Exploring Island of Death (2015)
*** 1/2 (out of 4)
Stephen Thrower hosts and narrates this thirty-eight minute documentary that covers the making of Nico Mastorakis' ISLAND OF DEATH, the controversial 1976 Greek movie. If you're a fan of the film then you'll certainly love this lecture from Thrower who shares all sorts of great stories about its production. Not only is this film covered but he quickly talks about a few other Mastorakis movies like THE Greek TYCOON, BLIND DATE and BLOODTIDE. The main focus, however, is on the 1976 film and the various controversies that followed it. As usual, Thrower not only discusses the production but he also gives us bits of history on various actors in the picture and he also talks about the releases and alternate titles that have happened across the globe. There are obviously a lot of spoilers in the documentary so it's best that you watch the film first. If you've seen the film then you know what a weird and over-the-top picture it actually is and Thrower does a great job at giving it its spotlight. As he said, when you watch enough exploitation movies it's hard to find something that is actually shocking but ISLAND OF DEATH is exactly that.
