Comprised of the entirety of The Blood Island films (if the title of this review didn’t tip you off)… a series of monster-filled mayhem dreamed up by producer/director Eddie Romero and producer Kane W. Lynn (joined by co-director Gerardo de Leon for the first three pictures)… the Fear In The Philippines collection is one hell of a wild n’ wooly ride that you simply will not believe… so let’s break it on down film by film…
First up is 1959’s Terror Is a Man:
After enduring a shipwreck, William Fitzgerald (Richard Derr, When Worlds Collide) washes ashore on a mysterious, fog-shrouded island.
Said island… Blood Island to be precise… is home to Dr. Charles Girard (Francis Lederer, The Return of Dracula), a shady scientist who is super-into laying all manner of tricky traps around the island.
Why is the Doc up to that bit of biz? Well, a panther he was experimenting on broke loose, and is out there… somewhere… being an absolute menace to the locals.
Speaking of which, they split the scene to some other island after being mauled one too many times… and turns out, that panther is something else entirely… something the few remaining people on the island refuse to talk about… something neither beast nor man, yet disturbingly both…
With plenty of DNA from H.G. Well’s 1896 science fiction masterpiece The Island of Doctor Moreau, Terror Is a Man is an absolute gem of a sci-fi/fright flick that has plenty to offer!
The first positive with this picture is the strong cast with Derr making for an amiable and competent hero and Lederer as his opposite number is at times chilling as a man that has absolutely no moral compass when it comes to achieving success with his twisted experiments.
The supporting cast is really solid as well with Oscar Keesee perfectly embodying an absolute disgusting ass of a human being in his portrayal of Girard’s henchman Walter Perrera, and Miss Denmark 1952, Greta Thyssen (Journey to the Seventh Planet) as Girard’s Marilyn Monroe-esque wife Frances; who you’d be forgiven for assuming would be eye candy and nothing more becomes instead the absolute best actor in the flick giving a portrayal that is both strong-willed and sympathetic as well as displaying considerable empathy, especially where our monster of the hour is concerned.
The Beast-Man (portrayed with genuine pathos and justifiable rage by Flory Carlos, in what I believe was his only acting role) in question is fantastic as well, and appears as a vaguely feline, mummy-like figure swathed in medical bandages (similar to Elsa Lanchester’s vibe as The Bride in 1935’s The Bride of Frankenstein) for the majority of the film before a face reveal brings to mind the titular Beast in Jean Cocteau’s 1946 adaptation of Beauty and the Beast.
Also of note where our meowin’ monster is concerned; there is an absolutely chilling sequence where Girard teaches the pitiful being to speak the word “man”… and it’s equal parts disturbing and terrifying.
Adding to the spooky ambiance is moody black and white cinematography from Emmanuel I. Rojas, a great setting with Girard’s hacienda appearing both uniquely exotic and surprisingly gothic (that chiaroscuro photography helps there too… as do the frequent rainstorms), and the score from composer Ariston Avelino (The Twilight People… another riff on Moreau from Romero) is appropriately jangly and creepy!
Showmanship is provided via a gimmick advising those in the audience with a weaker constitution to avert their eyes from the screen when they hear a bell ring (the same bell that would ring out again when the gore had subsided). Said footage involves a scalpel cutting into actual animal flesh, so be advised if that bothers you!
To enhance all of that ghoulish goodness mentioned previously, Terror Is a Man (and the other films in this collection) is accompanied by special features that include interviews (culled from Mark Hartley’s excellent 2010 documentary focusing on Filipino genre filmmaking, Machete Maidens Unleashed!) with legendary b-movie producer Samuel M. Sherman (Satan’s Sadists) who served as a marketing consultant for Terror Is a Man, author Pete Tombs, and critic Mark Holcomb, the film’s trailer, and a poster and still gallery.
Disc One also contains 1968’s Brides of Blood…
Dr. Paul Henderson (Kent Taylor) has come from the States to explore the effects of radiation from nearby atomic bomb tests on the flora and fauna of Blood Island.
Along for the ride are Henderson’s ever-horny and sexually frustrated wife Carla (Beverly Powers, billed here as Beverly Hills), and Peace Corps member Jim Farrell (John Ashley… who is also was featured in the aforementioned The Twilight People) all of whom are met with superstitious and tight-lipped locals, arcane funerary rites, and moving plants!
Eventually our heroes arrive at the opulent home of Esteban Powers (Mario Montenegro) an aristocratic young man who lives with a cadre of servants afflicted with dwarfism and who knows a thing or two about the goings-on around those preternatural parts… but even he keeps secrets!
Soon things get weird as Henderson is attacked by a mutant, blood-hungry butterfly… but the strangeness escalates quickly as it’s soon revealed that a rampaging monster stalks the island and the only way to satisfy his unholy lust is to give him bound naked women (chosen via lottery) that he can rip asunder in sexual frenzy!
Will our heroes be able to defeat the horny horror and end the deadly rituals, or will they too fall victim to the nightmares of Blood Island?!
A Drive-In staple, Brides of Blood is filled with everything lovers of off-kilter creature features crave! The picture is loaded with naked flesh, (mild) gore, and mutants… which when surrounded by the exotic locales creates a psychotronic experience that is a ton of fun to behold!
While the cast is (mostly) strong, the colors lurid, and the breasts n’ blood present in ample quantities (given the time period), the real attraction for monster lovers are the film’s plentiful effects that, budget be damned, aim to please and are completely charming in their (often visible) fishing line controlled glory (well as far as the killer tentacles of the mutated banana trees and that previously mentioned butterfly).
The main antagonist is another matter entirely, and is a hulking, polyp covered mess with a permanent grimace plastered across it’s fearsome face and angry red eyes. Is it convincing? No. Is it rad as fuck, and a delight to watch in action? Oh, hell yes!
Special features for Brides of Blood include an audio commentary from Sherman (who provides analysis on the creation and distribution of the remainder of the film’s in this collection via individual tracks), interviews with Romero, Sherman, and actress Beverly Powers, alternate title sequences, a teaser and theatrical trailer for the film, and a photo and still gallery.
Moving on, Disc Two begins with Mad Doctor of Blood Island, also from 1968…
After some William Castle style showmanship involving downing a vial of green blood (provided by some theaters during the film’s theatrical run), we get down to brass tacks… namely a naked chick tearing ass away from a monster, which if were being honest, you kinda came here for… or maybe not, but you’re getting it anyway!
Enter: American pathologist Bill Foster (a returning John Ashley, albeit in a different role) who has arrived on Blood Island to investigate a chlorophyll disease that is plaguing the locals, along with Sheila Willard (Angelique Pettyjohn, who shared the screen a year early with Elvis Presley in Clambake), and Carlos Lopez (Ronaldo Valdez).
As Bill begins his work, Sheila reunites with her estranged alcoholic father who has made B.I. his home, and Carlos attempts to convince his mother to move away from the island after the mysterious death of her husband, Don Ramon Lopez.
As previously established, a zombie-like creature wanders the jungles, oozing green juices and just throwing violence and murder around like he owns the joint, as more folks turn up green in the gills from that creepy chlorophyll… and center-stage among it all is the mysterious Dr. Lorca (Ronald Remy) an enigmatic man of science who may know more about what haunts the island then he lets on!
Amping up everything that made Brides of Blood so much exploitation fried gold, Mad Doctor of Blood Island has more nudity and gore, and we once again dip our toes in the Dr. Moreau pond as the eponymous “mad doctor” has created a scientific abomination that goes awry…
And a rather kick-ass abomination it is my cats n’ creeps! The creature at hand is a fanged, zombie-like beast leaking chlorophyll with an absolute fetish for running amok… and that is a wicked winner in my beastly book!
This picture also features an absolutely unreasonable amount of zooms during each and every monster-centric action sequence… some where Jess Franco is saying “I agree… too much zoom.” It’s dizzying but unique…
Unfortunately this picture also features scenes of real animal execution… but if you skip over that, it’s aces!
Special features this go-around include a second audio commentary courtesy of film historians Nathaniel Thompson and Howard S. Burger (who provide an info-packed chat discussing the history of Mad Doctor of Blood Island), interviews with author Pete Tombs (discussing the horror output of Eddie Romero), critic Mark Holcomb (examining the union of Romero, Lynn and de Leon, as well as giving brief overviews of the careers of Ashley and Pettyjohn)… both culled from Machete Maidens once again, & Romero.
Also included are the film’s trailer, and a poster & still gallery.
Lastly we get Beast of Blood from 1970…
Dr. Bill Foster (Ashley) is back baby… and back on Blood Island as well, following a lengthy hospital stay.
That convalescence was the result of the chlorophyll monster Don Ramon Lopez having stowed away on Foster’s boat… and after revealing his presence, going absolutely bonkers causing the craft to explode (eliminating the previous film’s main cast immediately… hell, they’re never even seen).
With the last picture’s remaining protagonists out of the picture, Foster is instead joined by reporter Myra Russell (Celeste Yarnall… a frequent one-off player on ’60s’ television screens in the U.S.), and ship Captain… I don’t think the mad bastard has any other name, but he’s played (in often baffling fashion by this film’s writer Beverly Miller… who just so happened to have produced the previous picture).
Speaking of Mad Doctor of Blood Island, it seems that flick’s antagonist Dr. Lorca (this time played by incredibly prolific Filipino acting legend Eddie Garcia, under scar make-up and an eye patch) is still kicking around, and has found a way to detach Don Ramon’s head… and keep it, and the beast’s decapitated body, alive… as anyone doubtless would.
Lorca has also kidnapped Myra for breeding purposes, so Foster will have to act fast if he doesn’t want to play sloppy seconds with the love machine that is Doctor Lorca.
More of an action picture than a fright flick, Beast of Blood takes things in a different direction while providing that ol’ Moreau magic.
Speaking of which… our Moreau-surrogate, Lorca, has become a “Bond villain” type of dude with his secret, high tech lab and grand schemes, which in turn, makes the guns a-blazin’ third act seem appropriate enough… but as cool as those things are, the drive-in crowd most certainly be-moaned the toned-down nudity and gore from the last iteration…
What isn’t “toned-down” is the look of our titular beast, as this chapter’s version of Don Ramon looks like the direct ancestor of John Carl Buechler’s re-design of Jason Voorhees for his installment in the legendary Friday the 13th series, Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood, and it is flat-out creature feature awesome in every way!
As a warning, back again is an animal skin surgery sequence like the one in Terror Is a Man… but now in color, and with a longer runtime.
And while we are jawing’ about runtime, I wish the opening credit sequence for Beast of Blood was even longer, as it features an absolutely delirious concoction of retro-Hallowe’en aesthetics, animated dripping blood (and chlorophyll), and clumsy photo manipulation. I fucking loved it!
Bonus material includes interviews with Yarnall and Garcia, a trimmed-down, 15 minute Super 8 edition of the film (I absolutely LOVE when these are included… nostalgia over-load for aged monsters like yours cruelly), the film’s trailer, a radio spot, and a poster & still gallery.
The Blood Island films are filled with gore, girls, and ghouls… and that’s the kind of creature feature gold that shouldn’t be missed by lovers of that ol’ Drive-In flick magic!
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