The 1976 cult classic Island of Death is STILL shocking all these years later!
Pays homage to Nico Mastorakis’ cult film, Death Island!
Iland of death is one of those films that became a accidental political statement. Nico Mastorakis, the director of the still-obscure 1976 Greek horror film, said he never explicitly intended for his film to carry a precise message about the hypocrisy religious fundamentalists. But it’s hard to watch the movie today and not they feel thinly veiled resentment from puritans who use their religious beliefs as a catch-all excuse to hate everyone who doesn’t look, act, and believe the same things they do.
Which is pretty respectable intention – subconscious or otherwise – for a film that contains loose scenes of bestiality, rape, torture and at least one complete scene golden shower sequence.
Island of Death is one of those films where it’s best to go into it without knowing ANYTHING about the picture. So if you’ve never seen it before and want to maintain its maximum shock value, you might want to see it very quickly and SO let’s come back to this retrospective. Don’t worry, we’ll keep the air conditioning on and leave it on your favorite radio station until you return.
Assuming that you to have I’ve seen the film, however, it’s still quite a difficult film to write. This is because much of what makes Island of Death success is a pure aesthetic. It’s not so much What happens in the film and what makes it memorable/disturbing as it is how these things are presented. There are a lot of cool camera tricks throughout the film, including a downright bright use of fish-eye lenses for chase sequences and attack scenes. It’s an amazing gimmick that perfectly conveys the aggression and sadism of its main characters, transforming this would be otherwise, through routine wide-angle shots in vast, open locations, in hyper-claustrophobic moments of pure anxiety. It is a film which suffocate you and makes you feel hopelessly stuck – for better or worse, it makes you feel like a active participant in the carnage, whether as a victim Or the authors.
The unsung hero of the film is the cinematographer Nikos Gardelis. Not only does he pull off some fancy, fanciful shots involving simulated photographs (which are used for virtually every murder sequence in the film), but he also pulls off a fantastic job of making the film’s quaint, serene waterfront hamlet vacant, dilapidated and slightly alien. Even in the first shots of Island of Death you just feel like something is disabled about this place – it might look like something you’d see on a postcard at first, but the more you look at all the rust, rot and infrastructure eroded by seawater, the more you realize things are not what they seem around here. Which, yes, could be slightly metaphorical when looking at the film as a whole.
As for the “plot” of the film, we are quickly introduced to a young couple played by Robert Behling and Jane Lyle. They’re your usual British tourist types (although they have dubbed voices with unmistakably American accents) who enjoy sightseeing, taking photos, and open-mouthed kissing in public, because that’s Europe and all. THE First of all One indication that things aren’t going well between these two is when they start having sex in a phone booth – with Rob’s character calling his mother mid-coitus to let her know how much fun he’s having. What if you still felt like he could be a normal guy, the follow-up scene – involving a goat, and I’ll leave it there – dispels this misperception immediately.
So yes, these two are certifiable loons. But they are not only any Murderous weirdos are cases of deeply religious weirdos whose goal is to kill as many “perverts” and “degenerates” as possible while on vacation. It is way ahead of his time things, especially since the majority of their victims are a.) homosexuals, b.) black, and c.) sexually liberated women. The painful reality is that not only could you make this movie again today – with virtually no changes – and still have it felt. extremely relevant, you can flip the TV to CNN and practically see it unfold in real time any day of the week.
Structurally, the film sits somewhat between the traditional conventions of giallo and slasher. It has elements of both types of horror films, but that’s not necessarily the case. feel as if it belonged to one or the other. Oddly enough, the closest point of comparison for this film would probably be 1973. The Wicker Maneven though the plot here is the reverse of 180 degrees; this time it is modernist eccentrics move towards an “upside down” island culture, traditionalist and ruin everything for everyone.
There’s a lot more character development here than in most mid-70s continental exploitation thrillers. In fact, you get to know the victims are doing pretty well here, while our murderous antagonists pretend to befriend them as part of their horrible grooming rituals. Surprisingly, the characterizations of marginalized groups in Island of Death — gay men, gender non-conforming people, drug addicts, etc. — are unexpectedly multidimensional and they all seem relevant and likeable. Which makes their inevitable death scenes all the more difficult to watch. There may be bloodier, more explicit horror films of the era, but the simple to fear And consternation created by this film is remarkable. It’s brutally tragic stuff, at a time when most films of this genre were only concerned with the “brutal” part.
And the killings Island of Death ARE simply vicious. A guy is bludgeoned mercilessly and forced to drink paint, a woman is injected with narcotics and has her face melted with a homemade blowtorch, and there’s even a sequence in which a character is decapitated by a bulldozer. Even the most “pedestrian” stabbings and shootouts in the film feel so sicker and more inhumane than most mid-’70s genre films. You won’t find many horror pictures from the decade as visceral as this one, and there’s a good chance you’ll find one as visceral AND unironically gripping as Island of Death must be extraordinary weak.
The end of Island of Death that’s what makes it a low-key transcendent genre film. Without giving too much away, let’s say that it culminates with the meeting of our two British sociopaths a local sociopath – and just so you know, if you type the query “laundry pit” into Google, the disappearance of a certain character is literally the death of a certain character. third image that appears on the World Wide Web. Now that’s how you know an iconic murder is truly iconic.
Island of Death is still a pretty obscure film, but I feel like it’s time for some retroactive praise. It seems more modern than expected and manages to shock you with its sexual and violent content. There are a ton of twists and turns and on top of everything else, it’s charge with subtext about the immorality of self-appointed moral guardians and the contradictions homophobia and misogyny. And even if you don’t like it, I suspect Island of Death will stay with you much longer than most horror films. There’s real depth and nuance here – assuming you’re able to look past all the harpoon gun murders and simulated sodomy, of course.
About the Author
