Protraph Lack of good storyline.

Infamousta brilliant actors, brilliant editing

HeadlinesExotic Boring

Ogosmith Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Scott LeBrun The setting is an idyllic island community off the coast of Ireland. A cancer researcher named Phillips (Peter Forbes-Robertson) has come there to work, but his efforts to create a living organism that will attack cancer cells actually results in weird looking monsters. Monsters that attack all manner of animals and feast on the bones, leaving behind jelly like masses of flesh. Local doctor Reginald Landers (Eddie Byrne) realizes that he needs outside help, so he calls in Londons' chief pathologist Brian Stanley (Peter Cushing), who in turn brings along his young associate David West (Edward Judd), a specialist in bone diseases.A reasonably intelligent approach, a neat and interesting premise, genuinely creepy creatures, and a top cast all make for fine ingredients with this cracking sci-fi / horror feature, one of the few Cushing / director Terence Fisher collaborations NOT done for the Hammer company. Excellent use is made of Pinewood Studios sets. Fisher generates some wonderful tension as well as some delicious gross-you-out moments (such as the sight of the "Silicates", as they come to be known, in the act of multiplying). Eventually, the scenario turns into a pre-"Night of the Living Dead" style siege, and you can see characters beginning to crack from the strain. Fisher gets right down to business, with a short and sweet prelude to the horror to come. Praise is also due to composer Malcolm Lockyer for his eerie music score.Cushing once again offers a master class in portraying softly spoken authority. He and Judd work well as a team, and Judd likewise gets along nicely with appealing leading lady Carole Gray. The rich assortment of British character actors includes Niall MacGinnis as the head of the island, Sam Kydd as the local constable, and James Caffrey as shopkeeper Peter Argyle.This is an engaging shocker for any fan of Cushing, Fisher, and the genre.Eight out of 10.

Theo Robertson 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 movingISLAND 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

commander_zero Despite the presence of Terence Fisher and Peter Cushing, ISLAND OF TERROR is not a Hammer production. Surprisingly--because besides the star and director it has all of the assets we attribute to Hammer: an intelligent script hinged around a far-fetched premise; an expert cast including some outstanding character actors (in this case, a sadly wasted Niall MacGinnis); and modest but substantial production values bolstering what might best be called resourceful special effects.Produced in the days of the double bill, its 89 minutes fly by—just enough time to be convinced by ISLAND OF TERROR's imaginative calcium- sucking "silicates." The unlikely products of cancer research, the silicates look like huge oyster-shells with a single tentacular proboscis waving from (what one presumes is) the front end. Slow-moving but sneaky, their presence is announced by creepy (and for 1962, groundbreaking) electronic sound effects, and their deadly tentacles overtake even the wariest interloper. These uniquely-conceived monsters are just one of ISLAND OF TERROR's many pleasures, along with the ingenious (but hard on cattle) scheme our heroes devise to overcome the menace, the embattled island (inhabited by a couple of hundred people, who among them unfortunately have only one boat) mise-en-scene, and (SPOILER ALERT) the wacky sense of humour the previously dour Cushing develops after having his arm chopped off.Let us not underrate ISLAND OF TERROR; its craftsmanship stands up a half-century later, when more "serious" efforts from the same decade merely look embarrassing. It has many genuinely scary moments, including a classic, "it's-not-over" denouement, which make it a genuinely pleasurable movie experience.

sydneyswesternsuburbs Director Terence Fisher who also created another classic flick, Dracula 1958 has created another gem in Island of Terror.Starring Peter Cushing who was also in Terrence Fisher's classic flick, Dracula 1958.Also starring Edward Judd.Also starring Carole Gray.I enjoyed the special effects.If you enjoyed this as much as I did then check out other classic sci-fi flicks, Nineteen Eighty-Four 1984, The Chronicles of Riddick 2004, Dune 1984, Equilibrium 2002, The Island 2005, Knowing 2009, Light Blast 1985, Metropolis 1927, Pitch Black 2000, Rollerball 1975, Steel Frontier 1995, Tetsuo 1989, Tetsuo II: Body Hammer 1992, Things to Come 1936, THX 1138 1971, Dredd 2012, Annihilation 2018 and Videodrome 1983.