Monster Island

What can you say when the scrip is obviously one of Bruno Mattei's old leftover Preditor rip offs, literally whole scenes ... In this day and age how on earth could this get passed as anything other than a pastiche ? ... But no, sense of humour is totally absent ... Its well filmed and acted ... It isn't written, its some dreadful cut and paste job ... The creatures are quite good, though obviously a guy in a suit, which is cool in my book ... The pacing is awful, it draaaaaaaaaaags from the start ... What should have been a fun romp creature feature is just handled far too seriously and it totally ruins it ... Just a complete waste of time and money when they obviously had enough money to make something decent ... Main problem must have been obvious from pre production ... Who green lit this and didn't have the suss to see that it could have succeeded with a bit of work from a decent writer and a director that knew what he was doing.

I recently watched the Japanese film 🇯🇵 Monster Island (2024) on Shudder. The storyline follows a group of war criminals whose boat explodes, leaving them stranded on a remote island in the Pacific Ocean. But they're not alone-something deadly hunts them, picking them off one by one. Where is this creature from, and can anyone survive it?

The film is written and directed by Mike Wiluan (Buffalo Boys) and stars Dean Fujioka (Fullmetal Alchemist), Callum Woodhouse (B&B), and Alan Maxson (V/H/S: Beyond).

There was a lot I enjoyed about this film. The practical effects were fantastic, and I especially loved the creature design-it had a strong Creature from the Black Lagoon vibe. The gore and kill scenes were impressive, but the CGI was hit or miss. Explosions, fire, and blood effects didn't quite land and pulled me out of the moment a bit. The story itself was very straightforward and lacked imagination, and by the final act, it started to lose steam.

In conclusion, Monster Island is a solid monster movie that mixes old-school creature feature charm with modern special effects. I'd give it a 6.5/10.

Despite of never having heard about the 2024 movie "Orang Ikan" (aka "Monster Island"), of course I opted to watch it as I had the opportunity here in 2025. I am a big fan of all things horror after all.

The storyline certainly sounded interesting as served through the synopsis, however I have to say that the actual movie itself, well not so much. Sure, it was watchable, and there was potential, but ultimately it was a tedious and generic movie.

I was not familiar with a single actor on the cast list. The acting performances were not particularly outstanding or memorable, which was a shame, as the movie had a very small cast ensemble, and thus was depending on the acting performances to carry a certain weight of the movie.

The effects in the movie were okay, and I did like the creature design and the way that they made the aquatic creature look. It definitely helped keep the movie afloat, pardon the pun.

Ultimately then "Orang Ikan" is not a movie that I would recommend you to waste 84 minutes on watching.

My rating of writer and director Mike Wiluan's 2024 movie "Orang Ikan" lands on a generous four out of ten stars.

Stranded in the middle of the war, Japanese and American soldiers are stuck on a remote island while their sides wage war during World War II and must work together to fight off the ravenous creature that's living on the island, hunting everything that sets foot there.

For the most part, this was a fairly fun creature feature. Among the better qualities of this one stem from the storyline featured here, which takes a somewhat conventional monster movie trope and offers some fresh spins on everything. With the experience detailing the closing days of World War II and the efforts by the Japanese soldiers to come to terms with their stance in the war in the form of a traitor in their ranks only to be prevented from doing anything due to the Allied strike on the ship performing the inquiry, there's some fun setup at play here. Not only does this provide a fun way to strand everyone on the island when the survivors are washed ashore before the ship explodes with everyone onboard, but it also allows us to generate some sympathy between everyone, and we also get to experience a bit more about the dynamic between the two of them when they arrive on the island. How they bond and interact with each other is a great way to set this one up going forward, with the whole thing being interrupted by the discovery of the creature, all of which helps this one rather nicely as we see their friendship blossom. The other big positive here is the strength of the creature attacks, which are handled incredibly well. The humanoid stance and fishman-like appearance of the creature being accomplished practically means this one gets up and personal with how it focuses the immediacy of the attacks, interrupting the Japanese soldiers talking to him on the island or stalking the group through the jungle, which gives this some impressive sequences. As well, the second half is devoted almost entirely to the hunt to stop the creature, which means a slew of fun tactics is ready to defend themselves against the creature, only to be confronted with the possibility of having to rely on different tactics to finally stop it. This all results in some exceptionally gruesome and bloody kills featuring the creature ripping not just the soldier victims it comes across but also the other random figures at home on the island, which is just as much fun as the rest of the action involved with the film, all of which makes for a lot of fun positives here. There are some issues present here that do hold this one down somewhat. The main drawback to be had with this one is the somewhat bland pace featured here, which gives everything a draining experience to sit through. The fact that so much happens in the second half is obvious from the extended amount of time featuring the duo on the island, trying to come to terms with the situation, mostly due to the decision to make all of their bonding occur at that point in the film. Trying to come to an understanding and recognize who they are and what they need from each other to survive is a great way to start everything but it does this at the expense of the action, as that first half becomes a struggle to get through, as it becomes apparent it just doesn't have enough to justify a feature-length running time. Dispatching as many bodies as it does immediately, only to then go through time-wasting scenes such as ammo stock-up or just meandering exploration of the jungle doesn't offer a lot of thrilling elements throughout here, and it tends to give this one the kind of sluggish start that's hard to overcome.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Language.

No pun intended - since Predator came out many moons ago (decades actually) any movie that is close to what it did, will be compared with it. You know: if it bleeds, we can kill it. Same applies here and again no pun intended. Just saying for arguments sake and all that.

Now I do not remember the budget that Predator had, but it was big budget (Schwarzenegger just to name one of the actors in it) - and this right here is anything but. So if you consider the budget this had, this is really well done! And while the story may not have many surprises, the effects work as intended. Also the run time is short enough - so I don't think anyone will be annoyed at any point. Action and stunts are good too - the make up/costume is also quite good ... yes you can tell it is a human in a suit ... but suspension of disbelief is needed with most movies anyway, this is no different in any regard.

Just go along with the ride ... not a holiday vacation of course.