Screamers (1979)

[PackBacker]

"Screamers" 1979
aka "Isola degli uomini pesce"

Directed by: Sergio Martino ("Slave of the Cannibal God")
Written by: Sergio Donati ("Orca"), Miller Drake
Starring: Barbara Bach, Claudio Cassinelli ("Slave of the Cannibal God"), Richard Johnson ("Zombie")

Tagline: They're men turned inside out! And worse... they're still alive!

Rating: 3/10


Plot: Several men from a wrecked prison ship wash on shore on a mysterious island. They come under attack and we don't know if it is due to voodoo, zombies, fish men, or plot-holes. Oh wait...its that Atlantis?

Review: Plot? We don't need no stinking plot...we're Italian! God bless the Italians. Maybe a lot is lost in translation but 98% of their films feature gore out the ass but a story that wanders like a blind mouse in a cage. This one is no different and even got a second treatment by Roger Corman backed Americans. What we get is a nightmare cross between "Creature from the Black Lagoon" and "The Island of Dr. Moreau."

The tagline is ridiculous. The creatures featured in the film are fish-men pure and simple. No one is inside out. Despite the assertion early in the film that the island is inhabited by zombies, there are in fact only fish-men who are addicted to milky beaker fluids. I'm still lost on the rest of the story. There are voodoo henchmen, a mad scientist, the lost continent of Atlantis, a money grubbing bad guy, and our heroes. Depsite a couple viewings I still haven't tied it all together. I just end up laughing at the fish-men.

The fish-men are horrible looking. Monster suits can work well (see "Star Wars" which was made 2 years before this one) but here they look like a really horrible 50s monster movie. They just cause me to giggle everytime they are on screen...in particular when they swarm around the beautiful woman and drink the milky nectar she pours out of a flask. Yeah, that's random. Jose's fish-man transformation does look good but it's on screen for about 15 seconds.

The gore starts out strong with a decapitation and a punch through the body. Oddly enough these were American shots. The geyser of blood sure looked like a Fulci-style gorefest. The remainder of the film is light on the gore...so unlike the Italians. We mainly get webbed claws to the body that are incredibly bloodless but are fatal.

All in all a really bad movie that is quite amusing. Even though I'm still confused I could laugh all the way through it.

[zombievictim]

Jeese Pack do you ever watch good movies?

[PackBacker]

Not usually This is part of the Labor Day Bad Movie Marathon. "Screamers" is at least fun bad...unlike that bastard of a film "The Demon"