Isle of the Damned

Director - Mark Colegrove (Invasive Species Cook-Off)
Starring - Jared Books, Chris Brenza, and Peter Crates
Release Date - 2008
Genre - Horror/Comedy
Tagline - "Savage cruelty was their culture... human flesh was their food"
Format - Streaming (Netflix)

Rating (out of 5):

     I am slightly pissed at the indie horror scene at the moment.  For years I have heard a great deal of hype about certain films while others barely get any acknowledgements.  That is what happened when I discovered this film here.  I met a director through Facebook and he recommended an independent film that was streaming on Netflix.  I watched about 20 minutes of the film and had to turn it off.  The movie was horrible and I could not find any redeeming qualities at all.  I turned to Youtube and found a trailer for this film here.  I posted it on the Facebook page and an outstanding patron informed me this was on Netflix as well.  I immediately ran over and watched it.
     The film follows Jack Steele and his sexually abused adopted son as they team up with a treasure hunter and his pirate crew to search an island off the coast of Argentina for Marco Polo's hidden treasure.  However, the group is unaware that the island is inhabited by horny cannibals that want nothing more than to eat their squishy parts.  As the team fight for their lives, along with some other unfortunate souls, they come across an eccentric elderly man and his mute kung-fu master who save the day.  He takes them back to his mansion but the treasure hunter is too damn greedy and heads back out with Billy to find the treasure.  The cannibals eat Billy and rape the treasure hunter repeatedly.  Jack is able to escape as everyone falls prey to the cannibals hunger for human flesh.
     This movie made me laugh so hard it hurt at times and at other moments I felt extremely uneasy at the things I witnessed onscreen.  This is an amazing film that parodies the jungle cannibal craze of the late 70s and early 80s.  I actually do not find those films entertaining, however, I would if they were just like this.  The acting is horrible and horribly dubbed on purpose.  The film is purposely trying to look like the Italian horror flicks of the 70s while making it feel cheap and cheesy.  The film does pull it off very well and made me laugh the entire time.  The story is actually pretty damn clever, even though it borrowed heavily from many of the other cannibal films long gone.  The story may be recycled from previous films but it is done so in a humorous way that sheds a differently kind of light on the subject matter compared to those films in the past.  Finally, the film offers up a lot of bloody and gory practical effects that will satisfy the most avid gorehound.  Though some of the effects may look cheap they still are very effective and a time or two I caught myself flinching.  Overall, this is a fun ride that will not fail to entertain.  Granted, you will need to go in to this one with a mindset that this is not your average horror flick.  I highly recommend it.