Misfit Robot Daydream: Island of the Fishmen (aka Screamers) (1979)

Friday, June 8, 2012

Island of the Fishmen (aka Screamers) (1979)

Island of the Fishmen (aka Screamers) (1979) - Movie review plus screencaps:


"Screamers"

A doctor and some convicts from a prison ship get shipwrecked on an uncharted Caribbean island populated with half-man/half-fish creatures, and horrific shenanigans ensue. Toss in a liberal dose of African(?) tribesman, voodoo, and a sprinkling of zombies just for the hell of it, and you get a movie that sounds like it could be cheesy fun, but never really gets there.


"The Cave of the Dead." Here's a tip: if you are in a horror movie, and there is cave full of glowing fog named "The Cave of the Dead," DON'T go in it.

The special effects are bad, bad, bad. It kind of looks like they took leftover monster bits from other movies and pieced them together to make the creatures. Like the filmmakers were rummaging through the trash bins of a better movie, and were all, "Hey! You guys throwing this away? It's still good. I can use this!" Well. actually, there was one cool thing, with this one guy who was being turned from a man into a fishman, but they most have spent their entire budget on it, cuz the rest was super-cheapo.


"Half-Man Half-Fish." Not the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Nor an incredible simulation.

The movie is, for the most part, poorly paced and really boring. I had to resist the urge to fast forward as I watched it. Richard Johnson (of Bulldog Drummond fame) hammed it up entertainingly as the lead villain, but that was the only thing the movie had going for it. I would say this movie is not really worth your time, unless you are a die-hard bad movie fan.

Barnes & Barnes - Fish Heads