Own the rights?
The whole package of "Isle of the Damned" (and some of the ads for this online) lead you to believe that it's a "lost" Italian film of the cannibal sub-genre, and when I first read about it I was irritated because I could not find anything about the people that were in it. Then I found out that this is all a put-on, that this is really a modern film done in the style of these charming films of old, and so I sprung for a copy of it and just watched it.The film certainly seems to cover most of the bases that I can think of. Bad dubbing, inappropriate voices for the characters (Jack Steele, one of the main characters, has a "dubbed" voice that sounds like..uh, Isaac Hayes?), lots of non-verbal sounds from the characters which approximate quite well some of the quirks in Italian films (grunts, yummy noises, etc), absolutely ridiculous 80's Italian hairstyles, not to mention a fabulous comb-over. There's also the cannibals, who excel in their roles, and do all the nasty things that cannibals do in Umberto Lenzi, Ruggero Deodato, etc., films.Now, Jack Steele has an adopted son Billy, who he's quite worried about because Billy seems to have suffered some kind of trauma. Billy dresses in red short-shorts, a t-shirt, rainbow suspenders, rainbow wristbands, and a beanie with a propeller on it. Also reasons to worry. Billy is also the target of one Thompson, who reminded me a bit of John Candy channeling Captain Kangaroo, that is, if Captain Kangaroo was a chicken-hawk. And thus, Billy is a bit sexually confused and pretty well scrambled upstairs, in general.Now, of course, our intrepid explorers tangle with cannibals here & there, & Thompson is captured, but the cannibals consider him to be a coward so they don't eat him, they show him who's boss....one at a time, each male member of the tribe...uh...shows him who's boss. Ow.And let's not forget Alexis Kincaid & his daughter, who live on the island and have for years. The know of a treasure that's there, which is what our gang have come looking for, but they really have no interest in the treasure themselves.This is both a fairly disgusting film & quite funny too, but not usually at the same time. No punches are pulled with it comes to removing innards or lopping off some unfortunate man's member. But to temper that, we also have some definite laugh out loud parts. I got a few good chuckles because as with most cannibal type films, there has to be a bit of time spent on the local wildlife, with a couple of sound effects thrown in to enhance the viewing experience. But there was not enough of that to make things too silly.If you're a fan of the cannibal sub-genre & would like to see a good skewering of that style, then check this out. Otherwise, I don't think this is a comedy to rent for a Saturday night for Joe Six-pack & family. 7 out of 10.
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