Island Of The Living Dead

Many genre directors fail to be consistant throughout their careers, with a pioneering, creative peak (usually early on) followed by repetion that eventually becomes derivitive and bland. Bruno Mattei remained consistantly bad from beginning to end, and IOTLD and "Zombies:The Beginning" are stark proof of such a rare directorial curve.As a fan of his earlier horror films, such as "The Other Hell", "Rats : Night Of Terror" , and "Hell Of The Living Dead", I was delighted to see that an older Bruno was still capable of helming delightful B-movie trash cinema such as "Island Of The Living Dead". Those of us who love watching this type of thing will go in with moderate expectations and emerge satisfied with the rediculous, gorey, insane presentation.American independant horror has come a lone way, but holds nothing on what the Italians can create from near nothing.My only gripe is the SOV look of the picture and it's excessive use of slow-motion. Gives "Island Of The Living Dead" a 1990's porno feel instead of that authentic grindhouse experience. My guess is using actual film is not as cost-effective when shooting an indie film. What do I know?If you enjoy early 80's zombie films, Itaian horror films, low-budget action films shot in the SE Asia, and want something fresh yet respectful of the

You have to be a forgiving fan of Bruno Mattei to like this movie.This movie is monumentally bad, and not in the good way that would allow you to keep and watch it again because it's so bad it's actually enjoyable. Besides being poorly made (poorly edited, poorly scripted, poorly acted), it simply does not make any sense. The characters wander endlessly, swear endlessly, and routinely throw themselves into harm's way as though they are asking for it and really don't care. Besides abrupt cuts between scenes, there are also abrupt changes in mood. Everything is wildly exaggerated. The actors don't interact with one another as much as they politely wait their turn at delivering the bizarre dialog in a most unconvincing manner (the dubbing doesn't help). It's an outlandish attempt to make a new retro zombie flick that doesn't follow any rules in zombie lore. It also feels at times like they are deliberately trying to make a bad movie. The best thing about this movie is the cover illustration on the DVD. I can't see keeping it just for that.Before buying this mess, before watching this mistreatment of everything cinematic, I wish I had been properly and strenuously forewarned. This movie boggles the mind and stretches all forms of credulity. I watched it with mouth agape.

Island of the Living Dead is similar to Intervision's recent releases of Bruno Mattei's cannibal movies. Bad (funny) dubbing, cheaply shot, and chocked full of blood, guts, crazy dialogue, and fun. Interesting to see one of the stars of Zombie 4: After Death in IOTLD. For those who prefer the ongoing onslaught of Danny Trejo bad zombies will want to skip this one, because this movie is trash cinema at its best. They don't make them like they used to...

This is late director Bruno Mattei's (using his frequent pseudonym "Vincent Dawn") penultimate film, a tale of zombies and vampires on an uncharted island. The frustrated treasure-hunting crew of the salvage ship The Dark Star (a tribute to John Carpenter?) encounter a strange fog bank one stormy night and wake up the following morning next to an island that is not on any map, an island where, centuries before, a zombie uprising and an attack by a vampire pirate crew killed an entire village of Spanish missionaries and a battalion of Conquistadors. With The Dark Star in need of repair, the crew takes a trip to the island to see if they can find any treasure to plunder. They do indeed find treasure, but more importantly, they discover that the island is crawling with zombies. When The Dark Star explodes (thanks to a gas leak during a zombie invasion) and the lifeboat ends up missing, the crew, which includes Captain Kirk (Ronald Russo), Sharon (Yvette Yzon), Snoopy (Filipino regular Jim Gaines; PHANTOM SOLDIERS - 1987), Fred (Alvin Anson), Mark (Gary "King" Roberts) and Victoria (Ydalia Suarez), must find a place to hide out and defend themselves from the living dead hordes. They find an old church and settle in, while Captain Kirk (a favorite joke name that Mattei used in many films) tells them that this must be the final resting place of an old Spanish ghost galleon called the Natividad, said to be carrying a king's fortune in gold. The next morning, the group (stupidly) split-up into three teams of two and explore the catacombs of the church. Sharon and Fred run into an undead monk and Fred blows it's head off with a shotgun. Victoria and Mark find a cask of old wine and proceed to get drunk, not realizing the the wine is crawling with maggots. The Captain and Snoopy make discoveries of their own, including a creepy old zombie woman who plays the lute. When the crew discovers the hidden treasure of gold, they won't get a chance to enjoy it, because they are attacked by hordes of flesh-hungry zombies. Fred (stupidly) sacrifices his life to the zombies so the others can escape. Sharon discovers a book that says whoever discovers the treasure will be killed by the pirate crew of the ghost galleon, who will rise from the ocean floor (apparently as vampires!) to exact revenge. Oh, great. Now the crew has to protect themselves from vampire pirates as well as zombies. To make a long story short, the crew dies one-by-one in various bloody ways (usually eaten in one manner or another) until only Sharon is left. She manages to make it off the island and is rescued by a helicopter, her story to be continued in Mattei's final film, ZOMBIES: THE BEGINNING (2007), although with slight alterations (The surprise final reveal here shows that Sharon is now a vampire zombie, but the sequel drops that plot point, making it a nightmare sequence in a hospital room instead). While not a very good film in many departments (the dubbing and dialogue are terrible and the acting is way too bland), director Bruno Mattei (NIGHT OF THE ZOMBIES - 1980; COP GAME - 1988, which also had a character named "Captain Kirk"; SHOCKING DARK - 1989), who co-wrote the screenplay with Antonio Tentori and Producer Gianni Paolucci, does his normal routine of copying scenes verbatim from other well-known horror films and claims them as his own. Here, he lifts scenes directly from NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968; The "They're coming to get you Barbara!" graveyard scene), Lucio Fulci's ZOMBIE (1979; The pointy wood shard in the eyeball scene) and John Carpenter's THE FOG (1979; the ghostly, fog-shrouded pirate crew) and tries to tie it all together, but doesn't accomplish the task. The film seems too disjointed to make much sense and it's one of those films where the characters make the stupidest decisions possible (especially Fred sacrificing his life and offering his arm for the zombies to chew on!) just to justify the gory deaths that follow. Still, the makeup and gore effects aren't horrible and the Philippines location photography is very colorful, making this a perfect film for Mattei fans: High on gore, low on believable characters and originality. You'll know within the first five minutes of watching this whether it is a film for you. The film concludes with a dedication to actor Mike Monty (NINJA WARRIORS - 1985; JUNGLE RATS - 1987), who died while this film was being made, but he doesn't appear in it. Also starring Thomas Wallwort, Miguel Franco, Curtis Carter, Arash Donadoni and Lilia Cantapay. Not yet available on U.S. shores legitimately (I soon expect it will be, if crap like Mattei's THE TOMB [2004] can get a legal DVD release), but it can be purchased on an English language DVD from German company KSM. Now available on widescreen DVD from InterVision Picture Corp., an offshoot of Severin Films. Not Rated.

This is a good throwback to the Italian zombie movie knockoffs of the 70's and 80's. If you like those films you will likely like this one too. It is not quite the same but it is a good time killer.

well - I highly recommend that you drink 6 beers BEFORE watching this one ... It is a classic bad movie...Fun because of the dialogue,confusing plotting, cheap sets & low budget costumes...All of the characters are , well... idiots ... Not sure how the vampire thing works into this one , but... it is there ... Only hard core zombie fans or B movie fans will probably like this one ... There are a few good schlock moments ... remember, 6 beer MINIMUM before viewing !!! ...

Cheesey but great zombie flick. Takes me back to pre twd days when only the cool liked zombies and horror.

The worst zombie movie ever dont buy this movie

Received item fast and in perfect condition. No problems at all. Perfect price for the item, great seller. Nice to do business with.

Der Film ist hat so schlechte Kameraführung, so schlechte Schauspieler und eine furchtbar schlechte Maske.Der Film ist so schlecht, dass ich dachte es wäre eine Verarschung.Aber nein, da hat man doch tatsächlich mit 50$ Budget einen "Horrorfilm" auf die Beine gestellt, der noch nicht einmal mit "Ein Zombie hing am Glockenseil" mithalten könnte.Lasst da besser die Finger von. Geschenkt wäre noch zu teuer.Schönen GrußDer André

Wer auf Zombiefilme wie Resident Evil steht, ist bei Island of the dead leider falsch. Die Idee des Movie ist gut, jedoch billig produziert, man könnte heute viel mehr draus machen!!!

Dieser Film ist wirklich einer der schlechtesten filme die ich je gesehen hab... trotz des niedrigen preises nicht zu empfehlen...kann mir auch schwer vorstellen das bei diesem streifen Italo-Zombi-Trash-Fans auf ihre kosten kommen... es wundert mich wirklich das so etwas produziert wird:-)

Mit Abstand der schlechteste Film, den ich je gesehen habe. Die Kameraführung und die Schauspielleistung sind unterirdisch. Für einen Film aus dem Jahr 2006 ist das wirklich peinlich.