The Blood Island series, directed by Gerardo de Leon and Eddie Romero (save the last film which was directed by Romero solo), is a run of four films all supposedly taking place on the same island, Blood Island, so designated conveniently for its brilliant red sunsets. All four films were shot in the Philippines and all four films involve monsters running amok on the island, often brought about by mad science (although in Brides of Blood Island it’s atomic testing that causes the mutated flora and fauna). The last three also all star former teen heartthrob John Ashley (who would make several more films in The Philippines). These four films are classic hallmarks of Filipino horror cinema and have finally been given the treatment they deserve.
Terror Is A Man
We begin the set with the film Terror is a Man which follows William Fitzgerald (Richard Deer), the lone survivor of a shipwreck, who washes up on the shore of a small island where an eccentric scientist Dr. Girard (Francis Lederer) and his striking but distant wife Frances (Greta Thysson) live a secluded life alongside but apart from local natives who fear the scientist. William discovers that Dr. Girard is conducting bizarre experiments on a panther to make it more human-like, but in the process of these experiments, the panther occasionally escapes its cage and kills. William falls for Frances and they make a pact to escape the island together, but will Dr. Girard’s unholy experiment be the death of them all?
If you couldn’t tell from the description, Terror Is A Man is a variation on H. G. Wells’ The Island of Dr. Moreau and is actually quite a subtle and well-made tale of daring vivisection with lots of atmosphere and dense mood. It does take a bit to really get going, but once it does, it really delivers. Plus check out the fun William Castle-esque “Warning Bell” gimmick that Sam Sherman stuck in there during its redistribution run in the late ’60s to warn people about the surprisingly gruesome for 1959 surgical scene. On the A/V front, this release appears to be largely similar to the previous blu-ray release of the film in Severin’s Blood Island Collection from several years ago with maybe a little bit of clean up done on the image. It also ports over all the same extras.
Brides of Blood
Brides of Blood is the first proper film in the Blood Island series, actually taking place in that titular location rather than the unnamed island of Terror Is A Man. It also marks the first appearance of that handsome devil John Ashley who plays Peace Corps recruit Jim Farrell who heads to Blood Island with Dr. Paul Henderson (Kent Taylor) and his sexy wife Carla (Beverly Powers) to study the effects of the recent nearby nuclear tests on local flora and fauna. Their findings? Mutant trees! Crazed natives into human sacrifice! Some kind of crazy looking monster thing! Will they survive the madness of Blood Island!?
While Terror Is A Man was a surprisingly patiently paced and subtle film of vivisection gone awry, Brides of Blood comes out swinging with full-on ridiculous. Women are always being carted off, subject to the whims of slavering creatures, or fleeing through the woods, screaming with clothes being rent from their bodies by corny tree monsters. The plotting is definitely weaker this time around, but de Leon and Romero make up for it with a greater level of sensationalism and titillation. They also fill the frame with garish color and lots of spooky fog to enhance the chaos. For those who may only know John Ashley for his role as Frankie’s best bud Johnny in the Beach Party movies, the Blood Island films might seem like an odd fit at first. But frankly Ashley takes to it like a fish to water, channeling his early roles in AIP juvenile delinquent flicks as tough guys and his more bluesy, hip swiveling rock ‘n’ roll records to create a no-nonsense character who is as apt to rip a woman’s blouse and suck her face as he is to play the noble hero saving the day. And The Philippines apparently agreed with him since he would return there and appear in films for years after, even forming a production company with Romero and influencing Roger Corman to shoot The Big Doll House there. The A/V specs looks quite good with nice color saturation and a crisp soundtrack. I didn’t compare side-by-side to the previous Severin release, but Severin has said this is a new 4K scan with additional color correction. It also ports over all the extras from the previous release.
Mad Doctor of Blood Island
John Ashley is back, this time playing a different character named Dr. Bill Foster, a pathologist, who travels to the island with the buxom Sheila (Star Trek siren and future porn star Angelique Pettyjohn) to track down her missing dad. Unbeknownst to them is that the mad Dr. Lorca (Ronald Remy) is conducting bizarre experiments involving poisoned chlorophyll which ends up creating a vicious, blood thirsty monster. Will they escape the island alive!?
De Leon and Romero return to Blood Island, upping the craziness, the sleaze and the gore and capping it off with insane zooms even when nothing interesting is happening. They really do go full H.G. Lewis here with severed limbs and internal organs flying around with reckless abandon. Pettyjohn seems to exist solely to get nekkid and run around screaming, and the movie doubles down on the nudity with the sexy and exotic local Maria (Alicia Alonzo) also stripping down and going for a swim. The movie is also absolutely stuffed with green gloop, so much that it would put Nickelodeon’s Double Dare to shame. But more than all of this, perhaps the most notorious and polarizing aspect of this entry in the Blood Island franchise, is de Leon’s and Romero’s decision to go absolutely bonkers with the zoom lens. While a more tasteful film would use the quick zoom in and out sparingly for effect to hammer home a particularly intense sequence (several Shaw Bros. movies come to mind for instance), Mad Doctor of Blood Island uses the effect CONSTANTLY. If a monster jumps out, you can guarantee that camera will be going nuts. But even scenes where nothing particularly thrilling is going on, that lens starts zooming with gleeful abandon anyway. It’s a very curious choice and frankly does get old at times. But it’s also kind of like one of those running gags that is funny at first, then stops being funny but then goes on so long that it starts being funny again. I think by the end I was having fun with them, like an old friend stopping by to say hello again.
Like the previous films, Mad Doctor of Blood Island also comes with a new 4K transfer with additional color correction, and it looks very nice and clean with consistent grain levels and a rich color palette that accentuates all the film’s bright colors (lots of rich greens and reds especially). Unlike the other films in this set, while Mad Doctor of Blood Island does port over all the on-disc extras from the previous Blood Island Collection, they elect to leave out the physical CD of the soundtrack to the film. If you read these reviews regularly from me, you know I love a good CD inclusion, so this missing extra especially hurts.
Beast of Blood
Dr. Foster (John Ashley) faces returning to Blood Island, that hellscape he so narrowly escaped in the last film, in pursuit of the dread chlorophyll monster that destroyed his boat as he was fleeing the island. This time Dr. Foster is accompanied by feisty reporter Myra Russell (Celeste Yarnall). You can’t have a jungle adventure without a shrill woman needing rescued on occasion, am I right? It also turns out that the mad Dr. Lorca (this time played by Eddie Garcia) survived the disastrous inferno of the previous film’s climax and is now attempting to attach a new head to the monster. Will Dr. Foster succeed in stopping Dr. Lorca’s mad plans once and for all?
As previously mentioned, Eddie Romero directs Beast of Blood solo this time, but honestly it feels very much of a piece with the previous two films (Terror Is A Man really has a whole other vibe of its own). Having said that, after the opening sequence, the movie does take a little while to really get going. The first half after they arrive on the island plays more like an old Jungle Jim movie with an emphasis on jungle exploration and more typical perils like wild animals. But fear not, fans of schlock cinema! The back of the film more than makes up for it with gore and ridiculousness aplenty. On the A/V front, Beast of Blood is easily the most improved of the four films and I suspect the main reason Severin revisited these films. The previous version of the film in the Blood Island Collection box set was pretty rough to say the least. This new 4K transfer taken from a 35mm print in from the Library of Congress (the government doin’ the lord’s work over here preserving the films that matter!) looks much cleaner and brighter with far less damage to the image and much better color balance. It’s not a perfect transfer with a bit of fading and some occasional source damage but overall, a massive improvement! Like the other films, the previous extras were ported over from the previous collection as well.
Whether you should check out this box largely depends on a couple of factors. First of all, do you already own the previous Blood Island Collection that Severin put out several years ago? If the answer is “no”, then by all means you should buy the hell out of this set full of ridiculous, fun, trashy jungle horror. Now what if you do already own the Blood Island Collection? I would say especially if you are a fan of Beast of Blood, it is still worth an upgrade; the image quality is improved that much. Regardless if you have even the slightest inclination to explore the finest The Philippines has to offer, well… I mean, you should probably watch Insiang or something. But once you’re done with that and want to have a good time, then this set is a no-brainer!