Island of Death (1975) was made by Nico Mastorakis, and, as usual
with his DVDs, his commentary alone is worth the price of the DVD.
He is very candid here. He made this film to make money. After
seeing Texas Chainsaw Massacre, he felt he could make a film with
better production quality for a much lower budget, and with a great
deal more violence, and thus make a fortune. He wrote the script, hired
primarily local people, even playing a part himself, and made his
perverse film. How perverse is it? Well, to this day, he would
rather his own grown daughter didn't see it, and it made the famous list of
"video nasties" in the UK.
A young couple, seemingly happy newlyweds, arrive on the Greek
island of Mykonos (Devils in Mykonos was the original title), rent a
house, and seem to be having a sort of photography trip and
honeymoon. They have sex in a phone booth. The next morning, he
wakes up, and she doesn't want sex, so he does what any of us would.
He goes out to the garden, fucks a goat, then chops it up with a big
knife and tosses it down the well they get their drinking water
from. Later, she seduces an artist, then they crucify him to the
ground with nails, and pour whitewash into his mouth. As we slowly
learn, this is their real enjoyment in life. The think they are
ridding the world of perverse people, and record this divine work
using a Nikon. Among the perverse people are a gay couple, there
landlady whom he nails through a door with a scythe through the
chest, an old lecherous woman, whom they OD with heroin then BBQ her
face with a hair spray torch, two hippies that decide to rape her in
the bath (one gets a fishing spear, the other is drowned in the
toilette), a lesbian barmaid who is decapitated by a tractor plow
and a black detective chasing them whom they hang by the neck from a
plain then drop into the water. The ending is suitable perverse as
well. Not only do we learnt that the two are actually brother and
sister (oh no, incest as well), but a shepherd hides them from the
police, rapes her, buggers him, then throws him into a pit of quick
lime.
While transgressive cinema has become ever more perverse and
violent since 1975, Island of Death still holds up well, as it has
great production values, is shot in a beautiful location, and is
fast-paced.
The US version is out of print and very expensive at Amazon
marketplace. Fortunately, RLDVDs.com carries a German version in both English and German and with optional
German subtitles. It has all the special features of the out-of-print US edition. If this is your sort of material, you need this
one.
Jane Ryall, as the woman, shows everything and is frequently
naked. She was not an actress, but the daughter of the local Black
and Decker rep. Jessica Dublin, as the old letch, shows breasts.
Several unknowns show body parts.
Scoop's notes: In
my review, I noted the following: "Jane Ryall,
who played the sister of the brother-sister psychopaths, was
actually the daughter of the local representative for Black and
Decker on the island of Mykonos. It is said of many actresses that
they have 'all the tools.' Jane not only had the tools, but could
get them to you at affordable prices."
