I remember watching this sometime in the early 1980s and being very impressed by it . When you're young you do feel an intense affection for these type of movies . They're mindless fun but the emphasis is on " fun " and you have no knowledge of the word " mindless " . In short if you spend the rest of your life having never seen a fondly remembered film then your fondness remains intact , so much so that I had hoped to rewatch this movie as an adult but it's not an easy film to find and I don't recall it being broadcast apart from its initial screening on ITV one Friday night circa 1981
That changed tonight and it's interesting how many people on this message board say it's a victim of false memory syndrome . It certainly wasn't a contender for the Oscars but it's difficult to believe that a film so dumb and more than a little bland could stay in the memory so long . Yes it's certainly watchable and remains so but that might be down to watching so many excessive gory films between 1981 and 2012 rather than ISLAND OF TERROR having massive merits of its own .Two obvious things let the film down - the screenplay and the directing
The premise is the standard scientists try to make things better for humanity but almost succeed in destroying the human race but the premise is totally undermined by every plot turn . Supposedly the location of the story is set on an Island off the East coast of Ireland which is strange because most of the characters have Scottish sounding names . It could be the East coast of Northern Ireland which would make sense . Nothing else makes sense however such as the Islanders having no phones but an endless supply of guns and dynamite . This was three years before the troubles started but would the average Island in Ulster be selling boxes of dynamite at a corner store ? Perhaps the most ridiculous thing is a total lack of phones on the island which is force fed to the audience time after time
The screenplay is full of these type of credibility defying moments . Likewise some of the dialogue has to be heard to be believed and one can't help thinking that it'd be better off in THE BENNY HILL SHOW or a Carry On film . We're introduced to the hero who is an expert on bone disease and he's just had a quickie with a hot brunette . I'm surprised the writers didn't make a joke about a serious bone injury. And later on Peter Cushing's character makes a joke to the hero and hot chick if three can play a game of solitaire
Director Terence Fisher can't rise above the written material and you get the distinct impression he doesn't want to either . He shoots most scenes in a bland medium shot and fails to inject much atmosphere in to the proceedings . Worse is his realisation of the silicate monsters which are unmenancing and somewhat laughable . You could claim that this gives the film a lot of charm and I won't disagree but there's a lack of internal logic to them . How for example would the silicates manage to kill three scientists and a housekeeper if they're so slow moving
ISLAND OF TERROR is one of these movies that deserves a " 100 things that I learned from this movie " posts on the message board as in :
" Japan isn't in fact an island " or
" You can make jokes ten minutes after getting your arm chopped off " or
" A stick of dynamite has the same explosive force as a firecracker "
As I said the film is somewhat charming and watchable but much of this is down to the decades passing and horror in the 21st Century revolving around people being kidnapped and slowly tortured to death in stomach churning explicit brutality
That changed tonight and it's interesting how many people on this message board say it's a victim of false memory syndrome . It certainly wasn't a contender for the Oscars but it's difficult to believe that a film so dumb and more than a little bland could stay in the memory so long . Yes it's certainly watchable and remains so but that might be down to watching so many excessive gory films between 1981 and 2012 rather than ISLAND OF TERROR having massive merits of its own .Two obvious things let the film down - the screenplay and the directing
The premise is the standard scientists try to make things better for humanity but almost succeed in destroying the human race but the premise is totally undermined by every plot turn . Supposedly the location of the story is set on an Island off the East coast of Ireland which is strange because most of the characters have Scottish sounding names . It could be the East coast of Northern Ireland which would make sense . Nothing else makes sense however such as the Islanders having no phones but an endless supply of guns and dynamite . This was three years before the troubles started but would the average Island in Ulster be selling boxes of dynamite at a corner store ? Perhaps the most ridiculous thing is a total lack of phones on the island which is force fed to the audience time after time
The screenplay is full of these type of credibility defying moments . Likewise some of the dialogue has to be heard to be believed and one can't help thinking that it'd be better off in THE BENNY HILL SHOW or a Carry On film . We're introduced to the hero who is an expert on bone disease and he's just had a quickie with a hot brunette . I'm surprised the writers didn't make a joke about a serious bone injury. And later on Peter Cushing's character makes a joke to the hero and hot chick if three can play a game of solitaire
Director Terence Fisher can't rise above the written material and you get the distinct impression he doesn't want to either . He shoots most scenes in a bland medium shot and fails to inject much atmosphere in to the proceedings . Worse is his realisation of the silicate monsters which are unmenancing and somewhat laughable . You could claim that this gives the film a lot of charm and I won't disagree but there's a lack of internal logic to them . How for example would the silicates manage to kill three scientists and a housekeeper if they're so slow moving
ISLAND OF TERROR is one of these movies that deserves a " 100 things that I learned from this movie " posts on the message board as in :
" Japan isn't in fact an island " or
" You can make jokes ten minutes after getting your arm chopped off " or
" A stick of dynamite has the same explosive force as a firecracker "
As I said the film is somewhat charming and watchable but much of this is down to the decades passing and horror in the 21st Century revolving around people being kidnapped and slowly tortured to death in stomach churning explicit brutality