Yep, it's so bad it's good and this little gem has so many moments in it for viewers to throw in their own jokes that it ultimately becomes one's own Mystery Science Theater 3000. It's so easy to say that this is one of the worst films ever made but the truth is that it's not the worst and also the low budget cheesiness just makes this a lot of fun to watch. I personally enjoy these types of films and I never get tired of viewing them so unless your taste is confined to just a small spectrum of high brow cinema this ultra cheap film can absolutely be fun for the viewer. Story is about 4 teenagers who go out boating one afternoon and head to what they thought was a deserted island but once they arrive they discover that someone actually lives there.
*****SPOILER ALERT***** The 4 teens are Reg (Don Sullivan AKA Scotty Beckett), Skip (Paul Pepper), Julie (Mitzie Albertson), and Pam (Brianne Murphy) and they end up being captured by a female mad scientist named Dr. Myra (Katherine Victor) and her deformed man slave Ivan (Chuck Niles) and thrown into some cages in the basement. Dr. Myra is in cahoots with some foreign agents to make a nerve gas that causes people to become zombie-like but before she tests it on the kids she uses a gorilla(!) first and discovers that her research has worked. Meanwhile, Morrie (Jay Hawk) and Dotty (Nan Green) are worried about their missing pals and go to the local sheriff's office but when they all go to the island it turns out that the Sheriff (Mike Concannon) is in business with Dr. Myra!
This is directed by the infamous Jerry Warren who along with Ed Wood was one of those filmmakers whom you could count on for low budget silliness and let's face it...this has plenty! First off, when actress Victor makes her appearance she looks like a cross between Lily Munster and Vampira (and Elvira!) and she wears these fancy evening gowns even though she's supposed to be alone on an island and even keeps them on under her lab coat. I had to scratch my head when she conveniently had cold soda pop in her cupboard for the teens and unless she and Ivan like to sit around and have a cold one you have to wonder why someone so diabolical would have soda pop. And speaking of Ivan, with that long sleeve coat he wears he looks like a combination of Quasimodo and some gangland vato but I especially couldn't help but notice that when he brought some food for the two hot looking chicks he took an extra long time leering at them. Some of the other innocuous things that made an impression on me are things like the sheriff's office which actually looks like a diner or a roadside gift shop. The raft that Reg and Skip put together has got to be the worse thing I ever saw and did they really think that a few pieces of lumber would keep the four of them afloat? Gilligan could have done a better job! Did I hear right when Morrie said that the island was 30 or 40 miles away by boat? It would take forever for anyone to get to that island and speaking of Morrie he seems like an Anthony Perkins type of person who's always rubbing his clammy little hands together and when he's talking at the sheriff's office he has this nervous look on his face like he's ready to empty his bowels. The fight that takes place in the lab towards the end of the film has got to be the worst choreographed thing I ever saw and they all look like drunks at an Easter egg hunt but I was really surprised that some dumb teenager could beat a (supposed) highly trained foreign agent in a fight. For anyone interested in some trivia you might want to know that actress Murphy who plays Pam was actually Warrens wife and she would go on to an incredibly successful career behind the scenes in both television and film. The actor who plays the vato...er...Ivan was Los Angeles disc jockey Chuck Niles and he was very popular for a number of years and even has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. If your into low budget horror films or a connoisseur of bad cinema in general than this is definitely for you but to be honest I just have a soft spot for small films and an effort like this is quite simply a lot of fun to view.
*****SPOILER ALERT***** The 4 teens are Reg (Don Sullivan AKA Scotty Beckett), Skip (Paul Pepper), Julie (Mitzie Albertson), and Pam (Brianne Murphy) and they end up being captured by a female mad scientist named Dr. Myra (Katherine Victor) and her deformed man slave Ivan (Chuck Niles) and thrown into some cages in the basement. Dr. Myra is in cahoots with some foreign agents to make a nerve gas that causes people to become zombie-like but before she tests it on the kids she uses a gorilla(!) first and discovers that her research has worked. Meanwhile, Morrie (Jay Hawk) and Dotty (Nan Green) are worried about their missing pals and go to the local sheriff's office but when they all go to the island it turns out that the Sheriff (Mike Concannon) is in business with Dr. Myra!
This is directed by the infamous Jerry Warren who along with Ed Wood was one of those filmmakers whom you could count on for low budget silliness and let's face it...this has plenty! First off, when actress Victor makes her appearance she looks like a cross between Lily Munster and Vampira (and Elvira!) and she wears these fancy evening gowns even though she's supposed to be alone on an island and even keeps them on under her lab coat. I had to scratch my head when she conveniently had cold soda pop in her cupboard for the teens and unless she and Ivan like to sit around and have a cold one you have to wonder why someone so diabolical would have soda pop. And speaking of Ivan, with that long sleeve coat he wears he looks like a combination of Quasimodo and some gangland vato but I especially couldn't help but notice that when he brought some food for the two hot looking chicks he took an extra long time leering at them. Some of the other innocuous things that made an impression on me are things like the sheriff's office which actually looks like a diner or a roadside gift shop. The raft that Reg and Skip put together has got to be the worse thing I ever saw and did they really think that a few pieces of lumber would keep the four of them afloat? Gilligan could have done a better job! Did I hear right when Morrie said that the island was 30 or 40 miles away by boat? It would take forever for anyone to get to that island and speaking of Morrie he seems like an Anthony Perkins type of person who's always rubbing his clammy little hands together and when he's talking at the sheriff's office he has this nervous look on his face like he's ready to empty his bowels. The fight that takes place in the lab towards the end of the film has got to be the worst choreographed thing I ever saw and they all look like drunks at an Easter egg hunt but I was really surprised that some dumb teenager could beat a (supposed) highly trained foreign agent in a fight. For anyone interested in some trivia you might want to know that actress Murphy who plays Pam was actually Warrens wife and she would go on to an incredibly successful career behind the scenes in both television and film. The actor who plays the vato...er...Ivan was Los Angeles disc jockey Chuck Niles and he was very popular for a number of years and even has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. If your into low budget horror films or a connoisseur of bad cinema in general than this is definitely for you but to be honest I just have a soft spot for small films and an effort like this is quite simply a lot of fun to view.