrill vibrating sounds while trying to grab ahold of passersby...to what purpose I'm not sure, since they don't seem to have mouths with which to bite anybody. The most troublesome mutation on the island is the appearance of a lumbering, mouth-breathing, humanoid monster with a desire for human sacrifices of the young female type. Could this be the radioactive alter-ego of the wealthy proprietor of the luxurious island hacienda, the one who has summoned our heroes there, the very one under whose roof they've taken shelter?The atmosphere of the flick is very "mondo exotica", with lots of faux-island music and groovy tropical scenery. There's a strong sense of sexuality running through the picture too, and not only because of the female nudity. Check out the scene where the doctor's horny wife finds that her sleeping husband isn't interested in sex and instead walks through the dark house until she finds monster-man's bedroom. She sneaks into his room to find him lying on his back on the bed, presumably nude and barely covered with a strategically-placed sheet, writhing orgasmically in what could be interpreted as either pain or pleasure, apparently in the grip of a sexual dream as she watches. Of course we know he's on the verge of transformation, but the scene can be read two different ways. She climbs eagerly into bed with him and reaches out to touch his body, only she is apprehended by the master's brutish manservant, who reacts more like a jealous lover and rebuffs her, sending her away. This whole scene is rife with sexual dynamics. Additionally, the pervasive voice of the creature, which filters all over the island while the natives huddle fearfully indoors, certainly sounds more like a man in the throes of a never-ending orgasm.These adult moments are what make this otherwise kiddie-style film a very strange thing indeed. Despite the juvenile nature of the plot, it's really an early sex-and-violence exploitation film. As I already mentioned, the special effects are rather un-special, and the main monster is one of the goofiest you will ever see. It looks like a tiki mug come to life. Once the tiki-monster problem on the island is solved, the surviving cast members relax by joining the natives as witnesses to a mating-ritual dance, conducted by some islanders with very poor rhythm. I don't know about you, but this part reminded me of that one vacation that the Brady Bunch took to Hawaii.

I saw "Brides of Blood" recently on its new pristine DVD release, and I was struck by several facts. First, the film has a ridiculous plot about a nuclear-fall-out-created monster (called "The Evil One") killing screaming native girls on the vaguely tropical Blood Island. Kent Taylor, a regular in Al Adamson films, is the so-called star, playing a scientist who is trying to solve the series of murders alongside John Ashley (dependable for bad acting). The monster is ludicrous, obviously some poor Filipino actor under a bunch of brown foam rubber. Maybe the other viewers commenting here thought the film was scary because of the heavy sinister breathing sounds that the monster makes before a kill. Okay, it's a little creepy, but it sure ain't all-out scary. At least I wasn't scared. In fact, through most of it I couldn't stop laughing. Not that it was supposed to be funny, but the film is so dated, poorly acted, and low budget that it has a certain naive charm.The native girls have their tops ripped off before being raped and torn apart by "The Evil One." Why the monster attacks the sacrificial native girls is never explained.The nudity in "Brides of Blood" is tame by today's standards. It is surprising, however, to see nudity in a film from 1968. Granted, the DVD is the unrated version (with a little goofy gore) but directors Eddie Romero and Gerardo DeLeon were certainly on to something with this film. Nudity and gore, while not new to films in 1968, were just being widely incorporated into movies at that time. This exploitation film, perhaps a classic in bad drive-in movie history, helped set the trend for the next decade of horror films. While "Brides of Blood" is hilarious in its attempts at horror (wait 'til you see Beverly Hills' freak-out scenes), the film is also an interesting piece of exploitation movie history.Other highlights include the weird native dancing, the virtually incoherent assemblage of scenes of "character development" and the red tint of the film that is used every time the monster attacks. Also, Beverly Hills has her clothes ripped off by the monster but we only see her bare back. Beverly Hills (Powers) is now an ordained minister in Hawaii. Go figure.