When Charles Band founded Wizard Video, he acquired the rights to foreign exploitation films for very little money. Through his label, Band released titles from directors like Ruggero Deodato, Jess Franco, Sergio Garrone, Sergio Martino, and Lucio Fulci. Charles also used Wizard Video to release some experimental titles, including compilation tapes like The Best of Sex and Violence. Another experiment Band attempted was something producers like Roger Corman would do: acquire foreign films and recut/redub them. For example, Corman bought the rights to the Lone Wolf and Cub films and re-edited them into 1981’s Shogun Assassin. Band similarly acquired the rights to Hotel Paradise and Escape from Hell, two Women In Prison films from Edoardo Mulargia. Under the pseudonym Nicholas Beardsley, Ted Nicolaou shot new segments featuring Linda Blair to tie everything together. The result was the 1985 direct-to-video cheapie Savage Island.
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Rating
Synopsis
Having freed herself from slave labor, Daly (Linda Blair) breaks into the corporation responsible for her imprisonment. She confronts the boss, Luker (Leon Askin), and explains how her sister is still captive. We cut to flashbacks showing female prisoners forced into jewel mining, focusing on Marla (Ajita Wilson) and Muriel (Cristina Lay). When the women aren’t looking for precious stones, they’re beaten, tortured, and molested by the guards while also catfighting. One day, Laredo (Anthony Steffen) arrives to drop off more prisoners but is secretly working on starting a revolution. He helps Marla stage a prison break, frees all the captive women, and gets back at the guards. Unfortunately, things go sour when members of Laredo’s gang turn on the women and lead the remaining guards to them. No one is safe, everything is at stake, and only the strongest will survive on Savage Island!
Review
If what I just described in that synopsis didn’t make much sense, there’s a good reason for that: it doesn’t. Savage Island is one of the most confusing and disjointed movies I’ve ever seen doing this series. As mentioned in the introduction, this movie is essentially two movies re-edited and stitched together with some new footage added. What doesn’t help is that both films have very similar plots and almost the same actors playing different characters. So, an initially good character would turn heel almost randomly, and people would die and come back inexplicably. Continuity is non-existent, with scenes going between day and night and certain moments feeling out of order. What helps make these scenes somewhat watchable are the poor dubbing and some genuinely bizarre moments. Where else will you see a transgender actress biting the head off a snake used to intimidate her?
Despite being featured on the cover, Linda Blair is only in the movie for about ten minutes. It’s easy to rag on her performance, but then again, she’s barely given anything to work with. In her defense, she didn’t want her name featured prominently as she didn’t want to fool her fans. It is worth mentioning that future magician/comedian Penn Jillette has a small part as a security guard. Ted Nicolaou, who later directed Terrorvision, Subspecies, and Bad Channels, has said that this wasn’t one of his proudest moments. To his credit, he did the best he could given the circumstances and at least made better movies later. Even at roughly 80 minutes, the film is a tedious slog that might be worth watching as a curiosity. But overall, Savage Island is a narrative mess that barely even qualifies as a movie.
Buy Savage Island on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3WYpiAc.
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