On a foggy island off the east coast of Ireland, the Phillips Laboratories research facility tries to cure cancer and instead accidentally creates monsters that liquefy people’s bones and then drink their skeletons, leaving behind squishy piles of dead Irishmen. This movie ran as a double-bill with The Projected Man, and like that film it could be watched seriously or it could be MST3K-fodder. I rather enjoy it, and yet I could see how someone would think it’s utter schlock. If stars Peter Cushing and if you’ve seen any of the Hammer Films that would be dreadful if not for his screen presence, then you know how he elevates the material.
This is your 1960s Ireland. People in sweaters and longcoats talking wistfully of getting phones installed someday, so when they need to notify the constable they have to walk to his house where he’s at his roll-top desk by a roaring fire. The constable bicycles out to find the missing man with a flashlight (sorry, “torch”) and finds a dead body in a cave. (Perhaps the most realistic cave in a movie, inasmuch as the entrance is covered in graffiti.) They only have one boat on the island, and they have to build a signal fire just in case they happen to fly back to the island. (Seriously, with no phone to contact him about whether they’ll be flying or not, the constable just waits by a fire in the fog the whole time. Perhaps this isn’t so much a true portrayal of the time period and just wishful thinking about setting up an inhospitable, inescapable island…rather like today how every horror movie today is set in a dead zone that can’t get cell service.) It’s such an alien setting to the world of today that that alone makes it fun. No phones, no Internet, nobody can afford a boat, and all the power comes from a generator, which places everyone at a great inconvenience when the island becomes overrun with bone-sucking creatures that multiply every six hours.
In rewatching the film before writing this, I discovered that Island of Terror was rated by the British Board of Film Censors as only to be shown to people 16 and older. That’s amazing to me, because I think 12-year-olds would love it. What little blood there is is so obviously phony, and yet the utter seriousness of the characters offsets the campy-ness of the late 1960s era.
I mean, there’s a moment where a character gets attacked and, faced with a wretched death of getting his bones drank by a tentacled monster, nods for his friend to chop off his hand. It is a dire scene, well-played by excellent actors. And not one person in 100 would believe that the mannequin hand that separates from the arm with a spurt of ketchup-red blood is real, but they pull it off. So if you’re the type who would roll their eyes and mock the stupid special effects, this movie isn’t for you. If you would be amazed that they did such a gruesome moment in a 1960s film, that they went for the guy taking an ax to his friend to save his life rather than just yanking away the tentacle or the monster finds he’s the wrong blood-type or some other easy way out, then you should watch this one. Really, it’s one of the movie’s best moments, and I don’t think I’ve spoiled it too much.
Perhaps it’s the sex in addition to all the horror that pushes the rating? Not that there’s any sex! There’s mention of sex, or rather implications of sex. To be blunt, it’s plainly obvious that the two unmarried individuals are carrying on, without ever really saying it. You either regard this as boundary-pushing for the time or incredibly quaint. And I just love how oblivious Peter Cushing’s character is to the two lovebirds’ intentions. (Really, it’s the kind of thing that might go over younger viewers’ heads and yet be so blatant to others.)
There is a moment that typifies the tone here. It is perhaps the most non-sordid reference to a threesome ever put to film.
I like movies of this era. They tackle gruesome topics but the horror is mostly in your imagination. They don’t show every person being consumed onscreen. One wonders what this movie would be like if it were made today.
As I said before, if you’re the type of person who can watch an old Dr. Who episode and see the monster as dangerous and not an obvious rubber and cardboard costume, if you can watch Flash Gordon without saying “You can see the strings!”, then “Island of Terror” is for you.
