Island of Terror
It is important clinical research being carried out in the well-equipped basement of a manor house on Petrie’s Island off the east coast of Ireland by oncologist Doctor Lawrence Phillips, an isolated location but one with few distractions, though also with complications, the power supply on the island from a single generator, not always reliable, and with no telephone lines to the mainland making communication difficult should a crisis occur.
Eminent pathologist Doctor Brian Stanley summoned when the first body is found, that of a farmer, he enlists the help of osteologist Doctor David West due to the strange nature of the case, and along with West’s girlfriend Toni Merrill they set out to investigate, but with the body drained entirely of calcium phosphate, the skeleton dissolved by an unknown enzyme, no causative agent can be determined, and soon livestock begins to suffer a similar fate…
Directed by Terence Fisher whose work for Hammer for more than a decade included Four Sided Triangle, The Curse of Frankenstein and The Hound of the Baskervilles, it was in 1966 that he paid a visit to the Island of Terror, also known as Night of the Silicates and The Night the Creatures Came but none of them providing more than a modicum of threat or menace, any promised terror as notable by its absence as the poor technique of the scientists, wearing gloves but no masks despite having no idea whether an infectious agent may be involved.
With the ubiquitous Peter Cushing as Doctor Stanley, he is accompanied by Edward Judd as Doctor West and on the island they are aided by Niall MacGinnis as Roger Cambell; between The Day the Earth Caught Fire and Night of the Demon both have appeared in films which can be regarded as genuine classics of science fiction and horror, but this is neither, as slow moving as the lumpen “silicates” which shuffle through fields and somehow manage to climb trees to drop on unsuspecting victims.
Toni (Carole Gray) obviating the need to charter a flight as her father owns a helicopter, other than screaming and being put to bed after a fright she does little, and while there are aspects of Day of the Triffids and the much later Grabbers, also set in a coastal Irish settlement, despite the “electronic sound effects” of regular Gerry Anderson collaborator and moody lighting trying to make opening cupboards thrilling the most interesting aspect is that the “silver bullet” of encouraging cells to consume a tainted substrate is a modern cancer treatment, though most likely not with radioactive strontium.
Written by Edward Mann and Al Ramsen and offering little to expand the familiar “community under siege” premise reused in Night of the Big Heat or The Nightmare Man, presented on Blu-ray by 88 Films the new edition of Island of Terror is supported by an audio commentary by film journalist David Flint, the original trailer, a stills gallery and a reversible sleeve of the original poster and new artwork by Sean Longmore.
Island of Terror is available on Blu-ray from 88 Films
