But Ben Barcelon, the editor of BEAST OF BLOOD is more cunning still.
Since none of the actors are “good” in the conventional sense of being able to act, a cunning editor might attempt to disguise this from us by deft intercutting, flashing to the listener during dull speeches, creating a delicate sense of emotional interplay. There’s also a distinctive editing pattern, which emphasizes the distinctive performances. For this one, Eddie Romero is going solo: style is limited to nice tight closeup compositions, and some fast tracking through forests during the numerous chases. Perhaps that was the idea of the respected Gerardo de Leon, the movie’s co-director. Sadly, Chlorophyll 2 doesn’t use the zoomtastic spasms of the first film, which feel like the filmmakers are taking a pneumatic drill to your temporal lobes.
Established, and killed, in the first movie, they’re brought back to life by narrative sleight-of-hand and disposed of all over again in this fresh outing.ġ) Principle export: blunt instrument trauma.Ģ) It’s called Blood Island because of a large rock in its centre, shaped like a corpuscle.ģ) It’s part of an archipelago also containing Bile Island, Saliva Island and Synovial Fluid Island. Lorca (Eddie Garcia, magnificently rigid, replacing sinister baldy Ronald Remy from the first film) and his cholorophyll men, who drink blood like the vegetable alien in THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD. Plus, if I read one scene correctly (and it’s so blankly performed that’s not easy) he appears to suffer from erectile dysfunction, so one’s heart goes out.īEAST OF BLOOD deals with crazy cardboard-eared Dr. You know that awkward quality that actors like Shatner would have when they took their shirts off and had to stand with their gut sucked in? Ashley achieves this with his shirt on. Ashley, a lantern-jawed point-of-sale device, is distinguished only by his incredibly deep voice: the sound of waves of testosterone breaking on basalt rocks. Or rather, he plays an identical character with a different name. John Ashley plays a different character from the one he plays in MAD DOCTOR and BEAST.
MAD DOCTOR OF BLOOD ISLAND DE LEON SERIES
I like it that this series is held together solely by an island.īRIDES OF BLOOD uses the Blood Island location for an adventure involving radioactive killer plants, giant moths, and a rapist monster. Nevertheless, with its crazy doctor, who adds to the standard Moreau template a hint of Nazi atrocities, and its genuinely unsettling unpleasantness (the cat-man-monster is a bandage-swathed wretch in constant pain, tufts of fur and whiskers protruding from his gauzy coils), the first film does establish some of the qualities which distinguish the follow-ups. It’s misty and atmospheric and practically classy compared to the movies that came after. There’s a Blood Island box set, by the way, including TERROR IS A MAN, the very first Blood Island jaunt, a Dr Moreauesque affair in moody black-and-white with the great Francis Lederer doing the mad science.
But since BOB follows directly on from the events of TMDOBI, it made sense to ground myself in the first movie.īones protruding through flesh - an original, nasty touch. Then I realised that confusing wording had made me watch THE WRONG FILM - Gifford’s still comes from what he calls BLOOD DEVILS, but is available today as BEAST OF BLOOD, the sequel to TMDOBI.
MAD DOCTOR OF BLOOD ISLAND DE LEON FULL
In his photo caption, Gifford gave the title THE MAD DOCTOR OF BLOOD ISLAND, so I duly tracked that down, having come to full manhood in the meantime, and watched it with something approaching delight. But Rebecca insisted, and I weakly complied and showed her the forbidden photos, and she pronounced solemnly in each case, “ That’s not scary.” This, the gory neck-wound from THE BLOOD DRINKERS (also a Philippines production involving Eddie Romero) and the axed blonde from Texan reimagining of THE BLACK CAT, were the images I chose to suppress. I recall, as a boy, being told I could show the book to my little friend Rebecca, but that I should protect her from the more horrific images. This is the picture from Dennis Gifford’s Pictorial History of Horror Movies which first introduced me to this handsome specimen of homo vegetabilis.
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