Island of the Doomed (1967)

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Cameron Mitchell is a mad botanist on an island in the Mediterranean where he is raising weird carnivorous plants and hybrids. He is visited by some tourists who have been brought over to tour the island (and become lunch). As time goes on and the tension between the tourists rise, the bodies begin to accumulate, will anyone be safe? Weird and wacky (in a good way) Euro-horror film about killer plants. This is the definition of guilty pleasure. Its the sort of Late night schlock film that is just too of the wall to be believed. Actually the film is mostly played rather straight as a typical thriller with something weird going on. Its only in the later stages, when we really see the plants in action that things turn surreal. Give the film points for giving us at least three victims we want really badly to die (wife of the older gentlemen, visiting botanist and annoying American with a camera) Its a scary movie but at the same time these people really do deserve to die. I found myself cheering when each bought it. Of course this film has some great beasties in the hybrid plants and hey are the sort of things that may cause you to second guess the next time you go by your house plants. Worth a look see for those loving wild monster movies. (perhaps as a double feature with the Revenge of DR X aka Devil's Garden aka any number of any other titles)

A motley assortment of tourists are vacationing on a remote island. The group runs afoul of evil botanist Baron von Meser (the ubiquitous Cameron Mitchell in top suavely sinister form) and his lethal giant vampire tree (!). Director Mel Welles (Mr. Mushnik in the original "The Little Shop of Horrors") treats the laughably ludicrous premise with total seriousness, thus resulting in a true so-schlocky-it's-downright-spectacular unintentional camp riot. The colorfully quirky stock cardboard supporting characters are especially amusing; my favorites are feisty old bat Myrtle, eccentric botanist Prof. Jules Demerest, shrewish slattern Cora, and creepy mute servant Baldi. The great animated opening credits sequence, the poor dubbing, the completely inappropriate, but still cool jazzy'n'smoky cocktail lounge score, and the incredibly wild over-the-top gruesome ending are all likewise hilarious. Only the fairly slick cinematography manages to rise above the general ineptitude of this gloriously ghastly marvel. A total howler.

The heroine in the clutches of a vampire tree, the hero leaping to her aid with an axe - slashing at blood-sucking branches with his weapon - then being attacked by the mad scientist who created the tree, also with an axe!An axe battle between the two, under the writhing blood-sucking branches, in the middle of a rain-drenched thunderstorm. GREAT staging! What happens next is bloody (incredibly bloody, in fact), outrageous, melodramatic, over-the-top, and (dare I say?) EXCITING!Now come on - isn't that last ten minutes worth the previous hour and 20 minutes of bad dubbing and odd characterisation?And what the HELL is that old German woman gibbering on about?Fans of Man-Eating Plants should check out the Mel Welles site.

In spite of one of the alternate release titles making this obscure little film sound as if it concerns the hungry amblings of a tiger, it's actually a taut little horror entry concerning a blood-drinking tree which preys on the unwary visitors to an isolated island.I caught this one on late night television in the early 1970s, and bits of it still stick with me, due to a certain nastiness in the effects work. Cameron Mitchell seems to be a researcher who is studying a bizarre tree which literally drains the life from anyone unwise enough to sleep within groping distance of its slim, mobile branches.Constructed like a willow, the creature is capable of extending whiplike branches and fastening a cuplike sucking "mouth" to a victim. From there on, things are strictly downhill.Not strictly a carbon copy of other "plants gone bad" films, such as THE WOMAN EATER or NAVY VS. THE NIGHT MONSTERS, ISLA reflects the stronger attempts many European producers were attempting in order to draw in the jaded horror film crowd. Over the years, this desire to punch up the graphic content resulted in such unique entries as the Blind Dead series and the deja-producing BLOOD AND BLACK LACE.Needless to say, though creepiness was evoked, the inclusion of stronger content or wilder plot tricks didn't necessarily ensure boxoffice success.Not Mitchell's worse, but miles below the early promise he showed in his film career.