Attack of the Beast Creatures, also known as Hell Island, is a regional independent horror film produced and directed by Michael Stanley. It was filmed in Stanford, Connecticut, and stars a cast of unknowns who are basically known for this one movie!

Taking place in 1920, the story is about a group of travelers that are drifting on a lifeboat until they wind up on what might be an inhabited island. The island turns into dangerville for the cast, as it has an acid lake that one person jumps into thinking that it is drinking water.  The island also turns out to have some nasty critters, several small doll-like creatures that like to take the bite out of humans, much to their chagrin! They take bloody bites out of the entire cast with vigor! The creatures resemble the Zuni Warrior doll from Trilogy of Terror!

This was the first time I watched this movie and I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed Attack of the Beast Creatures. To me it was great cheesy, gory non-stop fun when the cast is on the island. They spend most of the film being chased by those hideous doll creatures that have no eyeballs. Yes, it is a low-budget B-movie picture, but it was well-done, loaded with bloody action and a notch above others, such as any film directed by Larry Buchanan, while on par with some others such as Planet of the Dinosaurs and The Alien Factor. The movie features an effective synthesizer musical score, good compelling performances by the doomed cast, lots of action and great gore doll creature special effects. The acid bath scene was unforgettable with the clear close-up shot of the actor’s face a horribly bloody mess! That was the goriest part of the film that some might be repulsed by!  Robert A. Hutton was responsible for the excellent cinematography, capturing a lot of terrific shots of the island.

Vinegar Syndrome releases Attack of the Beast Creatures on Blu-ray. The first two things I’ll mention is that this is a Region Free Blu-ray, and the film was restored from the original theatrical version via a 16mm camera negative. Attack of the Beast Creatures has never looked better, and it may never will. Overall, the picture quality for this release is outstanding and is quite a revelation. The colors are rich throughout with blues, greens, and reds look strongest with excellent, sharp details to the image with a vast amount of texturing. Black levels also look excellent with a wealth of shadow detail. Night scenes also look clear. The clarity of the picture is incredible! There are a few vertical lines the pop up for a few seconds, mainly toward the beginning, but it didn’t really affect the viewing enjoyment that I had for the picture. I didn’t find it all that distracting.

The English DTS-HD master audio 2.0 is also strong with the dialogue, creature sounds, and John P. Mozzi’s synthesizer score coming in perfectly clear and balanced. There is one spot where the audio sounded slightly different which lasted for about a minute until the next scene where the audio was back to normal. It wasn’t a drop-off or hissing issue, but the balance of the sounds was altered for some reason. English SDH subtitles are offered for this release.

Extras for this release include a partial commentary track with director Mike Stanley, interviews with Mike Stanley and writer Robert Hutton, test footage and a preservation of the VHS version from the 1” tape master. The VHS image is full screen, looks decent, but obviously pales in comparison to the Blu-ray. The VHS version runs about a minute longer than the Blu-ray release.

Also, lucky patrons who ordered early also received the limited-edition slipcover and is now sold out.

To say I was pleasantly surprised by this movie is a great understatement. Now I see why the movie is referred to as a cult classic! The film is great fun, and now looks superb in high definition, thanks to the great restoration by Vinegar Syndrome. That, along with the supplements make this a worthwhile, recommended release with or without a slipcover!

Attack of the Beast Creatures

Director – Mike Stanley

Cast- Robert Nolfi , Julia Rust

Country of Origin- USA

Distributor – Vinegar Syndrome  

Number of Discs – 1

Reviewed by – David Steigman

Date –2/13/2023