Orang Ikan

The title "Monster Island" is awfully generic and does not promise much, but I am a huge fan of creature features and therefore had to give this a try. We follow a Japanese soldier and a British prisoner of war who are stranded on a deserted island during World War II and have to put their differences and hatred aside to survive a creature that is hunting them.

The movie is somewhat of a mixture of Predator, since the creature is rather smart and can even heal itself during the hunt, with a design that resembles The Creature from the Black Lagoon. The effects were overall fine considering that this is a low-budget production, but it was clear that beneath the creature there was just a person in a suit, which took away some immersion at times. However, the design itself looked pretty good and there were also some really enjoyable gory moments with decent effects.

The premise sounds very interesting, but unfortunately the movie handled its themes rather shallowly and did not do enough with its unique character setup in my opinion. It is still enjoyable, and we get to see both of our protagonists shift their attitudes toward each other in order to survive and fight the real threat. The film also had some choppy editing that made certain scenes a little hard to watch and sometimes confusing, and the pacing was not always perfect.

Still, for a low-budget creature feature B-movie, this was certainly enjoyable, and if you like this kind of film you will probably find something to enjoy here, even with its awful title. [5.7/10]

Watched this on Shudder and it was really good - a canny little story with silly monsters. Acting of the two main characters was believable - if you have watched The Durrells, well the English actor was the lad who played Leslie Durrell.

It doesn't take itself too seriously which made it an enjoyable movie. If you do the Nightmare on Film Street "31 days of Horror Movies" in October, this one's great for a Creature Feature movie.

What can you say when the scrip is obviously one of Bruno Mattei's old leftover Preditor rip offs, literally whole scenes ... In this day and age how on earth could this get passed as anything other than a pastiche ? ... But no, sense of humour is totally absent ... Its well filmed and acted ... It isn't written, its some dreadful cut and paste job ... The creatures are quite good, though obviously a guy in a suit, which is cool in my book ... The pacing is awful, it draaaaaaaaaaags from the start ... What should have been a fun romp creature feature is just handled far too seriously and it totally ruins it ... Just a complete waste of time and money when they obviously had enough money to make something decent ... Main problem must have been obvious from pre production ... Who green lit this and didn't have the suss to see that it could have succeeded with a bit of work from a decent writer and a director that knew what he was doing.

Great action, great suspense, great script, great practical FX, great creature design (although of course, based on the original), great story, great acting, great pacing, great location, great cinematography, great editing, great gore.

This movie is so goddamn fun! From the opening frames, to the somewhat heartfelt final moments, it's such an enjoyable ride. The film makers here set out to do one thing - make a fun movie - and that's EXACTLY what they accomplished. A nearly perfect escapism film that will have you enthralled the entire run time.

Absolutely recommended! Won't disappoint.

Despite of never having heard about the 2024 movie "Orang Ikan" (aka "Monster Island"), of course I opted to watch it as I had the opportunity here in 2025. I am a big fan of all things horror after all.

The storyline certainly sounded interesting as served through the synopsis, however I have to say that the actual movie itself, well not so much. Sure, it was watchable, and there was potential, but ultimately it was a tedious and generic movie.

I was not familiar with a single actor on the cast list. The acting performances were not particularly outstanding or memorable, which was a shame, as the movie had a very small cast ensemble, and thus was depending on the acting performances to carry a certain weight of the movie.

The effects in the movie were okay, and I did like the creature design and the way that they made the aquatic creature look. It definitely helped keep the movie afloat, pardon the pun.

Ultimately then "Orang Ikan" is not a movie that I would recommend you to waste 84 minutes on watching.

My rating of writer and director Mike Wiluan's 2024 movie "Orang Ikan" lands on a generous four out of ten stars.