Fear Island

The police find an amnesic young woman alone in an island with a large knife covered in blood and her six friends murdered. Detective Armory (Martin Cummins) suspects that she kills her friends but the psychiatrist Dr. Jamie Chalice (Anne Marie DeLuise) tells him that she is in shock and need to be treated. Sooner she recalls her name, Jenna (Haylie Duff), and Detective Armory calls her parents that are in Cambodia.

While they are traveling back home, Jenna tells what had happened to the group of friends. The former skeptic Detective Armory fells sorry for Jenna, but Dr. Chalice feels that her story has many inconsistencies and something might be wrong.

"Fear Island" is a boring film with lame story, screenplay, narrative and characters. The plot is absolutely predictable and dull; the screenplay is also terrible, with a tedious narrative; but the characters are the worst, most of them non likable with the exception of Dr. Chalice. Detective Armory, for example, is a cliché of a police detective. This plot could be a reasonable short but not a feature. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): "Pânico na Ilha" ("Panic in the Island")

A group of 4 young men and 3 women decide to take a boat to their favorite island vacation hangout. Once they reach the cabin and settle in members of their group begin to die off one by one. So much for the plot which has been played and replayed numerous times in the past. Even so, this particular film was told in a unique manner which managed to keep the film at least somewhat entertaining. For example, the lone survivor was a woman named "Jenna" (Haylie Duff) who was rescued by the police and suffers from amnesia. So she tells the story in a series of flashbacks. Now, normally when the "flashback technique" is used it tends to take away from the mystery of the film. Fortunately, this wasn't the case as there were many unexpected twists and turns as the story evolved. There isn't much horror or suspense. Neither was there any gratuitous sex or nudity. The acting was mediocre, the dialogue was weak and the special effects were nowhere to be seen. But the mystery keeps it together long enough for an unexpected ending which manages to tie everything up rather nicely. In short, if you're looking for an exciting horror film then you might be disappointed. All things considered I rate is as average.

The film starts out with a girl being found on an island. Later she's interrogated by police and starts to explain what happened...

Seen any horror films where the introductory elements feature either someone telling the story secondhand, a psychologist/phychiatrist or mental asylum? Any recent ones?

Congratulations, you could probably guess how this movie turns out, because you've seen this overused twist before.

But there's more - emulating "House of the Dead", we're already told the other characters died, meaning even this in-story story has an obvious outcome.

Well everythings predictable, at least gorehounds have something worth watching... actually wait, the kills usually happen offscreen.

This is basically another story of a group of young people who head off to have a good time but find themselves stalked by a maniacal killer. The story is told by flashback, as the sole survivor relates what happened on the secluded island the group had sailed to. So the overall story isn't especially original. It is, however, a pretty good mystery, and there's no obvious solution to the mystery until rather late in the movie - and, even then, what seems to be the solution has an unexpected twist thrown in. The performances in the movie are decent - perhaps a bit better than what you normally find in these movies. Because it is so unoriginal, the whole thing seems to drag a bit at times as you wait for the mystery to be revealed. So, there's nothing especially noteworthy about this. It's OK, but the story has been basically told before - and many times before.

Jenna (Haylie Duff) is found alive and with amnesia. Detective Armory (Martin Cummins) and Dr. Chalice (Anne Marie DeLuise) investigate the six dead and Jenna slowly recalls the events. Jenna and four friends (Aaron Ashmore, Kyle Schmid, Jessica Harmon, Jacob Blair) sail to an isolated island house. The island caretaker Keith finds 15 year old Megan (Lucy Hale) stowaway on their boat.

This is not scary, and that's the first thing I look for in a horror. The basic story of young hot people in an isolated location is nothing special. It could be a reasonable TV B-movie, but the no thrills kills won't get many horror fans excited. The problem is the wrapped-in-a-flashback-retelling construction. It takes away all the tension. And whether she's telling the truth or not, Haylie Duff just takes away all the excitement. I didn't care about Jenna or her story.