Horror Extreme Movie Catalog

I can't say I'm ecstatic over my purchase of this movie. Yeah, I read the reviews and decided to take a chance. Hmm, I should remind myself not to read so many reviews, especially the favorable ones.

To be fair, however, the killings were decent but not a hell of a lot made sense. Also, if it weren't for Satan being listed in the credits, I wouldn't even have known he made an appearance in the movie, and I'm still not sure who he was. The witch is convincing, though, but her skin looks like it's melting. Old age I guess. I have to say this is going to be one of those films that's going to be categorized as "it had potential" and that's about it. Rent before you buy this one.

Now, as far as the video quality goes, Media Blasters/Shriek Show did a very good job. The colors were for the most part solid, even though there was some fine grain which ran throughout the movie. There was also some obvious print damage but not enough to distract. It's obvious someone didn't do a great job taking care of the negatives. In fact, when you watch the trailer of the movie, there's a short message that comes on beforehand apologizing to the viewer that the trailer was not in the very best condition when Media Blasters got it, so they want you to know that in case you get shocked by the low quality of the video. Honestly, it wasn't that bad. I've seen worse.

So, it's up to you if you're going to lay down the cash. But, you've been warned!

This may be the worst movie I've seen since Manos, Hands of Fate. Yet I can't rate it poorly purely due to shlock value. When I heard there was an 80's horror flick with Linda Blair AND David Hasselhoff I had to see it! As another reviewer said, when the Hoff is the best thing in a picture, you've got something pretty special. Unfortunately Linda Blair was underused and the 80's cheese was non-existent.

The plot makes no sense. There's no reason given to anything that happens except that Witchcraft is involved somehow. It's German Witchcraft at that, which again makes no sense except a German actress was hired to play the witch and I guess her accent had to be explained. I'm glad someone here explained the pregnant woman in the beginning was being chased by Puritans. That makes a little more sense than what I first thought since the Puritans kind of looked like Mexican banditos chasing the woman through an Old West town. I couldn't figure out what all that had to do with an island outside Boston. There's also a tiny subplot with a little girl in a wheelchair that has no purpose, except if you think girls in wheelchairs are creepy I guess.

The acting, especially by the supporting cast, is outlandishly bad. Usually you have to watch broad comedies satirizing bad acting to see such poor line readings. The actress playing the Hoff's girlfriend either had a speech impediment or was heavily medicated for most of the shoot. She slurred her lines so badly she was often unintelligible. Too bad she was supplying what little exposition there is.

The special effects reminded me of low budget, 70's tv shows on par with something like Shazaam. People mention the constant shifts from day to night within scenes. Instead, I enjoyed the "violent storm" and "killer waves" the characters kept refering to which kept everyone trapped on the island. I guess the budget didn't allow for people to wait around for an actual storm to occur, or even stock footage, because every shot showed clear skies and calm seas.

Unfortunately, even the cheese doesn't stop the movie from getting very slow and boring about 2/3's through and then you just can't wait for it to end. The filmmakers also seemed bored because the ending is very abrupt with no great payoff or satisfaction. Still a disaster of this proportion seems to necesitate the MST3K gang to be dragged back to work in order to skewer it.