Horror Extreme Movie Catalog

This is a pretty fun film, not quite 4 stars but definitely 3.5.

I liked it because for a monster flick, there are several layers to it. Beyond a mysterious carnivorous creature, there is a pagan culture that has carried memories of a very distant time when there were remedies to keep it at bay - at a price of course. It is embodied in Jose Ferrer, who does the ancient European thing very well and kind of controls the events that unfold. Then you have the nearer past that is Christian, which adds its own odd beliefs (it is a nunnery that guards this tradition). Finally, there is the confused secular present, with the couple (you get to see Belushi's window girlfriend from Animal House!) and Jones, who is a darn good scoundrel layabout smuggler.

The center of it is a beautiful virgin artist, the sister of the "hero" looking to bring her back. She appears crazy, though Ferrer wants her there and hidden for some reason. Apparently, she is in touch with something. Her action is to study ancient paintings at the nunnery, where her relationship with the mother superior guides her into refurbishing a painting - yes, she discovers a third layer, beneath the first two.

This all leads to a fun climax, which I do not want to reveal. The psychology is good, the historical sense is fun if you can see it, and then there is action. Definitely an above average monster flick.

Recommended as fun passtime.

No, this film isn't great; yet, it doesn't suffer from delusions of grandeur, either. It rather neatly paces its story over its 82-minute runtime, providing few moments of excitement until its climax. Rather, it focuses on building the mystery of the secret surrounding the secret past of a tiny seaside village in Greece. American newlyweds Neil and Sherry Grice (Martin Kove and Mary-Louise Weller, respectively) have arrived in this Greek hamlet in hopes of locating Neil's missing sister, Madeline (played by Miss USA 1970 Deborah Shelton). Given the number of inhabitants here, it doesn't take long to find her, or to determine something has affected her deeply. According to American ex-pat Frye (James Earl Jones), she has "gone native." We don't find out until the end of the film what that means exactly, though we do have a good idea. Complementing the beauty of the Greek landscape (and really the reason I watched this film in the first place) is the mighty attractive Lydia Cornell. If you are of a certain age, you might recall Ms. Cornell from her role as Ted Knight's blonde daughter, Sara, on TV's "Too Close for Comfort." She is quite something in this film and she gets substantial screen time, though not enough to suit my tastes. Overall, I enjoyed the film. My biggest problem with the DVD, however, is the quality of the film. It appears to have been transferred from a VHS copy and, consequently, the colors are a bit faded, the image a bit soft and the sound pretty bad. Still, I have seen worse... much worse. I would like to see this film cleaned up and transferred from the original negatives; however, given the film's very minor status and fairly poor ratings, it is highly doubtful this will ever happen. 3/5 for the film, 1.5/5 for the DVD.