Customer Reviews

Island of the Dead

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

I just finished watching this movie about 12 minutes ago and I am still disappointed. The description of this movie is misleading, there are no zombies, no ravenous anythings, just stupidity laced with boredom. I waited for almost an hour for something to happen in this movie, and still nothing.

It starts out as if it is going to be a good movie but it's a lie. Im sure you've read the previous reviews you know the plot, or lack there of. There was one interesting part of the entire movie, and that was when the comic relief died. Now this means two things. For one, it took place in the middle of the movie so that meant the other half is a waste. Second, now there is no entertainment what so ever as far as dialog goes. DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME!!!

Island of the Dead is one of those bad movies that I still find something to like about because I just find the concept so interesting/promising. Multi-millionaire developer Rupert King (Malcolm McDowell) has engineered a new low income housing community for the homeless of New York City to be built on Hart Island. Hart Island (a real place) is the Potter's Field of New York, where the homeless and lost are buried in mass graves. What no one realizes is that King has darker motives (linked to his ties with medical research) in store for the future residents of Hope City. Meanwhile a Missing Persons detective (Talisa Soto in a wasted role) is tracking down the last victim of 'The Double Dutch Killings' in hopes of laying to rest the haunting image of the dead girls skipping rope. This is a hope that most of the audience will share, as we see the trio skipping rope and chanting a morbid little ditty over and over and over and over again. Sadly screenwriters Tim Southam (who also directed) and Peter Koper (who came up with the promising idea) fail to develop these two storylines or the characters and their subplots in any great detail. This forces director Southam to pad the movie with far too many 'atmospheric' music montages and gives co-star Talisa Soto nothing to do but look sullen and haunted (this after giving her character an intriguing introduction, pity). Sadly the 'vengeful fury of the dead' is unleashed via a hord of illness inducing insects (as opposed to simple zombies) with little information given to the viewer as to why it is happening. One or two ghostly spectres or whispering voices would have helped, so you can add the trio of little girls to the list of missed opportunities. What this movie badly needed was a major reworking of its core story elements, especially in regards to the supernatural aspects in the second and third acts, then, perhaps, it might have been better. If you really want to depress yourself, just think what Terence Fisher, Jimmy Sangster (or John Elder), Peter Cushing, and Christopher Lee could have done with this material back in the glory days of Hammer Studios. So it goes.

This was one lame movie, a tedious mishmash which looked good on the Blockbuster shelf, but which conspired to put me to sleep. The faux artsy flashbacks, the deadly pacing, and the general sense of pointlessness made me hope that perhaps Jesse Franco was involved, but even his movies have more inspiration. Malcolm McDowell looks tired. Sad, sad, sad.

This movie forces one to pose that age-old question: why do terrific actors like Malcolm McDowell make these kinds of sub par movies? The basic premise has potential: take an island harboring what is left of the remains of almost a million of society's castaways, bring in a ruthless businessman determined to remake the island into a "Hope City" for the poor and homeless (while secretly pursuing his own less magnanimous plans for the future population), have the dead somehow put their ethereal foot down in opposition, and wait for all the fun to happen. Alas, these dead souls are a rather lazy, unimaginative lot choosing to manifest themselves as worms and bugs-sure, the bugs are really, really annoyed and aggressive, but they're still just bugs. I would hope that any future manifestations of my own future dead self will be much more noteworthy. It's cool to see dead bodies bloated and bursting with creepy crawlies mere hours after death, but this is the sort of thing one tends to view as a precursor of more ambitious tragedies to come, not as a be all and end all in itself. In case you think all the worm stuff sounds incredibly gross, it really isn't. While there are plenty of maggots bursting forth from chests and stomachs, there is not even one good mouth-exiting maggot shot to satisfy horror fans like myself who sort of expect that type of thing from a movie like this.

The fact that I didn't like two of the most important characters also didn't help my enjoyment of this movie. You have a tough lady cop who investigates missing children, but she has sort of an attitude, and the whole missing children theme seemed nothing more than a ruse for explaining why she was out on Hart Island in the first place (and the images of three presumably formerly missing girls jumping rope every ten minutes became utterly annoying). Then there is the convict working funeral duty who complains about being arrested and beaten up unjustly; one uncharacteristic bit of aggressive dialogue from him soured me on his good graces. There is one great character that provides a lot of much-needed humor during the first half of the film, for which I thank him. Finally, we have Malcolm McDowell, who does deliver a typically fine performance in a role he could not have been enthused over; of course, playing a twisted, uncaring millionaire isn't the kind of role one has to master Stanislavsky's techniques in order to pull off. When all is said and done, this movie fails to deliver the types of creeps and thrills its title obviously brings to mind, and the characters are too shallow to merit much attention. It's not bad or unwatchable, but there is just nothing about it that demands your attention or gory indulgence.

The movie is about a hive mind swarm of flies, with some sort of uber-toxin that decomposes your body in minutes. There are no zombies, even though the title of the the movie is "island of the dead" and it takes place on an island full of many unidentified bodies. There's not even any witty dialog, which is the only saving grace of some otherwise unbearable horror movies.

There is also a flashback of some girls jumping rope, which has absolutely nothing to do with anything in the movie, and it is shown 3 or 4 times. It's there to make the director feel like he's artsy.

Please save 90 minutes of your life, and pass on this.

ISLAND OF THE DEAD appears to be a made-for-cable or TV movie, shot in Canada. You can tell because the screen fades to black every 15 minutes or so for the commercial break.

This is a very low budget affair, making for a very low-key horror film. It's supposedly set on New York City's Hart's Island (where the city runs a potter's field for burying the impoverished or unidentified dead), but NYC can't be seen over the horizon as the ferry crosses the water. Just an insert shot of Manhattan at film's start to set the location.

Then there's the shot where Talisa Soto (who plays a cop) walks down Manhattan, glass skyscrapers behind her. She looks across at a ghetto-like street with boarded-up buildings. Obviously not shot on the same location. Editing those two shots together was truly unconvincing.

Story concerns evil rich man Malcolm McDowell (playing a casino owner/developer named "The Rupert" -- as in, "The Donald" Trump), who is building a low-income community on the island -- with sinister motives. He arrives on Hart's Island with an entourage and these evil flies attack. But they do so after most of the entourage has left, so there are very few actors on this island to attack. Just The Rupert and a handful of cops and prisoners burying the dead on potter's field.

Here's some sloppy story-telling: seems the flies only want to kill The Rupert, because when he dies, they stop. Talisa Soto marvels that the flies were after him. But then ... why did the flies kill several other people earlier in the film, and ignore The Rupert?

Anyway, the flies' bite is deadly, causing you to puff up in a disgusting manner before you die. Not a real gory film, but there is some creepy atmosphere. It actually helps that the low budget only allowed for a few actors. The location is nice -- a deserted island with abandoned buildings and grave markers. And the gray Canadian sky helps -- very much like in THE X-FILES. It's obviously not New York, but it makes for a decent horror film. Not great, but decent.

I disagree with the reviewer who said Talisa Soto looks old. She looks quite young, still. However, she looks awfully thin. Her face is so tight and thin, it's almost skull-like. I'd heard a story from a film industry friend that on the set of VAMPIRILLA, Soto was so thin, they had trouble keeping her costume from slipping off.

Somebody get this girl a milkshake and fries, fast!

The DVD is remarkably crappy, in that there is NO MENU. No special features, not even a scene selection. You pop in the DVD and go straight to the movie. Really, how hard is it to create a menu, with maybe some cast notes and scene selection?

Without even a menu, this DVD should be selling at the bargin bin price of $1.99 -- $3.99 max.

The DVD is full screen, but as this is likely a TV movie, that's likely the original screen format.

Honestly, I like this movie. I agree with the other reviewer who felt that the scenes with the children dancing detracted from the plot. However, if you ignore the kids you get a movie with a creepy atmosphere, some good scares, and morality. Plus, you get killer bugs that may or may not be the incarnation of the souls of the people who have been buried in a Potter's field.
What's not to like?

Given that most view this movie as a Blockbuster Rental, let me start with saying that if you love a "Horror" movie with constant jump rope flashback sequences this is the movie for you. I was under the impression that the movie had something to do with Zombies. I was sorely mistaken. It had a good setup; Island loaded with the unknown dead, Rich guy wants to develop island into city. The island is said to have old houses lived in years ago by the diseased. An asylum is also talked about. So as I wait for my zombies to start snacking, I wait...and wait...only to find that the only "horror" are...flies. Flies that carry some unexplained disease that kills within minutes. The flies continue on killing until they bite the rich "Trump" like fellow (MCDowell)and then leave. Even if I knew from the start that this was not a Zombie flick, I would still have hated this movie. It would win the award for "Most number of times a jump rope flashback sequence was shown". I give the movie 1 Star because I cannot go any lower with the rating. Of course maybe I'm being biased as I can't fully judge a movie when I fast forward through half of it...Ending on a positive note though, you could use the movie as a new drinking game; you know, every time the jump rope scene comes on, you drink. Every time the rich New Yorker says "Mate", etc...Stay away from the Island of the Dead. Your better off at Fantasy Island. Right Malcolm?

This movie (like so many other horror movies) Started off great! It seemed so interesting. But the last 35 minutes was a complete waist of time! I was so frustrated because it initially gave me high hopes but alas save your money!!!

I'm a big fan of horror movies, and I watched a lot of them, but this one doesn't have anything interesting for the horror genre...I do not recommend this movie...If you want horror, look for "The Ring"...