Island of Blood

A producer, director and seven cast members meet on a small isle off the coast of SoCal to make a movie, hosted by a curmudgeonly recluse. People immediately start dying in dubious ways. Who's the killer and why is he or she murdering them?

"Island of Blood" (1982), also known as "Whodunit" and "Scared Alive," is an obscure early 80's slasher that starts well enough with a little droll humor and Bari Suber being notable on the feminine front as BJ (her only role as an actress). Marie-Alise Recasner is also effective as Donna.

Unfortunately, there's not enough human interest to hold one's attention as the characters are cardboard. Worse, the second half devolves into dull chase/assault sequences in the dark and, mostly, inside a schoolhouse. The ending is quite good, however; a nice surprise.

The contemporaneous "Humongous" (1982) and "The Slayer" are better films of this ilk, as are the later "April Fool's Day" (1986) and "American Gothic" (1987). By "ilk," I mean slashers with the milieu of a remote island. "A Bay of Blood" (1971) is another example, although that's set at a bay, yet similar enough.

The flick runs 1 hour, 19 minutes, and was shot at Paradise Cove, Malibu (beach and island scenes), Dana Point Harbor (marina) and San Fernando Valley.

GRADE: C.

Another worthy entry in the seemingly endless list of horrible 80's slashers, "Scared Alive" (a.k.a. "Island of Blood" and a.k.a. "Whodunit") is a wondrously inept and totally redundant low-budget flick with all the right ingredients: a senseless basic premise, unmemorable characters, a complete absence of logic, laughable dialogs, various but totally non-shocking killing methods and one remotely ingenious little gimmick (a constantly repeated rock song of which the lyrics reveal how the next victim will die a gruesome death). The movie starts with a bunch of idiots (= aspiring actors/actresses) gathering on an island, allegedly to start shooting a movie after the weekend when the rest of the technical crew arrives. None of them has a clue what the movie will be about, why they were selected or what they will do on this geographically isolated island location for the rest of the weekend, but hey, that's totally normal right? Then, and luckily quite fast and at a regular pace, they're being picked off one by one by an unseen killer. His/her curious modus operandi involves hanging a walkman somewhere near to the next victim that is repeatedly playing the same song entitled "Face to Face". The singer states with what weapon the character is going to get killed, resulting in a boy drowning in a pool filled with boiling water ("Boil me! Boil me!), a poor girl showering in battery acid ("Burn me! Burn me!), another poor chick getting her face nail-gunned to the wall ("Nail me! Nail me!) etc … Some of the murder sequences are wickedly entertaining, but overall seen is "Scared Alive" just another very dumb and forgettable slasher. The attempts to mislead the viewer and throw in red herrings fail miserably and literally none of the characters deserves a bit of sympathy. The idea behind the unforeseeable "twist-at-the-end" is rather admirable, but still very implausible and badly processed. I also think the make-up artists were all schizophrenic, as some murders are illustrated quite sick and explicitly, whereas certain others are lame and occurring off-screen. Let's just conclude it's a really bizarre and amateurish slasher movie only intended for avid genre fanatics. Oh, and the complete lack of nudity – especially with one shower sequence and one alleged sex sequence - is unforgivable!

A film crew set out for an island that will be the perfect location for their positive comedy/crap movie.Unfortunately the unknown killer starts slaughtering them with the aid of a chainsaw,machete,acid and nail gun whilst catchy punk song "Face to Face" is playing in the background.Very entertaining and watchable slasher based on Agatha Christie's famous novel "And Then There Were None".The song "Face to Face" is fantastic and it's played about a hundred times,so you will remember it long after the film is over.Someone's killing our crew members according to the lyrics.The acting is flat,the night scenes are badly lit and the script is routine,but after watching "A Serbian Film" I enjoyed loopy final twist of "Island of Blood" even more.A generous 7 out of 10.

Not the most inspired slasher; but after a slow start, the practical fx /kills start chugging along at a decent pace, along with a satisfying conclusion. The characters range from likeable to complete one dimensional cardboard cutouts. I'd be very interested to see an uncut HD transfer since most of the film is extremely dark. If you're a slasher / horror aficionado, definitely watch this at least once. It has that comfort food early slasher vibe I dig.

A group of either annoying or bland actors are taken to an island to film a low budget movie and are killed, one by one, by someone obsessed with the lyrics of a punk rock song a la And Then There Were None.

It's not the concept of Island of Blood that's bad, but the execution is as uninspired as murder mysteries can get. It's impossible to feel anything for the victims as they're barely given names let alone character development and even though some of the murder scenes try to be a little creative, that's about the only thing I could recommend this film for. If you're interested in seeing a guy boiled alive in a pool, a guy getting a spear through his eye, and a woman being brunt with battery acid while showering, go ahead and give it a shot, but keep your finger on the fast forward button for everything in between.