The island of the title is under threat from silicate creatures who were born out of experiments to cure cancer. The creatures feed off of bones, animal or human, so this tiny island community is in grave danger.It's as bonkers as it sounds, a sci-fi horror of such ridiculous notions, it can't fail to entertain genre loving fans. Terence Fisher directs and Peter Cushing stars, in what was a break from Hammer Films for the both of them. The creatures are rubbery blobs with one deadly tentacle weaving their deadly damage, they also bleed noodle soup. They move at a snails pace, which makes you wonder why the humans holed up in one Rio Bravo type situation, actually don't just out-run the damn beasties. But wait! These things can somehow climb up buildings and trees, the scientific possibility is really too nutty to comprehend! But it's so much fun, and there's Cushing (was he ever bad in anything?) holding court whilst others around him act at a level befitting the material.It's no hidden gem or anything, but if you like the likes of Day of the Triffids and The Monster That Challenged the World, then this should punch your joy joy genre buttons. 6.5/10

I first heard this film reviewed when I was a 13-year-old in 1966, while listening to the radio. It sounded fantastic but somehow I've never seen it in all the years since then....until now, courtesy of a Blu-ray.It's a typical low-budget British Sci-fi/horror from the mid 60's, with all the usual features - a mysterious laboratory (with isotopes), strange deaths and geiger-counters. Not a brilliant film really, but director Terence Fisher brings his Hammer-ability to the proceedings, passing 90 minutes in a fairly entertaining manner and it gave us a chance to 'spot the faces'. The ubiquitous Sam Kydd is there, as is Niall MacGinnes looking somewhat like a retired butcher. I liked the way that early on in the story, we are carefully informed (via some banter) that the boat only goes there once a week and there are no telephones on the island. Unusually for a cheap release, there's a very informative booklet which I enjoyed. Extras consist of the original trailer and a picture gallery. And it's on Blu-ray!

Terence Fisher directed this thriller about a group of scientists on an isolated island who are conducting cancer research experiments involving living tissues that goes horribly wrong, resulting in the creation of a horde of killer tentacle creatures that attack people and liquefy and digest bone matter. Two scientists(played by Peter Cushing and Edward Judd) go to the island to investigate, but instead find themselves in a life and death struggle for survival, as they must find a way to destroy these silicates before they infect the world... Unique type of monsters here, and they are genuinely unsettling, with an effective score, but there is something needlessly crass about this premise(especially the ending) that makes it off-putting.

Reclusive oncologist Dr. Lawrence Phillips is on the verge of curing cancer. He and his assistants have set up shop on the remote Petrie's Island, somewhere off the coast of Ireland, an island with no working phones, a weekly visit by a supply ship, and only one cop. Dr. Phillips' experiment is reaching a head, when, suddenly, something goes wrong. There is a flash of red light, and some breaking glass...That night, local farmer Ian Bellows is walking home through the woods when he hears a strange, electronic warbling noise coming from inside a cave. He decides to investigate...When Ian doesn't return home, his wife contacts Constable John Harris, who finds the waylaid farmer in the cave after searching the forest. But his corpse is in such a state that Harris rushes to get Dr. Reginald Landers, the island's doctor. An examination of Ian's corpse confirms Landers' worst fears; the dead man is completely boneless! At his wit's end, Landers heads to the mainland to see his old friend Dr. Brian Stanley in London. Unfortunately, although Stanley is Britain's foremost pathologist he has never heard of a disease that dissolves human bone.Undaunted, Stanley takes Landers in turn to see hotshot young osteopath Dr. David West, currently attempting to talk his way into the pants of Toni Merrill, a former patient. West is confounded by the tale of a boneless corpse, but agrees to return to Petrie's Island with the other two doctors. Toni, who has a rich father, offers the use of daddy's private helicopter with which to fly to the island, provided the three men let her tag along. Upon arrival however, Toni's father requires the chopper for some last-minute business. The pilot is forced to drop the four people off at the island and then fly away, leaving them effectively stranded until he can return.The doctors set immediately to work. They discover Ian was injected with a new enzyme that dissolves calcium phosphate, but can't figure out what produces it. The local clinic doesn't provide sophisticated enough equipment, so Landers suggests they go and see Dr. Phillips, as Phillips' laboratory, located in an old mansion in the woods, is better equipped. Upon arriving however, they discover that Phillips and his assistants are all just as dead as Ian Bellows... and just as boneless. Reasoning that whatever Phillips was mucking around with started all of this, West, Stanley and Landers gathers up the dead scientist's notes to study them.As soon as they've left, another farmer comes to complain to Constable Harris that one of his horses has been found dead and, shall we say, relieved of its skeleton. Harris hurries to the mansion, but misses the doctors. Doing a little exploring of his own, he is drawn to one room they didn't go into by a strange electronic warbling... only to be seized by the throat by a green tentacle!A minor cult classic of British horror that has sadly fallen through the cracks of time, 1966's Island of Terror is a movie that certainly deserves more fame than it's gotten over time (especially a proper American DVD release!) due to some stellar performances by a mostly unknown cast, headed by stalwart Peter Cushing, and also due to its frankly creepy central premise.