Island of the Dead

Rating:
Summary: Excellent idea with flawed/poor execution.
Review: Island of the Dead is one of those bad movies that I still find something to like about because I just find the concept so interesting/promising. Multi-millionaire developer Rupert King (Malcolm McDowell) has engineered a new low income housing community for the homeless of New York City to be built on Hart Island. Hart Island (a real place) is the Potter's Field of New York, where the homeless and lost are buried in mass graves. What no one realizes is that King has darker motives (linked to his ties with medical research) in store for the future residents of Hope City. Meanwhile a Missing Persons detective (Talisa Soto in a wasted role) is tracking down the last victim of 'The Double Dutch Killings' in hopes of laying to rest the haunting image of the dead girls skipping rope. This is a hope that most of the audience will share, as we see the trio skipping rope and chanting a morbid little ditty over and over and over and over again. Sadly screenwriters Tim Southam (who also directed) and Peter Koper (who came up with the promising idea) fail to develop these two storylines or the characters and their subplots in any great detail. This forces director Southam to pad the movie with far too many 'atmospheric' music montages and gives co-star Talisa Soto nothing to do but look sullen and haunted (this after giving her character an intriguing introduction, pity). Sadly the 'vengeful fury of the dead' is unleashed via a hord of illness inducing insects (as opposed to simple zombies) with little information given to the viewer as to why it is happening. One or two ghostly spectres or whispering voices would have helped, so you can add the trio of little girls to the list of missed opportunities. What this movie badly needed was a major reworking of its core story elements, especially in regards to the supernatural aspects in the second and third acts, then, perhaps, it might have been better. If you really want to depress yourself, just think what Terence Fisher, Jimmy Sangster (or John Elder), Peter Cushing, and Christopher Lee could have done with this material back in the glory days of Hammer Studios. So it goes.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent idea with flawed/poor execution.
Review: Island of the Dead is one of those bad movies that I still find something to like about because I just find the concept so interesting/promising. Multi-millionaire developer Rupert King (Malcolm McDowell) has engineered a new low income housing community for the homeless of New York City to be built on Hart Island. Hart Island (a real place) is the Potter's Field of New York, where the homeless and lost are buried in mass graves. What no one realizes is that King has darker motives (linked to his ties with medical research) in store for the future residents of Hope City. Meanwhile a Missing Persons detective (Talisa Soto in a wasted role) is tracking down the last victim of 'The Double Dutch Killings' in hopes of laying to rest the haunting image of the dead girls skipping rope. This is a hope that most of the audience will share, as we see the trio skipping rope and chanting a morbid little ditty over and over and over and over again. Sadly screenwriters Tim Southam (who also directed) and Peter Koper (who came up with the promising idea) fail to develop these two storylines or the characters and their subplots in any great detail. This forces director Southam to pad the movie with far too many 'atmospheric' music montages and gives co-star Talisa Soto nothing to do but look sullen and haunted (this after giving her character an intriguing introduction, pity). Sadly the 'vengeful fury of the dead' is unleashed via a hord of illness inducing insects (as opposed to simple zombies) with little information given to the viewer as to why it is happening. One or two ghostly spectres or whispering voices would have helped, so you can add the trio of little girls to the list of missed opportunities. What this movie badly needed was a major reworking of its core story elements, especially in regards to the supernatural aspects in the second and third acts, then, perhaps, it might have been better. If you really want to depress yourself, just think what Terence Fisher, Jimmy Sangster (or John Elder), Peter Cushing, and Christopher Lee could have done with this material back in the glory days of Hammer Studios. So it goes.

Rating:
Summary: ARTSY FARTSY BUT EERIE AS WELL
Review: Okay, I agree that the overused shots of the jump roping got old real fast, and it never really did explain itself, other than haunting the missing persons detective. But I credit director Tim Southam on his use of atmosphere and the rarity of not really showing the flies. Just the jerky camera work and the sound of the flies gave a pervasive feel. Some haunting, if unnecessary imagery. And the big question too remains: if the flies only wanted Malcolm MacDowell's character, why did they kill off everyone else?
McDowell does well in his role; Talissa Soto plays the cop who was an orphan, adopted by Irish parents, which explains her Italian accent; Bruce Ramsay did a good job as Tony, the wrongly convicted felon; and surprisingly Keith McQuaid as the jittery inmate and rapper Mos Def as a typical jive man were quite good and entertaining. A big complaint though: what was it with the slow mo introduction to the mayor accompanied by that awful noise we call rap, performed no less by Mr. Def? It obviously was inserted to attract teens I'm sure, but artistically it was brutally inappropriate. I give it the four stars for the intense brooding atmosphere, and the old chestnut that says there is more terror in implied horror than in gross out.
Not a gem, but a different and recommended thriller.

Rating:
Summary: ARTSY FARTSY BUT EERIE AS WELL
Review: Okay, I agree that the overused shots of the jump roping got old real fast, and it never really did explain itself, other than haunting the missing persons detective. But I credit director Tim Southam on his use of atmosphere and the rarity of not really showing the flies. Just the jerky camera work and the sound of the flies gave a pervasive feel. Some haunting, if unnecessary imagery. And the big question too remains: if the flies only wanted Malcolm MacDowell's character, why did they kill off everyone else?
McDowell does well in his role; Talissa Soto plays the cop who was an orphan, adopted by Irish parents, which explains her Italian accent; Bruce Ramsay did a good job as Tony, the wrongly convicted felon; and surprisingly Keith McQuaid as the jittery inmate and rapper Mos Def as a typical jive man were quite good and entertaining. A big complaint though: what was it with the slow mo introduction to the mayor accompanied by that awful noise we call rap, performed no less by Mr. Def? It obviously was inserted to attract teens I'm sure, but artistically it was brutally inappropriate. I give it the four stars for the intense brooding atmosphere, and the old chestnut that says there is more terror in implied horror than in gross out.
Not a gem, but a different and recommended thriller.

Rating:
Summary: "Uhhh.......whens the good part coming"
Review: SUCKED!!!!! A guy buys an Island that is used to bury John Does, and other unknown people, to put up some place to help the homeless. Then, here comes the scariest part, a bunch of flies scare em away. I thought this was gonna be at least a semi-decent zombie film, but I was SOOOOOOOOOOO wrong. What happens? (counting), 5-6 people die by FLIES. Oooooh scary. This movie pisses me off. DONT BUY IT!!!!!! I waited an hour for something some what interesting to happen and the movies like an Hour and a half long. SUCKED!!!!! if I could have given it -1000000000000000000000001 stars I would. Oh yeah, if anyone wants to buy this from me for 6 bucks contact me through my e-mail.

Rating:
Summary: The Worst Movie Ever
Review: Terrible, terrible, terrible. Not much else to say about this lame excuse for a movie. Terrible creativity, disgusting scenes, call it what you want, but after me and my friends finished watching I said "So, you guys want me to put this in the trash?"

Rating:
Summary: Great Premise...
Review: This movie (like so many other horror movies) Started off great! It seemed so interesting. But the last 35 minutes was a complete waist of time! I was so frustrated because it initially gave me high hopes but alas save your money!!!

Rating:
Summary: Great Premise...
Review: This movie forces one to pose that age-old question: why do terrific actors like Malcolm McDowell make these kinds of sub par movies? The basic premise has potential: take an island harboring what is left of the remains of almost a million of society's castaways, bring in a ruthless businessman determined to remake the island into a "Hope City" for the poor and homeless (while secretly pursuing his own less magnanimous plans for the future population), have the dead somehow put their ethereal foot down in opposition, and wait for all the fun to happen. Alas, these dead souls are a rather lazy, unimaginative lot choosing to manifest themselves as worms and bugs-sure, the bugs are really, really annoyed and aggressive, but they're still just bugs. I would hope that any future manifestations of my own future dead self will be much more noteworthy. It's cool to see dead bodies bloated and bursting with creepy crawlies mere hours after death, but this is the sort of thing one tends to view as a precursor of more ambitious tragedies to come, not as a be all and end all in itself. In case you think all the worm stuff sounds incredibly gross, it really isn't. While there are plenty of maggots bursting forth from chests and stomachs, there is not even one good mouth-exiting maggot shot to satisfy horror fans like myself who sort of expect that type of thing from a movie like this.

The fact that I didn't like two of the most important characters also didn't help my enjoyment of this movie. You have a tough lady cop who investigates missing children, but she has sort of an attitude, and the whole missing children theme seemed nothing more than a ruse for explaining why she was out on Hart Island in the first place (and the images of three presumably formerly missing girls jumping rope every ten minutes became utterly annoying). Then there is the convict working funeral duty who complains about being arrested and beaten up unjustly; one uncharacteristic bit of aggressive dialogue from him soured me on his good graces. There is one great character that provides a lot of much-needed humor during the first half of the film, for which I thank him. Finally, we have Malcolm McDowell, who does deliver a typically fine performance in a role he could not have been enthused over; of course, playing a twisted, uncaring millionaire isn't the kind of role one has to master Stanislavsky's techniques in order to pull off. When all is said and done, this movie fails to deliver the types of creeps and thrills its title obviously brings to mind, and the characters are too shallow to merit much attention. It's not bad or unwatchable, but there is just nothing about it that demands your attention or gory indulgence.

Rating:
Summary: The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out
Review: This movie forces one to pose that age-old question: why do terrific actors like Malcolm McDowell make these kinds of sub par movies? The basic premise has potential: take an island harboring what is left of the remains of almost a million of society's castaways, bring in a ruthless businessman determined to remake the island into a "Hope City" for the poor and homeless (while secretly pursuing his own less magnanimous plans for the future population), have the dead somehow put their ethereal foot down in opposition, and wait for all the fun to happen. Alas, these dead souls are a rather lazy, unimaginative lot choosing to manifest themselves as worms and bugs-sure, the bugs are really, really annoyed and aggressive, but they're still just bugs. I would hope that any future manifestations of my own future dead self will be much more noteworthy. It's cool to see dead bodies bloated and bursting with creepy crawlies mere hours after death, but this is the sort of thing one tends to view as a precursor of more ambitious tragedies to come, not as a be all and end all in itself. In case you think all the worm stuff sounds incredibly gross, it really isn't. While there are plenty of maggots bursting forth from chests and stomachs, there is not even one good mouth-exiting maggot shot to satisfy horror fans like myself who sort of expect that type of thing from a movie like this.

The fact that I didn't like two of the most important characters also didn't help my enjoyment of this movie. You have a tough lady cop who investigates missing children, but she has sort of an attitude, and the whole missing children theme seemed nothing more than a ruse for explaining why she was out on Hart Island in the first place (and the images of three presumably formerly missing girls jumping rope every ten minutes became utterly annoying). Then there is the convict working funeral duty who complains about being arrested and beaten up unjustly; one uncharacteristic bit of aggressive dialogue from him soured me on his good graces. There is one great character that provides a lot of much-needed humor during the first half of the film, for which I thank him. Finally, we have Malcolm McDowell, who does deliver a typically fine performance in a role he could not have been enthused over; of course, playing a twisted, uncaring millionaire isn't the kind of role one has to master Stanislavsky's techniques in order to pull off. When all is said and done, this movie fails to deliver the types of creeps and thrills its title obviously brings to mind, and the characters are too shallow to merit much attention. It's not bad or unwatchable, but there is just nothing about it that demands your attention or gory indulgence.

Rating:
Summary: BAD BAD BAD movie!
Review: Watched this tripe last night. I heard supposed good things about it when they were making it. BAD BAD BAD movie! Children of the Dead level of bad.

First off, Talisa Soto is one fine looking specimen, but she's aged to a point where she can't pull off either Lara Croft or Vampirella, both of which were modeling gigs she had when she was younger. She even played Vampirella in the horrible movie version with Roger Daltrey as the heavy.

I don't know what they thought they were doing when they made this movie. The locale, Harts Island, is sufficiently creepy. A million bodies, mostly of the indigent have been buried there and should make for a good creepfest, except it isn't used much.

The bad guys are flies which are never seen clearly, although sometimes their perspective is employed by jerky camera moves that detract very strongly from the story. These jerk action moves are very obviously done on a tripod as all the jerks are across one direction or span. Whats more, the actual cinematography is poor. Sometimes, there would be a sweep across abandonned buildings (which we are told in an interesting story onc e housed the quarantined sick and then, later, the mad. This plotline is never brought up again) that goes right to left and then, inexplicably reversed halfway. Bad filming.

The flies themselves are laughable and there is no gore worth watching.

We should have a separate discussion about any movie starring Malcolm "If-Theres-A-Check-Involved-I-am-So-There" McDowell. He phones in his performance, pretty much like he's done in every movie since Tank Girl (last decent performance from him that I saw).

It has NOTHING to do with the Dead Universe, despite the title. Some people do die but their deaths are ridiculous.

The only person worth watching was the island manager, who actually was kind of interesting. I've never seen him before, have no idea what his name is, but he was pretty cool.

Mos Def is also in the movie, for the inane rap music connection.