Jeanskynebu
the audience applauded
MoPoshy
Absolutely brilliant
CrawlerChunky
In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.
Livestonth
I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible
Scott LeBrun
So-so entry in the Filipino "Blood Island" horror film series. Dedicated doctor Bill Foster (John Ashley) travels to a small island to investigate strange goings-on, accompanied by young woman Sheila Willard (Angelique Pettyjohn), who herself intends to find out the fate of her father (Tony Edmunds). Running around loose on the island is a green blooded monster.If nothing else, "Mad Doctor of Blood Island" is notable for its audience participation factor, with the audience given doses of "green blood" to drink and protect themselves from harm. As directed by Filipino exploitation icons Gerry De Leon and Eddie Romero, the movie does have a lot of entertaining and effective ambiance. It does have the appeal of a drive-in feature, but it has a fundamental problem in that it's often too dull to work that well. There's more talk than action. There's also some highly annoying camera-work. The gore is decent (and there's also a fair bit of bare female flesh), but the makeup on the monster is awfully tacky.The acting in this one is pretty stiff, right across the board. Jut jawed hero Ashley lacks personality, and the same goes for Ronaldo Valdez, who plays Carlos Lopez. He has some rather amusing scenes with his hottie mom (played by Tita Munoz). The ladies are beautiful, with Pettyjohn an especially fetching leading lady. Fans of exploitation flicks from this part of the world may enjoy appearances by such familiar faces as Ronald Remy, as the evil Dr. Lorca, Bruno Punzalan, as his henchman Razak, and Alfonso Carvajal as Ramu.Unfortunately, this never has much of a momentum, and even the climax isn't that exciting. Still, it has its moments.Five out of 10.
Sheep_Dip
If you are a Z-grade movie fan then you'll pleased to hear that this is one gloriously bad film. You get the full works here - paper-maché monster masks, screaming maidens, wooden acting, brief flashes of nudity, cave walls that are less-than-solid and a surprising dash of 1960s gore. However the best part, or worst depending on your point of view, is the wonderfully stodgy dialogue on display, for example: Man: "What a scare you gave me. But then you are a kind of ghost yourself aren't you". Woman: "What sensitivity".Add to this a plot involving chlorophyll (the stuff that makes leaves green) poisoning, native rituals and you've got yourself a decent B-movie. There are some aspects that will undoubtedly annoy most people, the large number of "padded" scenes for example, but the worst has to be the bloody annoying manic lens zooming!. Otherwise the film is fun to watch and will no doubt please most fans of Romero and low-budget horror fare.
Coventry
The first conclusion you spontaneously make while watching "The Mad Doctor of Blood Island" is that there are some sick-minded individuals walking this planet! I'm one of them, of course, since I voluntarily purchased the DVD and am proud of owning it now. But the real insanity-credit goes to people like Eddie Romero and Gerardo de Leon for actually unleashing a tale like this upon the world. I mean
green-blooded monsters? A mad doctor that looks like a bad Elvis-impersonator? Bad cases of leukemia side effects? This film qualifies as pure drive-in exploitation, meaning that your expectations should be at their lowest and then you still get less! We're talking ridiculous dialogue, no plotting whatsoever and not even an attempt to build up tension. All these aspects, which determine the quality of a horror film, are replaced by filthy grotesque gore and sleaze. There's no point in summarizing the plot for you as it's surprise surprise very inept and rather stupid. It's great entertainment, though, as long as you've got beer and a lot of perseverance. The only real disadvantage is the total lack of talent of everyone involved. Every cast member could have used a couple thousand more acting lessons and the cinematographer obviously doesn't know that rough camera movements are irritating instead of suspenseful. No matter how I much I love Z-grade horror, I simply can't give this one a positive rating. Nonetheless, I'd like to recommend it to cult-fanatics and admirers of off-category cinema. Good times!
madsagittarian
Shortly after the Beach Party cycle of films petered out, AIP regular John Ashley went to the Philippines to produce with Eddie Romero a handful of exploitation films, of which this is the best known. It is a little disconcerting to see the arch in his career at this point. All those beach party and hot rod flicks that John did for Mr. Arkoff were admirably quaint, yet seem like Kubrick compared to the standard production values of these films.Reference books all mention how awful these movies are, yet for some they are so putrid that they create a strange kind of attraction. But these films are nonetheless interesting for their bewildering atmosphere: these sweaty, tinny opuses seem to be made in the spirit of 40's B-pictures with liberal amounts of cheap 60's gore. This second entry in the "Blood Island" series (following BRIDES OF BLOOD, which is even worse) concerns the Chlorophyll Monster running amok, scaring natives, and putting viewers to sleep. As dreadful as these spate of Filipino exploitation films are, during their proliferation in the 1960's and 70's, it was always interesting to see who popped up in them. This time, Ashley's co-star is the lovely Angelique Pettyjohn, whom Trekkies would remember from the "Gamesters of Triskelion" episode, and who had yet to embark on a career of Triple X features such as TITILLATION.Romero's monster is so frightening that the height of suspense comes when the creature just stands there and stands there for the longest time when it is cornering somebody. I haven't seen this deadening rot in over 12 years, yet for some reason I am getting a craving to see it all over again. Are we that fed up with the mainstream, that we masochistically seek out films that we know are pieces of painfully inept tedium just to escape some piece of Hollywood mediocrity? Is it more important to trudge through the Grade Z movie universe to find that one moment that actually works or exhibits some whisper of technical competence, than to be de-sensitized by any standard commercial fare where production values are taken for granted? Is it just some piece of lost youth we are attempting to regain in these movie experiences no matter what the price of disappointment? I don't know, but thanks to the DVD revolution, someone is unearthing these curious pictures all over again, as it is well nigh impossible to find this stuff on VHS anymore, and the barrel scrapings of the late show are now lined with infomercials for mouthy psychics and TimeLife books. At least its sequel BEAST OF BLOOD is marginally better.