RELEASE DATE: 1972
RATED: R
REVIEWED BY: The DarkSider
The movie begins with a circling shot of a some kind of lighthouse in the fog. The camera stays on it...why...well because its EVIL. Jump to some fishermen landing on an island. They walk around and after discovering a few naked corpses, the oldest of the fishermen goes into the island�s light house thus in turn gets assaulted by a lunatic girl and dies. The girl heads out and gets bopped over the head by the younger fisherman.
Cut to the obligatory white room with black curtains where the girl is laying in a catatonic state. Dr. Simpson comes in with police detectives to do an examination on the girl who is named Penny. Through the miracle of blinking lights, a technique later perfected in The Exorcist 2, the doctor is able to make Penny relive her horror in flashbacks. Turns out she went to the island with friends Des, Mae and Gary. The details, which mainly revolved around naked people getting the axe, prove to be a bit fuzzy and Penny goes off the deep end for a bit.
Cut to an office where a dude named Bakewell (sounds like kid�s oven doesn�t it) has gathered a bunch of his cronies. Part of the group are ex-fiances Adam and Rose, swinging husband/wife Adam and Nora and all around weirdo Brent. Yeah this group is f*cking stable alright.
The group talk about the incidents on the island and how there could be treasure there. Also, an evil Phoenician god is mentioned somewhere in the conversation, blah blah blah. The group all decide to head out to the hot spot named Snape Island. Yep, the same name as the evil professor in Harry Potter. Apparently Hogwarts pays well enough so professors can buy themselves private islands.
The man who gets them there is the surviving younger fisherman from the beginning, Hamp. Also part of the group is Hamp�s younger relative and Mick Jagger clone named Brom. The group land successfully on the island and unload. Inside the lighthouse, they discover a picture of an unhappy family. Turns out they are Hamp�s relatives Sol, Martha and their son who used to live on the island. Rumor has it that they all went crazy and died.
No time is wasted as things go haywire quick. Someone playing a flute causes everyone to panic and search for it�s source. During this interlude, Brom meets up with Nora next to some kind of lamp fuel tank. Gee, I wonder if all this will matter in the plot later. Well, I�ll tell you one thing that won�t matter and thats Brom and Nora doing the nasty.
Later in the evening, Brent heads out on his own to secretly seek out the rumored caves on the island. When the group reveal he carries a gun, they get suspicious and run out to check on Brent. The group look around and out of nowhere, their boat explodes.
Nora, with apparently nothing else better to do except smoke pot and f*ck, stumbles upon a corpse in a chair. Brom identifies the corpse as Martha. The group eventually agree that they aren�t truly alone on the island. They all decide to seek out the caves to find the culprit. Nora has no problem finding the evil doer and it turns out he is some kind of caveman. Nora gets thrown off the lighthouse to her death.
Things progress and before you know it, Hamp and Brom find an opening to the cave. Underground Brom finds a shrine to the Phoenician god loaded with riches. However, Brom gets hacked by the caveman.
Anyhow long story short, it turns out the caveman is really Brom�s relative Sol who went crazy from being on the island. While searching the caves, an explosion part of the group set off causes the lamp fuel to leak. Wow didn�t see that coming 8 paragraphs ago. The group catch up with Brent who pops a cap in Sol�s ass.
Brent confesses to exploring the island before but luckily for the group, he has supplies and a dingy hidden on the island. Before they leave however, the son of Sol emerges in his mutated caveman greatness. He offs Brom, chases Rose around for a bit and gets torched. The fire spreads from the lamp fuel and the group escapes as the island flames out.
The film is definitely a wonderfully done time piece. It seemed to be on the verge of the exploitation genre but holds down a good old fashioned monster on the loose angle as well. Basically, imagine a Vincent Price film but with a lot more skin.
1.) Recalling The Good Old Days - Penny stares at multicolored blinking lights and relives her friends being hacked, decapitated and impaled. Nothing like total recall through the dance floor of Saturday Night Fever.
2.) Smells Like Roses - Much like the Bates family, Martha makes an appearance as a gooey corpse.
1.) Sol and Son Of Sol - Do you really think Barney Rubble and Bam Bam would act like this? Gentlemen lets be civilized cavemen please.
