Insel des Terrors

This is the first Troma picture I have seen that is basically a serious horror movie. What I mean is they never get really goofy here. Unfortunately, this probably turned off all the Troma fans out there. Then the title probably got zombie lovers attention and when they see this movie has basically one zombie who is not really involved with the plot they get ticked off and give the movie a one. I had low expectations so that is why I gave it a five. I did not think it was really all that good, but I also did not think it was all that bad. It was a watchable horror movie on an island with a few good kills and an easily predicted plot twist or two. I got this in a pack with two other Troma movies "Blood Hook" and "Blades" and I enjoyed this one the most even though the other two have higher scores. Still I understand why it has such a low score, when you are all set to see a zombie movie and you are not given any you do tend to get angry. I will admit this one would have been better if there were zombies swarming all over the house they take shelter in, but since I read some stuff before I watched it I knew it was not going to be a zombie movie per se.

I'm a big fan of TROMA, and I feel somewhat guilty for saying that this movie is horrible! Terrible acting, terrible plot, terrible f/x, terrible score, and terrible setting. I couldn't watch this movie entirely until a few years ago when USA NETWORK aired it. It's not scary, not gory, and it has no point!! I recommended only for DIE HARD SLASHERS that don't mind visual pain. There you go, if you watch this movie and look for something to save then you can say you are a truly die hard slasher. The thing to save here is that TROMA feeling,it's a low budget but it has its moments of weirdness and some funny lines.

1/10 -Burn it! Flush the ashes

In the early 1980s, Rita Jenrette posed for Playboy and exposed her Congressman husband as a swinger and created a scandal. She tried numerous ways to capitalize on her dubious fame, and one of them was this movie. The best part of this movie is the first ten minutes or so, when Rita is nude taking a bath and making love to her boyfriend.

Rita and her boyfriend go to the Carribean, and take a tourist trip to some voodoo island where they witness a voodoo ritual that is very lame compared to the one with James Bond in Live and Let Die. After the ritual, the various tourists who went there on an old school bus want to get back to their hotel, but the bus is broken down, and the driver is missing.

Meanwhile the Voodoo Priest and the tour guide are making some kind of voodoo pact that involves sacrificing the tourists in order to boost business. Throw in drug dealers and five million dollars in cash, and this movie is a lot more like an episode of MIAMI VICE than a horror movie. No zombies are in this movie.

A group of dolts on a tour of a Caribbean island begin to be stalked & slaughtered by some mysterious person or entity. Only once the group makes it to a secluded estate do they start taking any sort of proactive steps against their assailant.

As others before me have said, actual "zombies" are few & far between in this admittedly exotic horror outing. (The word zombie was added to the title to presumably make it more enticing.) Mostly, what gives this 80s entry into the slasher sweepstakes any stature is the fact that it makes FULL use of then-notorious Rita Jenrette (who plays Sandy). She was a congressmans' wife who capitalized on her 15 minutes of fame by posing for Playboy and then appearing in this cheap & sleazy schlock movie. (If you do love movies like this for the sex appeal, you can take some satisfaction in the bare flesh quotient, with Ms. Jenrette doing a gratuitous shower scene in the opening minutes.)

Overall, the movie is on the boring side, although it *does* have a unique get-up for the killer, doles out a bit of gore, and features a VERY familiar-sounding score by "Friday the 13th" series composer Harry Manfredini. The cast isn't altogether bad, if also on the nondescript side. David Broadnax, who plays no-nonsense tough guy photographer Paul, was also the "presenter", a producer, and the story author, and gives one of the better performances.

If you're an 80s slasher junkie, you *will* find some things to enjoy here, with the director / editor (John N. Carter) bringing some atmosphere to the proceedings.

Four out of 10.

Seriously do yourself a favour and learn from my mistake, just watch the trailer and skip the movie! Every interesting / good moment is in the trailer! This is an early Troma movie, and a bad one at that. Very little zombies, very little massacre and a bit of some island? It's super boring with a non existent plot, drab characters and nonsensical dialogue. There is some occasional nudity but that is not enough to save this movie. I spent 75% of this shopping on Amazon! The trailer is really good and is totally misleading in that it makes it out to be action packed, it is not, it's peoples conversing and wandering through the forest for an eternity! Skip it! Trust me!