La isla de la muerte

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.