Island of Terror Year: 1966 Director: Terence Fisher Written by: Edward Andrew Mann, Allan Ramsen Threat: Silicates Weapon of Choice: Radiation Based upon: none Color/B&W/3D: colour Language: English Country of Origin: UK IMDb page:

Other movies in this series:
None

The tyranist's thoughts
I like Peter Cushing. Not as much as I like Christopher Lee, but Cushing made a lot of interesting movies and was often willing to participate in movies that were more quirky than obvious. I also like British horror and think generally that it deserves more of a chance than some people give it.
A remote and conveniently isolated island situated between Ireland and Scotland (I think) is put under a siege of sorts when a farmer dies. An autopsy reveals he has no bones in his body whatsoever. The island doctor takes the only boat to the mainland, gathers the experts and flies back with them on a helicopter that is tasked elsewhere for the next three days. Thus, truly isolated, the one death turns to 5 and then things start to get out of hand.
The pacing of this one was more than a bit screwy. It was alternately way to rapid fire and way to slow. In fact, whenever there was dialogue, the actors delivered it as if they were being paid by the word. And when there wasn't, the camera lingered lovingly far beyond what was necessary. It makes the movie a bit hard to watch.
Which is unfortunate since the movie is actually pretty solid. The monsters are early Doctor Who level quality and with the sound effect to go with, but when they get around to actually menacing the population, well, that looks like a painful way to go. The location work was pretty good and this had all the hallmarks of British horror in the '60s or any kind of cinema for that matter. But it's a marked step forward from some other movies of its ilk.
So in spite of the difficult pacing, I kinda liked this one. It had a certain amount of charm and menace and the ultimate solution to taking out the monsters is creative and a bit unusual for the time since they were using radioactive material to fix the problem rather than identifying it as the source of the problem. I'm not sure I'd recommend going out to look for it, but if you stumble across it, the movie is worth a watch.
Posted: November 5, 2007

Total Skulls: 11

Sequel
Sequel setup
Rips off earlier film
Horror film showing on TV/in theater in movie
Future celebrity appears
Former celebrity appears
Bad title
Bad premise
Bad acting
Bad dialogue
Bad execution
MTV Editing
OTS
Girl unnecessarily gets naked
Wanton sex
Death associated with sex
Unfulfilled promise of nudity
Characters forget about threat
Secluded location
Power is cut
Phone lines are cut
Someone investigates a strange noise
Someone runs up stairs instead of going out front door
Camera is the killer
Victims cower in front of a window/door
Victim locks self in with killer
Victim running from killer inexplicably falls
Toilet stall scene
Shower/bath scene
Car stalls or won't start
Cat jumps out
Fake scare
Laughable scare
Stupid discovery of corpse
Dream sequence
Hallucination/Vision
No one believes only witness
Crazy, drunk, old man knows the truth
Warning goes unheeded
Music detracts from scene
Death in first five minutes
x years before/later
Flashback sequence
Dark and stormy night
Killer doesn't stay dead
Killer wears a mask
Killer is in closet
Killer is in car with victim
Villain is more sympathetic than heroes
Unscary villain/monster
Beheading
Blood fountain
Blood spatters - camera, wall, etc.
Poor death effect
Excessive gore
No one dies at all
Virgin survives
Geek/Nerd survives
Little kid lamely survives
Dog/Pet miraculously survives
Unresolved subplots
"It was all a dream" ending
Unbelievably happy ending
Unbelievably crappy ending
What the hell?