fanorr

I think that when you review a movie, you need to take the time period into account. This was a low budget 1970s , pre-Star Wars sci fi. AIP never had the kind of budget you need to hire Industrial Light And Magic or Stan Winston's Alien creatures Special Effects team. Nevertheless, this little feature tried very hard to make things as believable as possible. And Bert Gordon did not just phone this one in, he wrote a pretty good screenplay and hired very competent B movie actors to fill in. All the lesser actors fall by the way side, as always happens in creature features, so you finish out the story with the more effective actors.

I will admit that about a third of the way through, I was lulled into the feeling that everything would be very predictable and started to get bored. I was almost ready to exit the stream when my wash load dried. But suddenly the plot started to deviate from the norm and little mysteries started to pop up. I was soon believing I had things figured out, when it took an even more interesting turn. All the loose ends get explained by the end. The ending is why I decided to write this review and give it 8 stars. Obviously, if this film had been made later in the 80s or 90s, expectations would be higher and a film of this quality level would not rate 8 stars. But for 1977 it is pretty decent, especially for the budget they had. Stick around for the second half of the film. I think you might be pleasantly surprised by the original plot twist.

Oh... and I HAD to edit this review again because I almost forgot about the last frame as the credits roll. You see a wide shot of the river on the island. All I can say is if you ever saw Robert Lansing in "The 4D Man" and you stayed until the last frame, the ending of this picture has a definite resemblance to that one. I figure this must be an Easter Egg left by the director as a reference to that film. I wonder if Robert Lansing suggested it, or director Gordon liked that picture too. The 4D Man is another really great B movie Sci Fi, with music that is a real time capsule for 1959.

After seeing the movie and reading the other reviews, I believe I should add an alternate opinion. The film is a slow simmer rather than a frantic sex thriller. And yes, the sex scenes are not the usual grunting, breathless BS where the girl somehow can't wait to rip off her clothes and then orgasms after about 30 seconds of doing it. Everything shown is directly related to the characterizations of the lead players. The twists and turns happen organically, and the writer did a good job of revealing the story gradually. This is not a story for the impatient. Movies used to be written that way. Unfortunately, short form Tik Tok videos and today's quest for "fast paced" stories and "action" coupled with some people's expectation of explicit porno sex scenes seem to have caused these kind of stories to become very rare.

I also must respectfully disagree with those that say the actors were lacking in effort. I found every characterization to be proper for the story and the actors all did more with their eyes and manners to portray their parts. No one was over emoting. Once again, the preconceived expectations of the reviewers were coloring their opinion of the actors performances.

Overall, I think this was a good movie. I enjoyed taking the ride, and I let Marley Shelton seduce me, just like she did the others. Just don't expect a porno thriller. That is not what this is about.

Personally, I found the movie be pretty good. It was refreshing to see Billy Zane in a non-psychopathic role for once. All of the actors gave it their best. There wasn't a weak link in the production. And the plot twists were about what you would expect from a caper/extortion story line. All caper movies these days have betrayals and twists, so if you watch enough of them you can mostly predict who is going to betray who. But this one at least tried to convince you that some things were different than they turned out to be. The soundtrack was the typical late 80s to mid 90s cheap synthesizer crapola but that's what you got from Showtime in those days to keep the budget in the grade B zone.

I always thought Mia Sara was one beautiful lady, and in this one you get to see a few brief flashes of her breasts and bod, so that added to the enjoyment for us 90s Noir fans.

All in all, if you aren't one of those complainers who are never satisfied, you might enjoy it.