Mad Doctor of Blood Island

I recall seeing this film at a drive-in many years ago. While I admit to a tendency of enjoying bad movies, this one had some allure because of its exploitive bent. Yes, the script is bad, the acting is also stinky, and there is some screwball operating the camera who keeps playing with the zoom lens, but the movie attempted to expand the boundaries of shock value in its day. An island monster is running around making hamburger of his victims. A not-too-savvy young American with a Ricky-Nelson haircut is on the case. Care to guess what happens next? When I saw it as a teenager it had an impact, but it probably rates as a grade D horror flick. A product of the Philippines, I believe. Am I recommending it? Only for fans of the genre.

You know you are in one one weird cinematic experience when a prologue to the film opens with some bit about joining the order of the green blood - which has no relevance to the rest of the film other than the fact that green blood is a central ingredient in this poorly crafted, badly acted, and thoroughly fun drive-in exploitation film from the early 70s. Made on the proverbially shoestring budget in the Phillipines with capital and "talent" offered by actor John Ashley, Mad Doctor of Blood Island is really an inexplicable film in many ways. The central story surrounds a daughter going back to some island to see her father who she has not seen in many, many years. A young doctor is traveling along as well(Ashley). When they get there, the two see that there is a dark oppressive cloud hanging over everyone, and it seems it is entirely due to the presence of one Dr. Lorca - resident mad doctor with Roy Orbison shades barking out orders and going on inane diatribes about the fate of mankind, etc... It really doesn't matter as it really doesn't make any sense. Soon we discover through a series of very slow-moving scenes and tight-lipped residents, that Dr. Lorca has been experimenting with plant chlorophyll(yep, you heard me) and human beings(now we can surmise the genius used in making the blood green right?). Well, to spin a not-so-intriguing story short, chaos ensues and the doctor gets even madder - if that were even possible. This movie has all the elements needed to have a successful so-bad-it-is-good movie: ridiculous dialog, hammy bad acting(Remy playing Dr. Lorca is a real hoot for all the wrong reasons), virtually no budget and what budget it does have is poorly used, and atrocious special effects. The "monster" looks just awful and totally unconvincing. John Ashley is okay in his role. You can do a lot worse to be sure, and his female buxom co-star Angelique Pettyjohn will keep you interested while she is on screen(especially during her very brief session in the background of the Phillipine woods amidst terror being reeked by the green monster. Pettyjohn is a real stunner! The real inexplicable thing about this film was that it spawned two sequels. Now, that has me scratching my head.

The second film in the Blood Island Trilogy, this movie has nothing to do with the first. But, it does feature John Ashley, was directed by Gerardo de Leon and Eddie Romero, and was shot in the Philippines, so it does have something to do with it, after all.

Ashley did managed to give up his Peace Corps job and become a doctor. he brings along Sheila Willard (Angelique Pettyjohn) to find her father (Tony Edmunds).

Trekkies might remember Pettyjohn from the The Gamesters of Triskelion episode of "Star Trek". Others may have seen her in films such as Stalag 69.

At the same time, Carlos Lopez (Ronaldo Valdez) is trying to convince his mother (Tita Muñoz) to leave the island. She works with the strange Dr. Lorca (Ronald Remy).

Now, this movie did start with a naked native girls running away from a hideous monster, so we can expect it to be a gore and sexploitation adventure.

And, it features just about the most repulsive monster I have ever seen.

It was, however, a disappointment in the sexploitation arena, and the gore wasn't too terribly excessive. Just crazy fun for drive-in movie lovers.

If you are a Z-grade movie fan then you'll pleased to hear that this is one gloriously bad film. You get the full works here - paper-maché monster masks, screaming maidens, wooden acting, brief flashes of nudity, cave walls that are less-than-solid and a surprising dash of 1960s gore. However the best part, or worst depending on your point of view, is the wonderfully stodgy dialogue on display, for example:

Man: "What a scare you gave me. But then you are a kind of ghost yourself aren't you". Woman: "What sensitivity".

Add to this a plot involving chlorophyll (the stuff that makes leaves green) poisoning, native rituals and you've got yourself a decent B-movie. There are some aspects that will undoubtedly annoy most people, the large number of "padded" scenes for example, but the worst has to be the bloody annoying manic lens zooming!. Otherwise the film is fun to watch and will no doubt please most fans of Romero and low-budget horror fare.

Shortly after the Beach Party cycle of films petered out, AIP regular John Ashley went to the Philippines to produce with Eddie Romero a handful of exploitation films, of which this is the best known. It is a little disconcerting to see the arch in his career at this point. All those beach party and hot rod flicks that John did for Mr. Arkoff were admirably quaint, yet seem like Kubrick compared to the standard production values of these films.

Reference books all mention how awful these movies are, yet for some they are so putrid that they create a strange kind of attraction. But these films are nonetheless interesting for their bewildering atmosphere: these sweaty, tinny opuses seem to be made in the spirit of 40's B-pictures with liberal amounts of cheap 60's gore. This second entry in the "Blood Island" series (following BRIDES OF BLOOD, which is even worse) concerns the Chlorophyll Monster running amok, scaring natives, and putting viewers to sleep. As dreadful as these spate of Filipino exploitation films are, during their proliferation in the 1960's and 70's, it was always interesting to see who popped up in them. This time, Ashley's co-star is the lovely Angelique Pettyjohn, whom Trekkies would remember from the "Gamesters of Triskelion" episode, and who had yet to embark on a career of Triple X features such as TITILLATION.

Romero's monster is so frightening that the height of suspense comes when the creature just stands there and stands there for the longest time when it is cornering somebody. I haven't seen this deadening rot in over 12 years, yet for some reason I am getting a craving to see it all over again. Are we that fed up with the mainstream, that we masochistically seek out films that we know are pieces of painfully inept tedium just to escape some piece of Hollywood mediocrity? Is it more important to trudge through the Grade Z movie universe to find that one moment that actually works or exhibits some whisper of technical competence, than to be de-sensitized by any standard commercial fare where production values are taken for granted? Is it just some piece of lost youth we are attempting to regain in these movie experiences no matter what the price of disappointment? I don't know, but thanks to the DVD revolution, someone is unearthing these curious pictures all over again, as it is well nigh impossible to find this stuff on VHS anymore, and the barrel scrapings of the late show are now lined with infomercials for mouthy psychics and TimeLife books. At least its sequel BEAST OF BLOOD is marginally better.