Omicidi a soggetto

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.

This little-seen early-'80s slasher is fully deserving of its obscurity: the unimaginative by-the-numbers plot sees a group of young film-makers gather on an island where they are bumped off one-by-one by an unseen maniac who likes to play a really bad new wave/punk song on his tape player while he is at work. The acting is basic (one of the actresses can't even blow out a candle convincingly), the direction and editing are clumsy, the characters are all unlikeable, and the dialogue is absolutely terrible (my favourite line: a guy hands a girl a nail gun "Take this - it fires nails like a gun." Talk about stating the obvious!).

To be fair, the deaths are quite nasty in concept, however the majority of the movie takes place in the dark, and many potentially disturbing scenes are hard to make out. A bloke is boiled to death in a swimming pool (the only death that takes place during the day), someone is speared, another guy is attacked with a chainsaw, a man is stabbed by a machete, and a girl taking a (nudity-free) shower is burned by battery acid, but the effects aren't great and gore-hounds will be left disappointed, at least until the final act in which we get to see a couple of the victims a little clearer (a guy's severed head with nails in his face and a girl with nails in her forehead).

In an attempt to differentiate his film from countless other slashers of the time, writer/director Bill Naud chucks in a twist ending that is totally implausible. And if you haven't already had a gutful of that terrible new-wave song (Face to Face by Factor Four), it plays in full over the end credits. Aaarrrgh!

A group of actors arrive at a private island of begin shooting for a movie. They start getting killed off to the words of a punk rock song whose chorus is "Burn me, stab me, chop me, nail me, boil me, saw me" ! If you can look beyond the average acting and mostly poor script the movie is half way decent. It does hold your interest, some of the killings are decent and the song the victims get killed to is catchy! The ending has a good twist too, which I won't give away. Island Of Blood is not a tereffic horror film but it isn't too bad either. Hard core horror fans will not be totally let down. Still most casual fans, won't appreciate the low budget feel to the movie. That is just too bad!! If you are into 70's-80's slasher fare, this one is worth a look.

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!

My review was written in October 1986 after watching the film on Vestron video cassette.

"Whodunit?" is a very trite slasher film shot in 1981 and finally surfacing for home video fans. Pic's alternate title "Island of Blood" is more appropriate.

Dated horror formula is rigidly adhered to: a group of youngsters arrives at a remote island on the California coast where they expect to act in or provide music for a feature film. Pic's director Franklin Phlem (Ron Gardner) and fast-talking producer Steve Faith (Terry Goodman) arrive for a weekend of rehearsals, during which the cast members are gorily killed off one by one, with a portable cassette player blaring a rock song each time that describes the method of each murder.

Despite the title, film offers little suspense and the final twist (involving the making of a snuff film) is disappointing. Acting and tech credits are weak. Irony is that the awful feature being rehearsed, namely a goody-goody up with people message pic, is subjected to satirical barbs, yet is no worse than the actual feature "Whodunit?".