Born in Newark in 1922, John N. Carter has worked as an editor in the film industry since the 1960s. His first credit was the 1968 sports movie Paper Lion, directed by Alex Marsh with Alan Alda and Lauren Hutton. He also edited the 1972 film The Hearbreak Kid, which earned Oscar nominations for actors Eddie Albert and Jeannie Berlin. Carter got a BAFTA award nomination for best editing for his work on Milos Forman’s 1971 film Taking Off. In the early 1980s, Carter got the chance to direct his first feature film, originally titled The Last Picnic. The film gained notable publicity for starring Rita Jenrette, who made headlines after having sex on the Capitol steps. Filming took place in Jamaica for five weeks, from January to March 1983, and Troma picked up the distribution rights. Before its 1984 release, Troma changed the title to Zombie Island Massacre.
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Synopsis
A group of American tourists is vacationing in the Caribbean and decide to stop at a nearby island. The local tour guide (Dennis Stephenson) takes them to St. Marie to witness a live voodoo ritual. The voodoo priest (Trevor Reid) uses goat blood to bring a dead man back from the grave before dispatching him. As the group returns to their bus, they find that the driver is gone, and there’s blood everywhere. With few options available, they decide to hold up in a nearby house until help hopefully arrives. Unfortunately, a group of locals starts swarming the place and picking off the tourists. Heads get chopped off, bodies get stabbed, and machetes make direct contact with people’s faces. But who will make it out alive as these unlucky tourists try to survive the zombie island massacre? However, not everything is as it seems on this island.
Review
To get this out of the way, the title Zombie Island Massacre isn’t entirely false, but it’s still a lie. There is an island and a massacre (kind of), but there aren’t any zombies or at least traditional ones. We get voodoo zombies, but even that’s a stretch since we only get the one ritual scene. The movie plays more like a slasher film than a zombie film, from the body count to the death scenes. The fact that Harry Manfredini, composer of the Friday the 13th movies, recycled his score adds to it. Even then, the kills aren’t all that interesting, as most occur offscreen with little to no suspense. There is a surprisingly decent decapitation where the head moves a bit before dying, but that’s about it. Aside from that, it’s primarily dull scenes of people sitting around doing nothing and talking nonsense.
Most of the acting is pretty sub-standard, with everyone doing the bare minimum with their performances. Rita Jenrette does her best with the bit of material she has to work with. Granted, the filmmakers most likely hired her because she could do nudity, which there’s plenty of here. To John N. Carter’s credit, the direction is pretty solid, and they took full advantage of the filming locations. Also, there are some genuinely funny moments, but whether they’re amusing on purpose is anyone’s guess. In addition to Manfredini’s score, there’s a pretty catchy reggae song on the soundtrack that’s worth a listen. Still, these few positive aspects can’t compensate for the viewing experience’s dullness. The movie is an endurance test best enjoyed with friends and drinks at an hour and twenty-eight minutes. Overall, Zombie Island Massacre isn’t awful, but there are much better slasher/zombie films you could be watching instead.
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