Ta Pedhia tou Dhiavolou, or Island of Perversion, Cruel Destination, A Craving for Lust, Devils in Myknonos & the more common Island of Death as it's also known under, starts with a young seemingly happy & very much in love married couple named Christopher (Robert Behling as Bob Belling) & Celia (Jayne Ryall) arriving by boat on the small Greek island of Mykonos. In an accompanying narration Christopher describes Mykonos as 'nothing more than a deserted rock, white houses & small narrow streets. 365 Churches, a place where they worship God... a perfect place.' They rent a room in a boarding house & to the locals appear to be tourists enjoying a holiday with each other. The first thing Christopher & Celia decide to do is have sex in a public phone box & phone their Mother up so she can listen to them, you see Christopher & Celia are in fact Brother & Sister... At the same time a mysterious man named Foster who has tapped the phone now knows where Christopher & Celia are & orders a plane ticket to Greece. That night while eating out in a restaurant they meet & introduce themselves to a man named Jean-Claude who is on Mykonos to paint an old chapel. The next day Celia visits Jean-Claude & has sex with him while her Brother Christopher takes photographs, once they have finished Christopher & Celia brutally murder Jean-Claude & throw his body into the sea. Christopher is basically a loony who believes in punishing perversion in the name of God, he decides to rid Mykonos of all the perversion he finds even though he himself isn't exactly a saint as you can probably tell...
This Greek production was written, produced & directed Nico Mastorakis who also is credited with the films songs & has a small uncredited role as a novelist, I thought Ta Pedhia tou Dhiavolou is a fine of example of how to make a cheap exploitation film. The script moves along at a fair pace & is generally entertaining throughout with some bizarre situations arising. However, the only consistent characters throughout are Christopher & Celia, there are no other meaningful characters in Ta Pedhia tou Dhiavolou. People are introduced only to be killed or have sex & as a result the entire film is based around Chrstopher & Celia with no other plot threads anywhere to be found. I mean Foster for instance, both Christopher & Celia seem almost afraid of him but we never find out the connection between them. There is plenty in Ta Pedhia tou Dhiavolou to offend people with delicate moral sensibilities & it definitely doesn't neglect the exploitation elements, gay, lesbian & straight sex, hard drug usage, a fairly tame golden shower scene, beatings, rape, torture, murder, bestiality & incest, it's all here folks. One thing I must say is that I actually didn't think much of what happened in Ta Pedhia tou Dhiavolou was particularly graphic, the thought of what was taking place probably has more impact than what is shown on screen like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) which also shows very little. That's not to say these things don't happen on screen but they end up looking a bit comical at times especially the bit with Christopher having sex with the Goat, & taking each sequence on it's own they're not overly explicit. There is very little in the way of blood & gore, there are brief scenes of someone having their face burnt with a flaming aerosol spray, a decapitation by bulldozer blade, someone having nails hammered into their hands, someone being impaled on a sickle & someone being slashed with a sword & that's about it. On the other hand there is lots of nudity & sex which I found became rather repetitive after a while. Director Mastorakis occasionally manages to capture the atmosphere of Mykonos with various montages of everyday life that pop up every now & again, other than that Ta Pedhia tou Dhiavolou could be set just about anywhere but the Greek location is nice generally speaking & is just that bit different, I'm not sure why no one speaks Greek though. The photography is cheap & basic but it is definitely professional enough & adds to the overall feel. The acting is fairly poor from all involved but it's OK considering, I've seen worse. One thing I found strange is that even though lots happen I found myself becoming quite bored of it by the end, as I've said there are no other developed characters besides Christopher & Celia or sub-plots & that's probably the reason why I started to loose interest. One more thing I must mention is the truly awful songs throughout credited to Mastorakis, they're absolutely hideous & really got on my nerves to the extent every time one started to play I switched my T.V. to mute... Ta Pedhia tou Dhiavolou is a good exploitation film & one of my favourites, but it isn't for everyone & wasn't quite as good as I'd remembered. An absolute must for exploitation & horror fans, everyone else should think carefully first as it's certainly an acquired taste.
This Greek production was written, produced & directed Nico Mastorakis who also is credited with the films songs & has a small uncredited role as a novelist, I thought Ta Pedhia tou Dhiavolou is a fine of example of how to make a cheap exploitation film. The script moves along at a fair pace & is generally entertaining throughout with some bizarre situations arising. However, the only consistent characters throughout are Christopher & Celia, there are no other meaningful characters in Ta Pedhia tou Dhiavolou. People are introduced only to be killed or have sex & as a result the entire film is based around Chrstopher & Celia with no other plot threads anywhere to be found. I mean Foster for instance, both Christopher & Celia seem almost afraid of him but we never find out the connection between them. There is plenty in Ta Pedhia tou Dhiavolou to offend people with delicate moral sensibilities & it definitely doesn't neglect the exploitation elements, gay, lesbian & straight sex, hard drug usage, a fairly tame golden shower scene, beatings, rape, torture, murder, bestiality & incest, it's all here folks. One thing I must say is that I actually didn't think much of what happened in Ta Pedhia tou Dhiavolou was particularly graphic, the thought of what was taking place probably has more impact than what is shown on screen like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) which also shows very little. That's not to say these things don't happen on screen but they end up looking a bit comical at times especially the bit with Christopher having sex with the Goat, & taking each sequence on it's own they're not overly explicit. There is very little in the way of blood & gore, there are brief scenes of someone having their face burnt with a flaming aerosol spray, a decapitation by bulldozer blade, someone having nails hammered into their hands, someone being impaled on a sickle & someone being slashed with a sword & that's about it. On the other hand there is lots of nudity & sex which I found became rather repetitive after a while. Director Mastorakis occasionally manages to capture the atmosphere of Mykonos with various montages of everyday life that pop up every now & again, other than that Ta Pedhia tou Dhiavolou could be set just about anywhere but the Greek location is nice generally speaking & is just that bit different, I'm not sure why no one speaks Greek though. The photography is cheap & basic but it is definitely professional enough & adds to the overall feel. The acting is fairly poor from all involved but it's OK considering, I've seen worse. One thing I found strange is that even though lots happen I found myself becoming quite bored of it by the end, as I've said there are no other developed characters besides Christopher & Celia or sub-plots & that's probably the reason why I started to loose interest. One more thing I must mention is the truly awful songs throughout credited to Mastorakis, they're absolutely hideous & really got on my nerves to the extent every time one started to play I switched my T.V. to mute... Ta Pedhia tou Dhiavolou is a good exploitation film & one of my favourites, but it isn't for everyone & wasn't quite as good as I'd remembered. An absolute must for exploitation & horror fans, everyone else should think carefully first as it's certainly an acquired taste.