The Twilight People

In case you haven't gotten your fill of bad "Island Of Lost Soul" remakes, there is this beauty. Producer writer John Ashley, a long way from Frankie, Annette, and the rest of the gang, is the hero who is kidnapped and taken to an Island where a mad doctor does mutation experiments; with a little "most dangerous game" rip off thrown in.

This must have been enough to make him miss Eric Von Zipper. Pat Codell, from Pennycoat Junction, shows some real charm in rolling with the punches, the poor thing quit the biz soon afterwards. And you get an early appearance of Pam Grier, and a flying batman livens things up a bit. Mostly however, this is for hard core bad movie fans only.

From director Eddie Romero (AKA Enrique Moreno), the Filipino exploitation filmmaker behind jungle classics like "Black Mama White Mama" and "Savage Sisters" comes this very silly, but very entertaining ripoff of H.G. Wells' "The Island of Dr. Moreau." A scuba diver is snatched out of the water and and finds himself on an island where a mad scientist has created monstrous half-man/half-animal creatures. The Moreau figure rules over his beasts with an iron fist, and as you'd expect, they rebel against him in a violent bloody fashion. It's all amateurishly made and certainly made on the cheap, but it is entertaining. To add to the enjoyment level of this nonsense is Pam Grier in a before-she-was-famous role as the "Panther Woman." Certainly not a good film, but I was entertained.

Successful adventurer Matt Farrell (John Ashley) is kidnapped whilst on a dive by sadistic hunter Steinman (Jan Merlin), who takes him to a mysterious island dominated by the insane Dr. Gordon (Charles Macaulay). Gordon has been doing experiments on the native locals and cross-bred them with certain animals in an attempt to create a great army, and sees Farrell as a suitable addition to his grisly bunch. After escaping with Gordon's daughter Neva (Pat Woodell) and all the human-animal hybrids, Steinman pursues them in a deadly game of cat-and-mouse.

As far as re-makes/re-imaginings of the hugely influential Island of Lost Souls (1932) go, The Twilight People certainly isn't the worst. Choked with massive budget limitations that naturally leads to terrible acting and worse make-up, this Grindhouse effort certainly has it's charms. It is, of course, f*****g awful, but there is a bit of spirit amongst the cast, and plenty of laugh-at-the-s**t-make-up moments. The creatures, which include an Antelope Man, an Ape Man, a Wolf Woman, and most hilariously, a Bat Man, are so ridiculous looking that I could scarcely believe that the actors behind them managed to keep a straight face throughout the film. It does, however, have Pam Grier as the Panther Woman (made famous by Kathleen Burke from the 1932 original), and seeing her rip her way through a number of Gordon's henchman is certainly worth your time.

But the on-the-run second half of the film repeatedly stalls and ultimately bores, as the film seems to be wind down the proceedings in order to sustain an acceptable running time. It is also quite tame as far as low-budget monster movies go, but I have to admit that it added to it's almost innocent charm. The ending, which doesn't really wrap anything up, ends abruptly when I was expecting and almost hoping for five minutes more. To summarise then, certainly worth a watch if you like your movies trashy, cheap, and easy to watch, but a meandering and ridiculous film overall. Though I would recommend a watch simply for the Bat Man, paper wings and all.

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Plan 9 From Outer Space is generally considered to be the worst film of all time. I contend that the people voting have not seen Twilight People. It's basically The Island of Dr Moreau without a budget. In this version of the story, I believe the Doctor is doing his genetic engineering for the Third Reich, as he and his assistant/security guy are Nazis. The half man/half animal creatures are bizarre. There is a bat man, an antelope man, and even a mole woman. I had nightmares about this flick for years (not because it was scary) until I found it on video and re-lived the horror of one of the most awful films of all time. The acting is bad. The writing is bad. The costumes are bad. This is a bad movie.

It's hard to imagine a world where all the stations you could watch would 'end their broadcast day' if you're too young to have lived it. That's the world where this movie was great as a late-night treat that aired very rarely. I only saw it the one time and forget the story completely but its images remain in my memory. I knew it was a cheap, bad movie when I was watching but my reaction ranged from bored to bemused to fascinated. Additionslly, there was invoked a sweet nostalgia from seeing John Ashley headlining a movie. I'd watched that guy battle mostly black and white monsters since I was 8 years old. I saw this movie when I was 26.

It's a new world now and there's no reason to recommend this movie anymore. But I liked it and would sit through it again.