Island of Death (1975)

Acting:		Partying:		Girls:
Blood:		Language:		Gore:
Violence:		Humor:		Sexuality:
Torture:		Predictability:		Overall:

Horror films have always been about selling the sizzle as opposed to the Steak. David Friedman, one of the high kings of exploitation films, noted that exploitation films by nature were always better in the trailer then in the actual film. The taglines and trailers are used to entice you into see these films. And most times, a film won't live up to all the hype. Believe me, there are some films where I don't need to remind myself that "it's only a movie." It's pretty obvious it's a movie and one so bad that I wonder if they even had a script before they started the cameras. So any film whose tagline is "The lucky ones simply got their brains blown out" would seem to have a lot to live up to. Fortunately, Greek director Nico Masterakis did his best to live up to the film's trailer and tagline. As a matter of fact, he probably exceeds it. I've seen the trailer for the film, and it hardly equals the sheer nastiness in the movie itself.

The film follows a young couple who vacation on a small Greek island. Where this film immediately gets it right is by having the couple, who you figure are going to be stalked, murdered, eaten or any other horror standard you can picture be the villains. After a disturbing sex scene in the middle of which the young man phones his mother to listen in (and taunt her), they proceed to kill the locals who they feel are sinners. Most of the people who they murder are killed in very gory ways, and Director Masterakis keeps the body count moving. There's a sort of sub-plot of ...

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