Yuzna and Drive-In-Sanity are also planning a feature-film adaptation of TALES OF BLOOD ISLAND. “The comic book reimagining incorporates key characters and creatures from the original films,” the PR continues, “and introduces new heroes and heroines as well as a mythical menagerie of monsters, mutants and cryptids from the Pacific and Southeast Asia, including prehistoric cannibals, zombie warriors, Fiji Mermaids, Manananggal Aswang and more.”Ī tiki-style mug of the Fiji Mermaid is also being produced, and a Kickstarter campaign to finance that and the comic will be launched in October. Akira Lorca, whose mad experiments with evolution and jungle plant serum, derived from a man-eating tree, creates a hideous, head-hunting, body-swapping beast that terrorizes the island population by feasting on and appropriating their blood and flesh. There, a soldier of fortune and an ex-war buddy team up for a top-secret mission to find and exterminate the murderous war criminal, Dr. The synopsis: “TALES OF BLOOD ISLAND is set in the South Seas on a mysterious, primitive island filled with mythical monsters and radioactive mutants. Written by Dave Sehring and Mark Cerulli, with artwork by Stephen Sistilli and coloring/lettering by Dexter Weeks, the latest issue will be 44 full-color pages. The latter company gave RUE MORGUE a sneak peek at the cover and pages for the second issue of BRIAN YUZNA PRESENTS TALES OF BLOOD ISLAND, a planned four-issue serialized comics series inspired by Hemisphere Pictures’ cult-fave B-movies (see our previous coverage here). At least its sequel BEAST OF BLOOD is marginally better.There’s more illustrated monster mayhem coming from the veteran director/producer and Drive-In-Sanity Films. Are we that fed up with the mainstream, that we masochistically seek out films that we know are pieces of painfully inept tedium just to escape some piece of Hollywood mediocrity? Is it more important to trudge through the Grade Z movie universe to find that one moment that actually works or exhibits some whisper of technical competence, than to be de-sensitized by any standard commercial fare where production values are taken for granted? Is it just some piece of lost youth we are attempting to regain in these movie experiences no matter what the price of disappointment? I don't know, but thanks to the DVD revolution, someone is unearthing these curious pictures all over again, as it is well nigh impossible to find this stuff on VHS anymore, and the barrel scrapings of the late show are now lined with infomercials for mouthy psychics and TimeLife books. I haven't seen this deadening rot in over 12 years, yet for some reason I am getting a craving to see it all over again. Romero's monster is so frightening that the height of suspense comes when the creature just stands there and stands there for the longest time when it is cornering somebody. This time, Ashley's co-star is the lovely Angelique Pettyjohn, whom Trekkies would remember from the "Gamesters of Triskelion" episode, and who had yet to embark on a career of Triple X features such as TITILLATION. As dreadful as these spate of Filipino exploitation films are, during their proliferation in the 1960's and 70's, it was always interesting to see who popped up in them. This second entry in the "Blood Island" series (following BRIDES OF BLOOD, which is even worse) concerns the Chlorophyll Monster running amok, scaring natives, and putting viewers to sleep. But these films are nonetheless interesting for their bewildering atmosphere: these sweaty, tinny opuses seem to be made in the spirit of 40's B-pictures with liberal amounts of cheap 60's gore. Reference books all mention how awful these movies are, yet for some they are so putrid that they create a strange kind of attraction. Arkoff were admirably quaint, yet seem like Kubrick compared to the standard production values of these films. All those beach party and hot rod flicks that John did for Mr. It is a little disconcerting to see the arch in his career at this point. Shortly after the Beach Party cycle of films petered out, AIP regular John Ashley went to the Philippines to produce with Eddie Romero a handful of exploitation films, of which this is the best known.
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