The Island of the Fishmen — The Island of the Fishmen(Blu Ray)
From the late 1970’s here we have a blend of island adventure and merman horror. It is a campy, often entertaining, at times exciting ride of a film. We have lunging claw and bulbous eyed attacks, underwater treasure, brooding voodoo rituals, fisty cuff fighting, and a few moments of bloodiness- though it’s largely fairly tame on that side of things. Here from Film Moon Futures is a recent region free blu ray of the film.
Released in the year 1979 The Island of the Fishmen (aka L'isola degli uomini pesce, Island of Mutations, Screamers, Something Waits in the Dark, The Fish Men) is an Italian production. It was directed Rome born Sergio Martino- he has forty-one full-length credits to his name- taking in the likes of classic Giallo like The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh (1977) & All the Colors of the Dark (1972), and neat Giallo/ slasher blend Torso (1973). As well as a good selection of other cult genre fare like gut-munching adventure Slave of the Cannibal God (1978), post-nuke action fare 2019: After the Fall of New York (1983), crime thriller The Violent Professionals (1973). I guess you’d say the film at hand is more adventure focused, though there are horror elements as well as some neat moments of atmospheric brooding-ness.
The film kicks off with us moving onto a rather ragged and ruined boat, which is full of rather ragged and battered-looking men. We find out it's a ship transporting prisoners- which has recently been hit by a storm and all onboard are on their last ebb. Suddenly something from the deep starts eerily billowing with massive lashing gilled limbs pushing the boat into the rocks of a nearby island. Next, we find Lt. Claude de Ross (Claudio Cassinelli) washed up on the island shore- fairly soon he’s meeting up with one or two of the prisoners from the ship, and start investigating the mysterious island. It has a semi-active volcano, reedy swampland, and seemingly abandoned native village- where it looks like voodoo has been performed. Along comes a blond hair woman on horseback- this is Amanda (Barbara Bach), who informs the group the island is private, and they need to get off straight away- but instead, they follow her, finding a grand plantation like mansion. Here we meet the moustached, smartly suited, and sleekly shifty Edmound (Richard Johnson)- who is seemingly in charge of the island and has a selection of native henchmen and women.
As we get into the film, we find the island rife with Mermen- who are only calmed of their brutal and claw slashing ways by being given some white liquid. We get one of the film's more atmospheric/ darkly sensual moments when Amanda walks out into the sea at dusk, to be surrounded by emerging mermen ready for their hit. It seems the mermen are from the lost city of Atlantis, and the shifty Edmound is using them to steal the cities treasure- as it lays several miles below the island, and the only way to just about see the city is by a driving elevator, which can be accessed by stalactites lined caves of the island.
The film unfolds with a nice feeling of mystery and mood, and along the way, we get a good blend of enjoyable action and adventure. This is edged by the more atmospheric and horror elements- we of course have the mermen, and they look rather neat- they have big, teethed heads, with huge fisheyes in- having clawed hands, webbed feet, and seaweed wrapped bodies. We get some great underwater shots of the mermen, as well of course of brooding shots when they emerge from the water. Otherwise, we have the flame lite night voodoo/ native interactions- which are both moody, and at points quite chilling/ tense.
Moving onto the acting, and Cassinelli is good as the scruffy-bearded lead- to me, he has a look of a more toned and moodier Jason Segel. Johnson, as usually nicely hams things up as the up to no good English gent. With Bach as the passable damsel in distress. Supporting actor wise we have Franco Javarone as a loyal prison from the boat, and Joseph Cotton as Amanda’s ailing doctor father who lives in the house- who has a few secrets himself.
All in all, I very much enjoyed The Island of the Fishmen- as it’s an entertaining blend of adventure and horror, with some neat atmospheric touches along the way. Sure, it would have been nice to have a bit more horror in the mix, but I don’t miss it too much. It’s certainly not up to the level of Martino's more celebrated, and rightly respected classic films- but if you enjoy island-based action-adventure, with light horror touches- you’ll very much get a kick out of what we have here.
The region free disc features a new HD print of the film, and this looks nice & well defined- though the sound is a little booming at times, with the mix between the dialogue and musical score being a little uneven in places. Like most of Full Moon releases- this is a bare-bones affair, with just a trailer reel.
It’s certainly great to have The Island of the Fishmen back in print again, as Sergio Martino's other more known/ respected work has been in print for some time now. It’s a pity there’s no commentary track/ extras- as it would have been great to have someone like Martino expert Kat Ellinger doing a track, or maybe an interview or two- but the release is what it is. Certainly, one for Martino fans, or those who like 70’s euro adventure horror blends.