ISLAND OF THE FISHMEN

Oh boy...


Sergio Martino often finds himself bearing the label of "hack director". He worked in every conceivable genre - with the exception of hardcore pornography - throughout his long career, churning out dramas, police actioners, gialli, straight-up horror films and sex comedies at a fairly brisk clip. His excursions into the sci-fi genre are among his worse efforts. 2019: AFTER THE FALL OF NEW YORK might have been one of the better Italian post-apocalypse films that came in the wake of ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK but it still suffered from lousy scripting, worse production design and mediocre acting. His 1979 mess, ISLAND OF THE FISHMEN, makes that film look like solid gold.


Island of the Fishmen

Essentially a dumbed down adaptation of THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU, ISLAND OF THE FISHMEN tells the tale of a group of shipwrecked sailors - chief among them Lt. Claude de Ross - that find themselves on a nearly abandoned volcanic island. After losing a few men to natural and not-so-natural dangers, Claude and his two surviving men finds themselves in the home of Edmond Rackham, a slimy James Bond-baddie type, and Amanda Martin, a beautiful young woman with eyes for Claude. As the film wears on and Claude's two men get bumped off, we learn that Amanda's father, an eccentric biologist played by the once mighty Joseph Cotten, has been creating a new race of fishmen in an attempt to prolong the existence of the human race. Edmond, however, has been using them for a much more devious purpose: to excavate the treasures from the lost kingdom of Atlantis - conveniently located right off the coast of the island. When Claude blows Edmond's cover to the unaware Amanda, Edmond and his voodoo-practicing cohorts stick Claude in a airtight water chamber and plan on heading for the hills. Saving you the details, Claude gets out, fist fights ensue and all is resolved in a relatively happy ending.


Claudio Cassinelli Island of the Fishmen

OK, this film is a mess. It's not really enjoyable in any particular way. It has the set-up of an old Saturday matinee sci-fi flick but lacks any sense of joy or energy in it's execution. It feels tired. The effects - Martino's use of miniatures here is unfortunate - are simply awful, even more so then the screenplay's laughable attempts at explaining evolutionary biology. It has the germ of a decent morality play but instead of following that line of focus towards something interesting and meaningful, it jumps straight down the rabbit hole of nonsense, emerging from the other side as something cheap, tacky and frustrating. You can feel the lack of interest running through the whole film. Even the usually reliable Martino phones it in, shooting whole sections of the film in medium and close shots like some kind of made-for-television movie of the week. This is the kind of story that screams "cartoon" and it would have been enjoyable if those involved would have recognized the story's potential as comic book-style fun. Instead, they strangle it to death.


Barbara Bach Island of the Fishmen

For Martino fans, this film might have some hidden potential. It was filmed the same year as THE BIG ALLIGATOR RIVER - a much better film - and utilizes the same two leading actors, Claudio Cassinelli - who was also in Martino's SCORPION WITH TWO TAILS and SLAVE OF THE CANNIBAL GOD - and the beautiful Barbara Bach. When compared with THE BIG ALLIGATOR RIVER, ISLAND OF THE FISHMEN seems even more disappointing. THE BIG ALLIGATOR RIVER knew what kind of film it was, a big, dumb, loud mishmash of genre conventions that played out like some kind of Italian genre cartoon. ISLAND OF THE FISHMEN feels positively dead in comparison. If you had to make a choice between the two, take the Gator over the Fishmen. Much better choice.


Not recommended.