O Monstro da Ilha

Humongous (1982)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

This film starts off as a woman is violently raped by a drunk man. The man is eventually killed by the woman's German Shepard and this our story fast-forwards thirty-six years. In the current time, a group of teens head off to the island where this woman's story has become somewhat of a myth and once there they come under attack by a deformed monster.

HUMONGOUS isn't the greatest horror film you're ever going to see but there's quite a bit to like here. Director Paul Lynch was coming off the Canadian slasher PROM NIGHT when he did this picture and it's quite interesting to see how this pretty much avoids the various trappings that you'd expect from a horror film of this era. For starters, if you're wanting gore or mindless violence then you're certainly not going to get it here considering that most of the violence happens off screen.

The violence is off screen? Yep and that's just one reason why I said this here isn't your typical slasher. The film doesn't go for cheap gore but instead it tries to build up an atmosphere as well as a scary story. The story here is like one of those legends that you tell around the campfire and for the most part I thought the director did a very good job at showing off this side of things and the story itself was an interesting one. The film contained some pretty good atmosphere and especially once we get to the island and the teens are wondering around in the dark.

The performances are pretty good from the entire cast and they certainly make you like and care for the people. Again, they're mostly killed off camera but this actually helps build up some of the mystery as to what's going on. I'm really not sure how much of the mystery was supposed to be a secret because the opening segment makes it quite clear who is going to be doing the killings. Technically speaking the film is well-made and it's certainly not like most films from this period. With that said, there's really not too much that happens during a lot of the running time so a bit more would have kept the film moving a tad bit better.

I very much enjoyed Humongous. Yes, it's dark, yes, it's slow, but it's honest. The story is unlikely but plausible. The acting is sufficient to convey the story, and even good by Janet Julian. I immediately contrasted it with Last House on the Left... gritty and plausible, good stuff done by talented amateurs. It is best seen on a TV/monitor with the brightness turned way up.

It is easy to overlook slasher horror of that period due to production quality or unknown performers, but, the early 80s was a boom time with VHS/beta reaching market and semi-professional gear coming to market. With the advances came a greater variety of scripts and interpretation, tho perhaps without the backing of large studios or with less finesse. Don't be so shallow as to overlook them, for they seem to have had quite an influence on the diversity of fringe cinema today.

Give humongous a go if you're a fan of the genre.

In 1946, a woman is raped during a party on her father's island. Her dogs come to the rescue, viciously attacking her attacker.

More than thirty years later, two brothers, their sister, and their two girlfriends go out on their large boat on a large lake. One of the brothers is a rather disturbed individual, who fires a gun he has nearly pointed at his brother at point-blank range, among other things. They have some trouble navigating the boat at night, and come across someone stranded in his boat. They bring him aboard, and he's grateful. He tells them about the island they are near, where a crazy old lady lives with lots of dogs.

The psycho brother decides he wants to try driving the boat at night, though they had anchored already. He grabs his gun when they try to stop him. The boat runs aground and blows up, landing everyone on the island.

Though they had heard dogs barking, the only dogs them come across are skeletons. There's no sign of the old lady, and someone starts killing them off. It's no secret that the killer is the old lady's son, the son of the rapist, presumably. Though we never get a good look at him, a diary they find indicates he has acromegaly. Having that doesn't make a person a monster (André the Giant and Rondo Hatton, among others, had that condition). Evidently he is brain-damaged as well, or severely screwed up because of the way his mother raised him.

The movie is pretty derivative. I've seen quite a few movies where at some point a young woman pretends to be a killer's mother to try to save herself, for example. At a couple points, the good brother, his girlfriend, and his sister reminded me of Fred, Daphne, and Velma, respectively, from Scooby-Doo.

Many of the scenes take place at nighttime, and on the videotape, yes the picture is often almost completely or completely black. Evidently this was not true when the film had been projected, so it is probably a matter of a bad transfer.

Most of the reviews would have you believe that this is completely terrible, but actually it's not such a bad effort. It's predictable, to be sure, but directed with more skill than you'd expect, with a score that reminded me (in a good way) of Italian horror movies of the period, and a cute, fairly smart heroine in Janet Julian. Reports of it being "too dark" are true to a degree, but greatly exaggerated; have you seen the much better-known "Hell Night"? (**)

A woman is raped, but her attacker is devoured by dogs. Several decades later, a group of teens arrive on the island, but fall victim to a humongous, deformed mutant; the result of the rape. Starts out interestingly enough, but quickly goes downhill with cliched characters and routine script. It's biggest problem though is it's awful lighting and you never ever get a good look at the creature.

Rated R; Rape, Brief Nudity, Violence.