L'isola degli uomini pesce (1979)

... aka: Fish Men, The
... aka: Island of Fishman
... aka: Island of Fishmen
... aka: Island of Mutations
... aka: Island of the Fishmen, The

Directed by:
Sergio Martino

Note: This review is for the original Italian version, filmed in 1978 and released theatrically in Italy in January, 1979 with a running time of around 99 minutes and not the later, revamped, shorter version released here in America by Roger Corman's New World Pictures under the title SCREAMERS. Since there are significant differences between the two films, I'll be reviewing them separately here.

In 1891, a prison ship is battered and sunk by something in the water. Most of the men are killed, but the few survivors find themselves on a nameless, uncharted tropical island with an active volcano on it. Claude de Ross (Claudio Cassinelli), a lieutenant and medical doctor on the ship, locates one of the prisoners - the injured José (Franco Iavarone) - on the beach and the two decide to head inland to look for water. Several other prisoners; crazy old-timer François (Franco Mazzieri), the dangerous and untrustworthy Peter (Roberto Posse) and Skip (Giuseppe Castellano), turn up, the men find fresh water and then François wanders off to look for food and turns up dead. Writing it off as an alligator attack (amusingly, Martino next made The Great Alligator featuring most of the same cast), the other men continue on. After Skip falls victim to the old spiked pit booby trap, the three survivors stumble upon an empty village with empty graves and signs that voodoo ceremonies have been conducted there.

The beautiful but unfriendly Amanda (Barbara Bach) shows up on horseback to try to warn the men away but, starving, they follow her back to her home, anyway. There, they meet Edmond Rackham (Richard Johnson), who wonders what they're doing on his island. Edmond's the type of guy who gets off on his power trip of being a big fish in a small pond, or as he likes to put it, "absolute master." He's more or less enslaved the remaining inhabitants of the island, who do his bidding, and likes to shout things like "I am the law!" when confronted with any kind of opposition. Amanda hates him. He's controlling, abusive and instantly jealous of Claude, whom he (rightfully) suspects is going to fall for her and vice versa. Still, he allows the men to stay, making an aside to Amanda that they won't be there for very long. In Peter and Jose's cases that turns out to be accurate as each are soon killed off. The only reason Claude is spared is because he's a doctor and of some use.

The deathly ill Professor Ernest Marvin (Joseph Cotten), a famous geneticist discredited by the science community for conducting sometimes lethal experiments on patients and thought dead by the world at large, eventually turns up in a secret room in the home. Edmond wants Claude to treat him, in hopes he'll recover and be able to continue on with his experiments. What experiments? Well, it all involves the island's other inhabits: an amphibian race of "fish men" who have scaly skin, googly eyes, razor-sharp teeth and claws and make noises like elephants. According to Edmond, the fish people are actually evolved humans descended from the original inhabitants of the lost city of Atlantis, which is located 2,000 feet underwater right off of the island. Marvin has developed a special "potion" that the fishies are addicted to and willing to trade pieces of a valuable treasure for. Junkie fish men monsters? Yeah, pretty much. Edmond, of course, wants to treasure all to himself so he's been keeping the professor and his daughter prisoner there, but there's more to the story than just that...

While nothing spectacular, this is a perfectly acceptable and enjoyable juvenile fantasy / adventure / monster movie very much in tune with the writings of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells (most notably the latter's "The Island of Dr. Moreau"), with a dash of H.P. Lovecraft and Creature from the Black Lagoon thrown in there as well. Production values are quite good for a film of this type, with nice photography, music and art direction. It was shot in some really beautiful locales, near where Lucio Fulci's Zombi 2 (also starring Johnson) was filmed. The cast - also including Beryl Cunningham as the Haitian voodoo priestess / servant Shakira and an unbilled Bobby Rhodes (who'd later get some attention playing "Tony the Pimp" in Demons) as one of Rackham's henchmen - is decent and the dubbing isn't terrible for a change. The monster suits / masks designed by Massimo Antonello Geleng aren't all that impressive but I've definitely seen far worse. And the build-up actually does end up going somewhere as the big finale is exciting and action-packed enough. If there's any major fault, it's that the story is slow-moving in spots and takes one too many detours in telling its simple story. The voodoo elements, for instance, really have little to do with the rest of it and the telepathic link Amanda shares with the creatures isn't fully realized.

The original, non-tampered-with Italian version was unavailable in America for quite some time, though in 2009 it finally made it to DVD from Mya Communication. The UK video release (under the title Island of Mutations) from Vipco appears to be the original Italian cut, as does the VHS release (titled The Fish Men) on the Dutch label EVC. Fish Men was also the release title in Japan. Martino followed this up with the belated, barely-released sequel La regina degli uomini pesce ( aka The Fishmen and Their Queen) in 1995, which blends fantasy, horror and post apocalyptic sci-fi and is rumored to be pretty awful. In Germany, both of Martino's fish-man films were issued on one set.

★★1/2

World Beyond, The (1978) (TV)

... aka: Monster
... aka: Mud Monster, The
... aka: World Beyond - "Monster," The

Directed by:
Noel Black

A listing in a January, 1978 TV Guide calls this "a pilot for a proposed, but unscheduled, series." Actually, it was the second pilot episode for the same proposed series devised by "Dark Shadows" writer Art Wallace. The first episode, aired nine months earlier in April 1977, was called The World of Darkness and featured the same lead character / actor, same concept and same opening sequence. CBS ran both of these hour-long- including-commercials episodes but apparently decided the ratings weren't good enough to commission more and that was effectively the end of the World. All that's available to us now is a faded, poor-quality copy that someone recorded off of television back in the day. It's sold on several bootleg sites like iOffer and Cinefear complete with commercials from its (one-time?) TV airing and has also popped up on Youtube. Unfortunately, no one seems to have recorded the first pilot episode and thus it may be lost to the sands of time. The only footage currently available to view from it are contained in a 10-second-long TV promo that hints its plot involves some kind of haunting. Does anyone out there have a copy of The World of Darkness? That's what I'd like to know.

Sportswriter Paul Taylor (Granville Van Dusen) gets in a motorcycle accident, is rushed off to a hospital, dies for exactly 2 minutes and 37 seconds and is then resuscitated with defibrillator paddles. He's not only picked up "an intimate knowledge of death" in the process but now he's also in tune with the spirit world and is given instructions by whispering ghosts as to who needs help from various supernatural threats. In this case, he's given a location, a name and is simply told to "help her." The place is Logan's Island, the person is Marian Faber and she's in need of assistance, so Paul gets in his car and takes off. Since the island is accessible only by boat, Paul gets a lift from Andy Borchard ("special guest star" Barnard Hughes) and ends up meeting Marian (JoBeth Williams) on the ride over. Marian has received a letter from her brother Frank (Richard Fitzpatrick), who's one of the island's only inhabitants, telling her he has a surprise to show her. What that is has yet to be determined.

Various clues that something isn't quite right turn up immediately upon arrival. Frank's boat is sunk, Andy's docile pet pooch Lover (yes, he named his dog Lover, which goes beyond weird right into the realm of creepy) turns on him and chews up his arm and they hear strange noises coming from the woods. Upon inspecting Frank's house, they discover that he's boarded up all the windows and his bookshelves are filled with books about casting spells and incantations. Something sinks their boat. The dog is killed. A neighbor is found dingy, dying and muttering a three letter word that begins with M and ends with D. I'm sure U have figured it out by now. And lots of wet dirt seems to be all over the place. Turns out that Frank has created himself a Golem, a figure in Hebrew folklore said to be a body without a soul fashioned from mud and sticks and brought to life through magic. And though this particular Golem isn't very friendly and kills for no apparent reason, he'd prefer it if you didn't call him salty!

So what we have here is a modest, simple, undemanding little monster movie that's pretty fun for what it is. The acting's good, the dialogue's pretty silly at times (Doubt you'll be hearing anyone utter "Mud pies don't go around killin' dogs and people!" anywhere but here) and there are a few neat little touches here and there, like the mudman's hand continuing to attack after being severed. Director Black began his career with a short called Skaterdater (1966) that earned him the Palme d'Or at Cannes and an Oscar nomination and followed with the excellent black comedy Pretty Poison (1968) starring Anthony Perkins and Tuesday Weld. After that, several critical and commercial flops no one was interested in seeing relegated him to TV for most of the rest of his career, He does a fairly good job with what was handed to him here and even orchestrates one of the best jump scares I've seen in quite some time.

Oh, you want to see the monster now, do you?

And not even a 'mud angel' will pacify you? Fine.

Yes, I know that's just a hand on fire, but...

Yes, I know there's a flame covering most of it, but...

Too blurry? Yes, well...

Too blurry and too dark? I guess I see what you mean...

I'm seriously trying here... but this print is so bloody awful I don't think I can get a decent shot...

OK, screw it. I'm giving up now.

This was a Time-Life Television production filmed in Canada and has a copyright date of 1977, which means it was likely filmed back-to-back with the first World. The poor condition of the print I viewed didn't help in the creature visibility department any, but it was designed by the prolific Roger George. It's often said to have the alternate title The Mud Monster, but I can find no proof it was ever released under that title. The one I viewed called the episode simply Monster.

★★1/2