Tanya's Island (1980)

A female model faces off against an ape on a tropical island.

Director:

Alfred Sole

Writer:

Pierre Brousseau

Stars:

Vanity, Richard Sargent, Mariette Lévesque

1 nomination.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Vanity	...	Tanya (as D.D. Winters)
Richard Sargent	...	Lobo
Mariette Lévesque	...	Kelly
Don McLeod	...	Blue (as Don McCloud)
Donny Burns	...	Blue's Voice (voice)

Storyline

Tanya (Vanity-D.D. Winters) is a drop-dead-gorgeous model who lives with her boyfriend Lobo (Richard Sargent), a surrealist extremely violent painter. Subjected to his constant abuse, she dreams of escaping to a desert island, and her dream comes true. The only other person on her island is an enormous blue-eyed man-ape (played by Don McLeod and voiced by Donny Burns) who emerged from one of Lobo's paintings. She befriends the beast and nicknames him "Blue." Soon she begins to feels a strange attraction to the creature. But Lobo appears on the island he is increasingly jealous about "Blue". He becomes determined to capture the man-ape and put it in a cage.

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Plot Keywords:

interracial relationship | island | model | desert island | cage | 

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Taglines:

Fantasy and reality meet on Paradise island

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

Canada

Language:

English

Release Date:

5 December 1980 (USA)

Also Known As:

Hikyû no Tania

Filming Locations:

Puerto Rico

Box Office

Budget:

CAD 1,400,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Canadian Film Development Corporation (CFDC), International Film Exchange--Fred Baker

Technical Specs

Runtime:

82 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White Color

Did You Know?

Connections

Featured in SexTV: Monstrous Desires: Sexuality and Horror/A Moment with... David Cronenberg (2005)

User Reviews

Potentially interesting but flawed film

Depending on your point of view this movie is either an interesting Freudian exploration of the "beauty and the beast" myth, or it is a particularly pretentious example of what Robin Bougie of "Cinema Sewer" magazine hilariously dubbed the "bigfoot-rape" film. Evidence of the former would be that this was directed by Alfred Sole who directed the cult horror classic "Alice, Sweet Alice". This isn't a patch on that one,of course, but it's better than a lot of Soles other equally bizarre, post-"Alice" projects (like the off-the-wall slasher spoof "Pandemonium"). Evidence of the latter, however, would be that this movie stars D.D. Winters, a singer/actress who couldn't really sing and DEFINITELY couldn't act. She would later become Prince's protegee under the name of "Vanity" and then eventually a born-again Christian (and I'm not sure which is worse).

This movie is about sexy and oft-naked woman and her husband who go off to live on an island for reasons that eluded me. The only other being on the island is a ape man/bigfoot type creature who the girl nicknames "Blue". The girl feels a strange affection, even perhaps an attraction, to the creature, which makes her husband increasingly jealous. He becomes determined to capture this monster and put it in a cage. The Freudian metaphor here is pretty obvious--the monster represents the wild, uncivilized side of the man, and he fears the woman's attraction to it and wants to repress both it and her. This intriguing idea is pretty seriously fumbled though by some truly horrid acting and a clichéd, cop-out ending usually used by filmmakers when they have totally run out of ideas.

This movie greatly resembles the notorious Walerian Borozyx film "The Beast". It is also a arty, metaphoric exploration of bestiality (albeit a little less graphic than the Borozyx film). But while "The Beast" also starred a sexy but talentless actress (Sirpa Lane) as the object of the bestial affections, Borzyx had the good sense not to give her any lines. Winters has many lines in this movie and is unbelievably annoying when she's not having sex or getting naked. More importantly, however, "The Beast" had a strong ending that tied everything together, while this one . . .well, I won't spoil it--I'll just let it spoil itself. This is a potentially interesting but flawed film.