"Island of the Dead" is a thoroughly disappointing and barely worthwhile creature feature.
**SPOILERS**
Trying to gather case evidence, Sgt. Melissa O'Keefe, (Talisa Soto) heads out to Hart Island, as a graveyard kept there for unclaimed bodies might help her case. While there, she finds that billionaire industrialist Rupert King, (Malcolm McDowell) is also on the island as he begins to turn it into a brand new area for helping the underprivileged in society. While both are out finishing up their actions, they manage to stumble upon a massive swarm of flies living on the island that are infecting them all with a deadly virus that soon has a swarm erupting from within them as well, making most of their escape attempts impossible. Finally getting an idea on how to stop the ever-growing swarm, they put it into action in order to get off the island alive.
The Good News: There's a few things to this one that keeps it going. One of the bigger issues is that there's a couple of actually entertaining attack scenes that are quite well-done, mostly the main attack sequence on the bunker at the end. While not all that graphic, the site of thousands upon thousands of insects buzzing around the complex and their frantic attempts at trying to break through the glass leaves a lot of rather fine points to the sequence, making their eventual break-in all the more fun when it occurs, as well as their escape idea that actually works really well. There's also another good attack scene earlier on, as a set-up, that makes for some really enjoyable times when the swarm emerges over the tree-line in the distance and really puts it into gear following that, from the foot chase through the undergrowth and the attack on the jeep which is a lot of fun. There's a rather cool sequence as well where the swarm attacks a boat while attempting rescue, where the only thing heard is the buzzing followed by the never-ending blaring of the horn, indicating the worst right in front of everyone that is somewhat enjoyable. The only other part that works here is the initial discovery of the dead bodies, where their deformed and rotting bodies suddenly appearing out of nowhere followed by the look make quite an impact. Otherwise, this one isn't all that great.
The Bad News: There was a couple problems with this one. One of the biggest ones is the fact that this one is just so slow-going in the first hour, as it focuses way too much time on the useless subplots that don't even feature into the film all that much. It's nearly an hour into this before there's even one attack, because the first part of the film is consumed by sequences detailing it's two main subplots, the search for the missing child and what the building plans for the site include. The first one has a somewhat important factor and is a little more excusable, but the fact that it's mostly just a never-ending series of scenes of her wandering around the bunker looking over everything or pointless, irritating banter between the workers about her or the task at hand really makes those scenes somewhat intolerable the longer they go on. The second one about the building plans is a novel idea, but the fact that this soon becomes the primary focus is what drives this down, since it usually devolves into pointless bickering between the two or his noticeably frustration at having to be around them, and the cliché of it aside, doesn't really provide any sort way to make the film interesting. These scenes are just utterly boring and quite uninteresting, are just utterly dull and provide nothing for the film at all, despite their potential and makes for some really hard times trying to get into the film from the beginning. Also quite problematic is the fact that there's just no real blood or gore in this one, despite it being a creature feature. Those more accustomed to more violent fare from the genre will get almost nothing in here, as it's bloodless deaths to begin with, edited so as to be completely unseen in the current state or just not there, and then coupled with the fact that there's several stumble-upon-the-bodies scenes to be found is where it gets even worse, not having anything at all to do this with and make for an all-around disappointing area for this. The last flaw in the film is the complete lack of explanation for what the flies are doing in here, as there's nothing to say about them. It completely skips over what they were originally, nothing is mentioned about why they're going on the attack, or what the cause was, and we don't even get an explanation for why they lay eggs inside victims only to have them burst out later, if that is indeed what is happening since it doesn't make it clear that's what happening. There's a couple other minor flaws here, but these are the most noticeable and damaging ones.
The Final Verdict: With only a few things actually worthwhile about this one and a slew of problems, this one is easily a massive let-down. Really only worthwhile for those that like their horror films dry with a touch of drama to the proceedings, while those that are more into other types should heed caution.
Rated R: Graphic Language and Violence
**SPOILERS**
Trying to gather case evidence, Sgt. Melissa O'Keefe, (Talisa Soto) heads out to Hart Island, as a graveyard kept there for unclaimed bodies might help her case. While there, she finds that billionaire industrialist Rupert King, (Malcolm McDowell) is also on the island as he begins to turn it into a brand new area for helping the underprivileged in society. While both are out finishing up their actions, they manage to stumble upon a massive swarm of flies living on the island that are infecting them all with a deadly virus that soon has a swarm erupting from within them as well, making most of their escape attempts impossible. Finally getting an idea on how to stop the ever-growing swarm, they put it into action in order to get off the island alive.
The Good News: There's a few things to this one that keeps it going. One of the bigger issues is that there's a couple of actually entertaining attack scenes that are quite well-done, mostly the main attack sequence on the bunker at the end. While not all that graphic, the site of thousands upon thousands of insects buzzing around the complex and their frantic attempts at trying to break through the glass leaves a lot of rather fine points to the sequence, making their eventual break-in all the more fun when it occurs, as well as their escape idea that actually works really well. There's also another good attack scene earlier on, as a set-up, that makes for some really enjoyable times when the swarm emerges over the tree-line in the distance and really puts it into gear following that, from the foot chase through the undergrowth and the attack on the jeep which is a lot of fun. There's a rather cool sequence as well where the swarm attacks a boat while attempting rescue, where the only thing heard is the buzzing followed by the never-ending blaring of the horn, indicating the worst right in front of everyone that is somewhat enjoyable. The only other part that works here is the initial discovery of the dead bodies, where their deformed and rotting bodies suddenly appearing out of nowhere followed by the look make quite an impact. Otherwise, this one isn't all that great.
The Bad News: There was a couple problems with this one. One of the biggest ones is the fact that this one is just so slow-going in the first hour, as it focuses way too much time on the useless subplots that don't even feature into the film all that much. It's nearly an hour into this before there's even one attack, because the first part of the film is consumed by sequences detailing it's two main subplots, the search for the missing child and what the building plans for the site include. The first one has a somewhat important factor and is a little more excusable, but the fact that it's mostly just a never-ending series of scenes of her wandering around the bunker looking over everything or pointless, irritating banter between the workers about her or the task at hand really makes those scenes somewhat intolerable the longer they go on. The second one about the building plans is a novel idea, but the fact that this soon becomes the primary focus is what drives this down, since it usually devolves into pointless bickering between the two or his noticeably frustration at having to be around them, and the cliché of it aside, doesn't really provide any sort way to make the film interesting. These scenes are just utterly boring and quite uninteresting, are just utterly dull and provide nothing for the film at all, despite their potential and makes for some really hard times trying to get into the film from the beginning. Also quite problematic is the fact that there's just no real blood or gore in this one, despite it being a creature feature. Those more accustomed to more violent fare from the genre will get almost nothing in here, as it's bloodless deaths to begin with, edited so as to be completely unseen in the current state or just not there, and then coupled with the fact that there's several stumble-upon-the-bodies scenes to be found is where it gets even worse, not having anything at all to do this with and make for an all-around disappointing area for this. The last flaw in the film is the complete lack of explanation for what the flies are doing in here, as there's nothing to say about them. It completely skips over what they were originally, nothing is mentioned about why they're going on the attack, or what the cause was, and we don't even get an explanation for why they lay eggs inside victims only to have them burst out later, if that is indeed what is happening since it doesn't make it clear that's what happening. There's a couple other minor flaws here, but these are the most noticeable and damaging ones.
The Final Verdict: With only a few things actually worthwhile about this one and a slew of problems, this one is easily a massive let-down. Really only worthwhile for those that like their horror films dry with a touch of drama to the proceedings, while those that are more into other types should heed caution.
Rated R: Graphic Language and Violence