L'île des morts

Island of Death is a true ungodly video nasty coming to you straight from the best euro-exploitation period. This year 2003, the movie received a complete digital remastering and it finally got released on special edition DVD. The box showed nothing but a red background with the explicit words : "The one movie that the censors didn't want you to see" and "sorry but we can't display images of the film on the cover since they're too gruesome". A bit exaggerated of course, this movie is far from being the goriest or most shocking film I've ever seen. Nevertheless it's mean-spirited, raw, brutal and pretty disturbing from time to time. "Island of Death" doesn't take the rules of humanity too strict and it isn't exactly what they call "politically correct". The movie seems to start like a lovely romantic comedy when a young couple arrives on a Greek Island. They look average but in fact they put other famous cinema couples like Bonnie & Clyde and Mickey & Mallory to shame. They brutally slaughter every person they come into contact with (mostly right after sexual intercourse which give the killings a nasty effect) and they have a few bizarre fetishes.

Island of Death doesn't contain much humor unless you see the irony in many things. For example: the guy kills homosexuals because he thinks it's pervert and against the will of God, while he himself has sex with a young goat! I thought that was pretty ironic, and there are lots of similar "jokes" to discover in "Island of Death". Even though there are a lot of horrible scenes, the movie itself is pretty light and not at all difficult too watch. Excellent stuff for exploitation fans. The leading actress (Jane Ryall) is a beauty but she never played in movies again.

This film touts that its been banned the world over and its easy to see why, its a film that plays with your head from beginning to end and leaves you feeling unwell for days. Odds are if you see it you'll understand why people don't want you to see it.

The story of a pretty young couple on vacation in Greece turns more and more twisted as time goes on. Rape, murder, sadism and a few other delights get taken to the next level as more and more depravity is revealed. The film was made with the intention of disturbing the viewer and it disturbs almost from the outset as things very quickly are revealed to be seriously amiss. Its gets to the point where you're sitting on egg shells waiting for the next terrible thing to happen.

You'll forgive the lack of details but anyone who is interested in seeing this are best left to fend for themselves. I think that plot-wise the less known the better so that you can truly enjoy, if it is enjoyment, the twisted twists.

I don't know if I like it or hate it. The film certainly provokes a reaction but I'm not sure thats a good thing or bad thing. Certainly its not for anyone with gentile sensibilities. Its well made but beyond that you're on your own.

6 out of 10, though I'm not sure how to fairly rate it.

Director Mastorakis is apparently the first to say that this film was made with one driving force - Money.

It's clear to see that the director has sat down and said 'what's the most depraved, shocking and disgusting ways in which to rape, torture and kill a bunch of people' and on this level the film works.

However, don't go looking for some deep underlying message to whats going on. I find it impossible to find any way of excusing this nasty little piece of cinema by saying that it has some thought provoking undercurrent quite simply because it doesn't.

The story is of a couple arriving on a Greek island and instantly punishing the local residents for what the male lead see as sinful behaviour. Amongst the supposed sins are adultry (an ironic one given the nature of the stars vengence), homosexuality, lesbianism, drug-abuse and....well being a goat.

The scenes of violence are rather tame compared to many films of its time let alone some of the blood-soaked mainstream movies about today. But it is not the violence that shocks about this film still today. It is more so the notion of the acts commited and the seemingly pointlessness of them.

Some have called it a nasty little gem, others have found it to be over-hyped and rather dull, I however found it to be a classic piece of exploitation cinema. If you can't enjoy the film for it's visual acuity, I defy anyone not to enjoys its heavy seventies kitsch soundtrack, Classic.

Though the concept is dated, 'Ta Paidia Tou Diavolou' (a.k.a. 'Island of Death' or 'Devils in Mykonos') could have been a better film if the story had layers and the execution did not have a B-grade feel. The movie itself seems to primarily rely on violence and shock value rather than story (which is perhaps secondary). Christopher and Celia are initially depicted as a likable romantic couple who are visiting a Greek Island. Director Nico Mastorakis does not waste time in showing that this couple is insane. However, what I felt missing was the answer to the question why? Christopher is a psychopath who engages in acts of bestiality, rape, murder, torture and he likes to photograph them but what's the story behind this sick fascination? Celia is his partner in crime and the secret behind their relationship is revealed in the end but here too the big why question remains unanswered. As a result, most of the violence appears gratuitous. However, Mykonos is portrayed quite beautifully. It makes me want to visit the place on a holiday. The acting ranges from average to bad but Jane Lyle is good in some sequences, especially when her facial expression changes from fear to a cold smile. Slightly campy, this exploitation film has obtained cult status but it could have easily been a better film had more attention been given to the story and execution.

This is one of the original 'video nasties', and still only available in a heavily cut version in the UK (although easily available in uncut R1 format). Apparently made quickly to make cash for its first time director Nico Mistorakis, it is the story of a young tourist couple, Christopher and Celia who arrive on the picturesque island of Mykonos. At first we think them innocents, entering a world of terror. Soon it turns out that in fact they are the monsters, Christopher in particular being concerned to rid the word of 'perverts', photographing the mayhem as they go through local acquaintances - at first for kicks, then to cover their tracks. Much of the film is just a pretext for a catalogue of imaginative slaughter. The acting is variable at best (Jayne Ryall, playing Celia looking particularly bemused at the whole business, and this was her only film). The film includes sex and rape, both human and animal but, like so much of its ilk, is ironically coy about these physical acts, showing only such nudity and rare bursts of pubes as would sit easily in a softcore sex comedy. The exception is perhaps the urination scene which, because it is so unexpected and rare away from porno cinema, does at least raise eyebrows. The much vaunted 'goat rape' is patently faked and unconvincing but, as it takes place very early on at least alerts viewers to the real nature of the psychopathic Chris.

Surprisingly for a film with such a strong reputation, none of the violence really shocks today, although the range of deaths (by crucifixion and paint poisoning, hanging from a plane wing, heroin overdose, sword and scythe, bulldozer, etc) have an ingenious variety - a testimony to the director's plan to outdo competing exploitation films in range. Celia's bathtub rape is loud and threatening, but that of Susan George in the newly uncut UK issue of Straw Dogs is much more disturbing as well as actually being 'concluded' in the scene. It's another case, I would suggest, of sensibilities having moved on, leaving the BBFC unduly squeamish in cutting so much. Victims of the homicidal holidaymakers include homosexuals, lesbians, a middle aged nymphomaniac, 2 hippies, a Frenchman, a policeman (sent to track the notorious duo down) and so on.

More of interest is the way in which the film provides continuous ironic inversion on a normal holiday narrative. The attractive island, full of native white buildings, blue skies and sunshine, looks to be straight out of a travel brochure, and our sense of place is aided by some reasonable good cinematography. Chris and Celia are the 'tourists' who are visiting, relaxing, and taking plenty of pictures. The difference being of course that they are snapping the humiliated, dead and dying rather than the serene landscape around them, making themselves a different sort of vacation altogether. `We do everything vice versa' as she says, and the film gains most of its power from the stream of atrocity-attractions visited upon the community in this peculiar context. It's their casual return to traditional holiday locales (the local taverna, romantic beach walks or cosy white washed rooms) between murders which is ultimately more disturbing than anything done in the meantime. Island of Death still bears watching, and is considerably better worked than some of the other 'nasties'. If you take this as a recommendation of course, that's up to you.