Island of Death (Review)
Monday, 21st March 2011, 13:42

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Although I have seen most of the films that were either on the DPP's list of films that were officially considered obscene or others that were caught up in the whole débâcle and wrongly termed 'video nasties'. I had never heard of Island of Death until I watched the Video Nasties: The Definitive Guide DVD set and saw it introduced on there by Allen Bryce followed by a German trailer for the film which was under the alternate title of The Devils in Mykonos. Seemingly leaving no taboo left uncovered, I decided that I had to see the film and, fortunately, Arrow Video were planning a release. Showing that a great deal has changed since the mid-1980s, the BBFC passed this uncut with an 18 certificate so the film would be available in the form that writer/director Nico Mastorakis intended it to be seen.

The film begins with a rather oblique image that won't make sense until the film is nearly finished but then you are introduced to an English brother and sister, Christopher and Celia, arriving on the beautiful Greek island of Mykonos. Once there, I a scene that beautifully sets the tone, they decide to have sex in a phone box whilst on the phone to their mother in London. Unsure of where exactly to go, they ask a local for directions only to find that he is actually an American and overtly homosexual. Once they find the apartment, Christopher takes a shine to the small building at the end of the garden which, being a keen photographer, he wants to turn into a dark room for the duration of their stay.

Trying to describe the actual narrative arc of Island of Death isn't easy as apparently Nico Mastorakis wrote the whole thing in only a week but still created something that is fascinating viewing. The film is almost a descent into madness as both Christopher and Celia have prophetic dreams – ones that they believe will come true. This is particularly the case with Celia who dreams they will meet a man who raped her and murders Christopher, something he dismisses out of hand that is strangely superstitious when it came to Celia's decision to buy a diary as he thinks a red book will bring bad luck and he doesn't want to keep a record of what they do on the island.

As the two murderous lovers embark on a rampage across the island to rid it of people who are in some way impure as Christopher wants to leave the island to innocent people and to nature, whoever doesn't fit into Christopher's ideal will be dispatched. Christopher seems to take an instant dislike to his 'guide, when he and Celia are invited to the man's engagement party to (shock, horror!) another man. Although he was a little weird beforehand, something seems to snap in Christopher and he decides to kill the two men. They won't be the only ones to go as he also wants to do away with drug dealers, gays, prostitutes and African-Americans. Unbeknownst to Christopher, the only black man on the island is a private investigator who has been hired by his mother but, PI or not, the man has to go.

During the course of Island of Death, virtually every taboo and depraved act as people are killed in extremely nasty ways and you will have such wonderful pastimes as bestiality, animal murder, watersports, attempted rape, Sapphic love, sodomy, racism, homophobia and incest. There are also many different ways of killing people from shooting them to cutting them up with a sword, beheading them with a construction vehicle, crucifying them and making them drink lime or burning them with an aerosol. Mastorakis reputedly spent one day writing a list of outrageous sex acts and the next a list of gruesome ways to die, with his form in the backbone of his screenplay. As the VHS cover art said, "The lucky ones got their brains blown out"!

This didn't just run into trouble in the UK was banned in several other countries and heavily censored elsewhere and has only been available in cut form in Britain until Arrow Video's submission to the BBFC in 2010. For a film that contains such extreme material, it is surprising just how unintentionally funny some of it is because of the now dated costumes, dialogue and representation of a homosexual lifestyle. In the commentary, Mastorakis claims that people laugh because they need an output from absorbing all the horror and I don't think he grasps how unintentionally amusing some of the dialogue can be. In addition, some of the death scenes are so extreme, they are funny, especially the beheading with the front of a bulldozer!

I really didn't know what to expect from Island of Death, whether I would be shocked, disturbed or affected but I didn't expect to be slightly amused and enjoy it quite as much as I did. In Christopher, Mastorakis has created a truly disturbing and fanatical character who you are occasionally side with (at least I did) as you want the violence and, rather than being upset by the scene in which he makes to a goat because Celia isn't in the mood is somewhat funny because of its absurdity and then, when he takes a knife to the animal, you know that it wasn't really harmed because otherwise the BBFC would have insisted the scene be removed. For a film that was made the sole intention of making money and containing lots of violence because Mastorakis saw how popular The Texas Chain Saw Massacre had been a few years earlier, it is surprisingly engaging and entertaining.

Island of Death has just about everything in terms of the outrageous sexual scenes, methods of murder and a beautiful, picturesque setting. It is also a fantastic watch so should be something that both newcomers to the film and those who have seen it several times before should watch again.

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