A small island community is overrun with creeping, blobbish, tentacled monsters which liquefy and digest the bones from living creatures. The community struggles to fight back.
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Reviews
Wuchak
5
By Wuchak
_**Peter Cushing is stuck on an Island of Dull**_
Cancer experiments on a remote island off the coast of Ireland have unleashed something that is turning people into lifeless, boneless masses of flesh.
“Island of Terror” (1966) was made by the same short-lived company that released the similar “Island of the Burning Damned” a year later (also known as “Night of the Big Heat”), both featuring Peter Cushing and directed by Terence Fisher. It walks the balance beam between sci-fi and horror and should be appreciated by fans of Cushing, Hammer, Amicus, Tigon and American International.
Unfortunately, unlike that sister film, it lacks much human interest and the creatures are shown too early and too much in the light of day. I suppose it doesn’t help that Carole Gray isn’t on the level of Jane Merrow in the feminine department, but she’s a’right.
Still, if you must see every Cushing flick, this one starts with a compelling first act and is solid mid-60’s Brit sci-fi/horror. It just gets dull by the second half.
The film runs about 1 hour, 27 minutes, and was shot at Pinewood Studios, England, and other points nearby in Buckinghamshire.
GRADE: C/C-
CinemaSerf
6
By CinemaSerf
It has something of "Day of the Triffids" (1963) to it this, as Peter Cushing ("Dr. Stanley") is drafted onto a remote island to investigate some mysterious deaths. Bodies have been de-ossified and this presents quite a puzzle to himself and to his fellow scientists "David" (Edward Judd) and "Landers" (Eddie Byrne) until they stumble upon some rather dangerous woodlice-looking creatures with long spiny necks wandering in the woods. Might they be the cause, and if so what to do now? It's a pretty run of the mill sci-fi horror film this. It tries to beef up the plot by using a decent cast of familiar British actors to compensate for the very limited standard of the visual effects and the predictability of the denouement. It is annoyingly over-scored, which is a shame, and the dialogue is all pretty banal but Cushing delivers all that is required of him and I still quite enjoyed it.
