An English couple visit a small Greek island and start a veritable frenzy of sex and murder. The point seems to be to punish what they see as perversions, but they turn out to be a hot bed of perversion themselves. Can't say I like this film, any film that contains multiple murders, bestiality, incest, forced sodomy and tons of nudity and also manages to be pretty dull is doing something fundamentally wrong.

Once an infamous video nasty here in Britain, ISLAND OF DEATH has now been released simultaneously in a world-wide uncut version and Vipco's UK release, truncated by four minutes. The four minutes remove the worst of the perversion and violence but still leave a film that is at times disgusting, disturbing and unintentionally funny. Likable Greek director Nico Mastorakis delivers a well-shot, bright and colourful movie, with lots of framing shots of Greek islands which makes it look like some kind of travelogue or something. The weather is sunny throughout, the locations idyllic…and the acts played out on screen completely insane.The plot is nothing, an excuse for an imaginative string of murders, carried out in the worst possible taste but on the lowest budget imaginable. Not a lot of room for special effects around here, aside from the impressive bulldozer scene. Instead loads of weird/funny stuff happening. Keep your eyes out for the Foster-dummy attacked to the wing of the plane. Or the much-lauded goat scene which is hilarious rather than disturbing. Or the folk music, which at times gives the movie a WICKER MAN-type atmosphere, and at other times just sounds pretty amusing: "Get the sword! Get the sword! Kill them all!".Mastorakis beefs up the exploitation slant with tons of nudity and weird sexual behaviour, focusing on same-sex relationships and even more extreme acts. Things tie up with a twist ending which is ludicrously engrossing. The acting is terrible. Jane Ryall (a non-actress who only appeared once, in this movie) is appalling, the male lead, Robert Behling (LAND OF THE MINOTAUR) puts in an extremely strange performance and later committed suicide. Keep your eyes peeled for Mastorakis himself cameoing as a novelist. Not really controversial or disturbing any more, this is still worth a look for those who love their exploitation cinema, as from that angle it really is a unique film.

"Island of Death" focuses on Christopher and Celia, newlyweds on a honeymoon on the Greek island of Mykonos; well, I suppose you could say honeymoon, if your idea of honeymooning includes bestiality, rape, urolagnia, murder, and other sadistic debaucheries.What can one say about this film, really? I've seen a lot of exploitation films, and this is the cream of the crop if we're talking schlock factor in terms of mere content. As I watched the film, I continually wondered what all involved were thinking when they made it, which is a question for the ages that will likely never be definitively answered. While the capturing of these horrific acts lacks the grit and realism of what you find in a film like "Cannibal Holocaust," the logistics of "Island of Death" are truly abhorrent. One may not get the sense of it because the presentation is not always entirely serious or especially raw, but you know you're in for a ride when the first scene features the protagonists having sex in a phone booth, ending with the man climaxing while on the phone with his mother.There is not much plot here, really—just a stringing together of murder targets at the hands of the central protagonists/villains. At times, I was reminded very much of Oliver Stone's "Natural Born Killers," minus the social commentary. That said, the film does have some artistic thought put into it, at least in terms of presentation. A stylish use of camera shutters and still photographs as transition pieces really give the film a unique flair, and the cinematography is lush and professional. The Mediterranean sets photograph nicely, and the film's sunny disposition is in stark contrast with virtually everything else about it. Jane Lyle plays the doe-eyed British wife nicely here, while Robert Behling is convincing as her abusive partner. In true exploitation fashion, both bear a considerable amount of flesh here, so if that's your thing, there's that (I can say Behling was one hell of a hunk, and he shows off virtually everything in this flick, as does Lyle).The film has earned a reputation as being one of the most widely-banned films in the world, which is unsurprising. It is severely politically incorrect, perhaps even more so today, and yet is rife with contradictions; for example, the main characters savagely murder a flamboyant gay couple for being perverted, and yet engage in various sexual dalliances, one of which includes penetrating a goat. One truly is at a loss for words.Overall, "Island of Death" is an engaging film if for no other reason than the audience is perpetually baffled (and horrified) as to what the two fresh-faced leads are going to do next. For as nihilistic and utterly grotesque as the content of the film is, it is not nearly as hard-hitting as one would expect it to be. I suppose this may have to do with the hokey '70s soundtrack, or the fact that the debauchery becomes normalized through the characters' consistent making light of it, which is probably the scarier answer. In any case, it's a revolting film; provocative, sometimes darkly funny, and so completely and utterly bizarre that one will likely never completely forget it. 8/10.

I am an enthusiastic fan of European Exploitation cinema, especially from the 70s, and I therefore cannot really explain while I let "Ta Paidia Tou Diavolou" aka. "Island of Death" (1975) rest on my DVD shelf for ages before finally watching it recently. Having seen it, I must say that I do not agree with the majority of my fellow Eurocult fans, who seem to be regarding this film as an essential little gem of cinematic Euro-nastiness. The film has disturbing sequences and imagery, all right, but I never was disturbed or shocked, nor darkly amused.The young couple Christopher (Robert Behling), a psychotic religious fanatic who thinks he is on god's mission to cleanse the earth of the perverted (even though he is the biggest perv himself), and Celia (Jane Lyle), a demented and almost equally murderous nymphomaniac, are on a murderous rampage on the Greek island Mykonos. Devoted to killing as many perverts as possible, Christopher murders a womanizing French guy, a gay couple, an aging nymphomaniac, a lesbian, and others...There isn't a lot more, really. As said, the murders may be sadistic and disturbing and the murder methods cruel and demented. However, the film is never shocking, as all characters in the film are annoying as hell, and none of them is introduced long enough to give a crap about their fate. The murderous couple is annoying too. Some super-nasty sequences like one in which Christopher has sex with a little goat, are obviously thought of as shocking by many. But they aren't really, in my opinion. The shock-sequences here aren't really shocking, nor do they have any other effect. They just happen, and, personally I couldn't have cared less.The nastiness of the murders, the beautiful Greek setting, the good score and some amusing stuff towards the end are some redeeming qualities. Islands are usually great Horror settings, as they have such an inescapable character. While the setting here is maybe the films greatest aspect, "Ta Paidia Tou Diavolou" is never creepy, scary or even remotely suspenseful. It isn't really boring, but it is never exciting, nor shocking or disturbing, nor darkly humorous. By the way,"Island of Death" shares its English a.k.a. title, but must not to be confused with Narciso Ibáñez Serrador's 1976 masterpiece "¿Quién Puede Matar a Un Niño?", which actually IS one of the greatest Eurohorror films ever made.Overall, "Ta Paidia Tou Diavolou" is worth watching for my fellow Eurohorror fans as it IS one of the nastier films from the mid-70s. The murders are brutal and there is a certain range of redeeming perversions. However, I find it to be immensely overrated among my fellow fans of Euro-Exploitation. To those who want to see a truly disturbing film set on a Greek Island, I recommend Joe D'Amato's "Antropophagus" (1980). A brilliant storyline isn't the most obvious characteristic of that film either, but it is scary as hell, gory and thoroughly shocking and disturbing. "Ta Paida Tou Diavlou" just isn't, at least not in my humble opinion.