Why do people keep coming to this place? Does it have great Beaches? Does it have Gold? Regardless, people are going to come here at least one more time, so I guess I'd better get used to it. This is The Mad Doctor of Blood Island, the 2nd official part of the Blood Island Trilogy. Unofficially, there are FOUR Films in this Trilogy, since I guess Math is an elective now. Basically, people include Terror is a Man, since it was by the same Director and used the Island first. That's...not great logic. I mean, Steven Spielberg also did 1941 and it has a Scene at the Beach, so...Jaws II? This time, we are back to the same Island for the shoot, but not for the story. John Ashley is back, but as someone else. There's still a monster, but not the same one. This one's goal is to be more trashy and more of a Cult Classic. Did it succeed? To find out, read on...
The Film had a fun, if silly Marketing Ploy where people at first-run Theaters would be given 'green blood' to drink alongside a Cult that does it to protect themselves.
Of course, that has nothing to do with the Plot and never comes up at all. Pointless, but fun.
Ashley and company are heading to Blood Island for a number of reasons.
One guy's whole role is to go 'Hey, why are YOU going here?' on the Boat. He vanishes after those Scenes.
Ashley is a Pathologist come to check on reports of strange infections.
The titular Doctor is clearly evil, but Movie needs to be 80 minutes.
If you get a real Jim Jones vibe from this guy, just remember that this PREDATES Jonestown!
Our other Male Lead is here to reconnect with his Mother and reunite with a lost love.
The latter works out pretty well, as the second picture shows you.
The people on the Island are facing two major issues.
The first is a strange infection that relates to the Doctor experimenting with injecting Chlorophyll into them.
""And then I see the Chlorophyll, where it knocks it out in one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning..."The other is a creature- which turns out to be his first Test Subject- killing random folks.
Another Monster- I sure hope it isn't some guy again...
SPOILER ALERT: It is.
He's freaky and ugly...and the Dad of one of the Main Characters.
Between the Co-Lead's Mom issues, the Female's Lead's Daddy issues and this being the Dad of the Native Woman ending up as the Monster, was Writer Ruben Canoy trying to work some stuff out?
I should mention two things that might be real here.
1) They do sacrifice actual Animals. Sorry, PETA.
2) Less confirmable is Angelique Pettyjohn's account that her love scene with Ashley was 100% real and cut down for the Film.
I'd look into it, but she died in 1992 and he died in 1998, so that's a no-go.
In the End, the Mad Doctor frames our Leads for murder, but they stop his attempts at making fully-realized creations.
The woman gets her monster dad to kill the Doctor and everyone who is white and important escapes. The End.
More of the same kind of trashy fun. You won't ever mix up Mad Doctor of Blood Island with The Godfather. For one thing, the Titles are completely-different! Seriously though, this isn't a *good* Film. It has silly Music, so-so Acting, a pretty dumb Plot and a big green monster- again. The worst thing you can say is that there's not too much new here. Why fix what isn't broken, I guess? The Film offers what you expect and really nothing more. It tries to cover up its shortcomings by front-loading the Film with lots of Soap Opera Drama. Reunited with a lost love. A tense reunion with a widowed Mother. A woman trying to save her drunk Dad. Once you get past all that, there's another guy and another Monster. I guess it is different in the sense that the Monster *isn't* the Doctor this time. They definitely go for broke in this one. If you like trashy B-Movies, they give you all that you want and more! Just one slight issue: the Camera Work. The Film has this odd gimmick of constantly playing with the zoom during the Scenes with the Monster. It zooms in and out in an effect that is fun precisely-once. It happens way more than once. If you can get past that and the bit with animal death, this is a sure-fire hit for B-Movie Fans. I just have one more of these to watch. I'm curious to see what is coming...
Next time, I was inspired by a find at a Thrift Store last weekend for this. While I didn't buy the Film (you'll see why), I can stream it. Stay tuned...
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