Island of Blood

A producer, director and seven cast members meet on a small isle off the coast of SoCal to make a movie, hosted by a curmudgeonly recluse. People immediately start dying in dubious ways. Who's the killer and why is he or she murdering them?

"Island of Blood" (1982), also known as "Whodunit" and "Scared Alive," is an obscure early 80's slasher that starts well enough with a little droll humor and Bari Suber being notable on the feminine front as BJ (her only role as an actress). Marie-Alise Recasner is also effective as Donna.

Unfortunately, there's not enough human interest to hold one's attention as the characters are cardboard. Worse, the second half devolves into dull chase/assault sequences in the dark and, mostly, inside a schoolhouse. The ending is quite good, however; a nice surprise.

The contemporaneous "Humongous" (1982) and "The Slayer" are better films of this ilk, as are the later "April Fool's Day" (1986) and "American Gothic" (1987). By "ilk," I mean slashers with the milieu of a remote island. "A Bay of Blood" (1971) is another example, although that's set at a bay, yet similar enough.

The flick runs 1 hour, 19 minutes, and was shot at Paradise Cove, Malibu (beach and island scenes), Dana Point Harbor (marina) and San Fernando Valley.

GRADE: C.

My review was written in October 1986 after watching the film on Vestron video cassette.

"Whodunit?" is a very trite slasher film shot in 1981 and finally surfacing for home video fans. Pic's alternate title "Island of Blood" is more appropriate.

Dated horror formula is rigidly adhered to: a group of youngsters arrives at a remote island on the California coast where they expect to act in or provide music for a feature film. Pic's director Franklin Phlem (Ron Gardner) and fast-talking producer Steve Faith (Terry Goodman) arrive for a weekend of rehearsals, during which the cast members are gorily killed off one by one, with a portable cassette player blaring a rock song each time that describes the method of each murder.

Despite the title, film offers little suspense and the final twist (involving the making of a snuff film) is disappointing. Acting and tech credits are weak. Irony is that the awful feature being rehearsed, namely a goody-goody up with people message pic, is subjected to satirical barbs, yet is no worse than the actual feature "Whodunit?".

Not the most inspired slasher; but after a slow start, the practical fx /kills start chugging along at a decent pace, along with a satisfying conclusion. The characters range from likeable to complete one dimensional cardboard cutouts. I'd be very interested to see an uncut HD transfer since most of the film is extremely dark. If you're a slasher / horror aficionado, definitely watch this at least once. It has that comfort food early slasher vibe I dig.

This little-seen early-'80s slasher is fully deserving of its obscurity: the unimaginative by-the-numbers plot sees a group of young film-makers gather on an island where they are bumped off one-by-one by an unseen maniac who likes to play a really bad new wave/punk song on his tape player while he is at work. The acting is basic (one of the actresses can't even blow out a candle convincingly), the direction and editing are clumsy, the characters are all unlikeable, and the dialogue is absolutely terrible (my favourite line: a guy hands a girl a nail gun "Take this - it fires nails like a gun." Talk about stating the obvious!).

To be fair, the deaths are quite nasty in concept, however the majority of the movie takes place in the dark, and many potentially disturbing scenes are hard to make out. A bloke is boiled to death in a swimming pool (the only death that takes place during the day), someone is speared, another guy is attacked with a chainsaw, a man is stabbed by a machete, and a girl taking a (nudity-free) shower is burned by battery acid, but the effects aren't great and gore-hounds will be left disappointed, at least until the final act in which we get to see a couple of the victims a little clearer (a guy's severed head with nails in his face and a girl with nails in her forehead).

In an attempt to differentiate his film from countless other slashers of the time, writer/director Bill Naud chucks in a twist ending that is totally implausible. And if you haven't already had a gutful of that terrible new-wave song (Face to Face by Factor Four), it plays in full over the end credits. Aaarrrgh!

A group of actors arrive at a private island of begin shooting for a movie. They start getting killed off to the words of a punk rock song whose chorus is "Burn me, stab me, chop me, nail me, boil me, saw me" ! If you can look beyond the average acting and mostly poor script the movie is half way decent. It does hold your interest, some of the killings are decent and the song the victims get killed to is catchy! The ending has a good twist too, which I won't give away. Island Of Blood is not a tereffic horror film but it isn't too bad either. Hard core horror fans will not be totally let down. Still most casual fans, won't appreciate the low budget feel to the movie. That is just too bad!! If you are into 70's-80's slasher fare, this one is worth a look.