Terror Transmission

Blood Tide (Bloodtide, Demon Island, The Red Tide) – 1982 – United Kingdom/Greece – Chilling 20 Movie Pack from Mill Creek Entertainment

I make no apologies about my love affair with these little poverty-row-esque DVD companies like Brentwood, Mill Creek, Alpha and Platinum. For those who aren’t in-the-know, these companies specialize in uber-cheap multi-disc box sets of films on which the rights have lapsed and come with luridly extravagant titles like “Back From the Grave” or “Gore and More.” Most sell for between 7 and 15 bucks and are worth every single solitary penny. They may get a lot of crap from aspect ratio and transfer purists, of which I am one, but how else would you be able to see a flick like “Snowbeast” (1977), “Rogues Tavern” (1936) or this little diamond in the rough called “Blood Tide”? No sane home video company is going to pay big-bucks to remaster public domain films like these because who’s gonna plop down 15 bones for a copy of “Night Train to Terror” (1985)? These companies serve to keep the (perhaps dubious) memory extant of films you would likely never be able to see in any format or ever broadcast on the idiot-box. And that brings us to the box set, “Chilling 20 Movie Pack” from Mill Creek, which features such rarely seen cheapies as “Tormented” with Richard Carlson, “The Astral Factor” with Robert Foxworth, “Snowbeast” featuring Yvette Mimieux, and tonight’s film…

“Blood Tide” was a real pleasant surprise for me. It is one of those flicks that had been on my list of must-sees for years (albeit near the bottom) simply because of the casting of Jose Ferrer and James Earl Jones and because of the exotic filming locale on an (as of yet, unknown) Greek isle (named Cinaron for the film). Historically, Cinaron was the place where the the learned upstart Hypatia’s body was burnt after she was murdered by jealous Christian zealots for her transgressive crimes of dignity and erudition. Nothing new for those pesky Christians, enemies of science and literature (to the lions!), but the symbology is pertinent to the underlying theme of the film.

Neil’s big sister Madeline (Deborah Shelton of “Body Double”) has dropped out of contact after being hired to restore a religious painting for a nunnery on a remote little island in the middle of the Aegean Sea. Neil (Martin Kove, hairy-chested sensei of the Kobra-Khan in “The Karate Kid”) and his shiny new wifey sail from island to island searching for her until they happen upon the isle of Cimaron and are met with a peculiar resistance by the eccentric locals including a gaggle of sadistic kids and the wizened local big-wig Nereus (Jose Ferrer). Big-bro follows a shadowy figure running through the ancient streets and finds Madeline in the company of a Shakespeare-quoting, treasure-hunting alcoholic named Frye (James Earl Jones). The virginal Madeline, who is a real beauty, has been plagued by fevered dreams of ancient pagan rites involving an amphibious monster and has been steadily losing her grip on reality and her own identity. Frye, under the direction of Madeline, discovers an undersea cavern, and whilst in the pursuit of riches, carelessly destroys an ancient sealed doorway, releasing… something. Locals start coming up missing and Frye’s bodacious bombshell of a girlfriend, Barbara, is killed while swimming in a scene culled directly from “Jaws” but used to great effect nonetheless because of the taut direction and editing on hand. The body count rises as Madeline symbolically peels away layer after layer of a painting of Christ, which reveals a pagan ceremony hidden underneath. The locals indulge in a Bacchanal of sorts as Madeline unveils the painting’s final layer, which depicts a woman worshiping at the phallus of a giant sea monster and reveals her own predestined sacrifice of her virginity to placate the loosened beast. After the cloistered nuns are found gruesomely torn asunder, Neil and Frye descend into the claustrophobic darkness of the undersea cavern to battle the beast and save Madeline from a monstrous poking.

The major asset this film has going for it is a wonderfully literate script which crafts multi-dimensional and believable characters and enables the marvelous cast to deliver their dialogue with relish and conviction. The underlying theme, which is represented with the painting, is the eventual reclamation and triumph of nature and tradition over the interloping Christian religion which seeks to “blind” us with a false veneer to the harsh realities and glories of life and death and this theme is especially realized in the telling scene where the monster slaughters the nuns in their convent and reclaims what he perceives as rightfully his. The film’s downside would have to be that the monster somewhat resembles what an irradiated seahorse might, but it gets very little screen time, which is probably why this film was so unsuccessful in the “show me” era of the 1980s. A rather abrupt end-battle is followed by a somewhat ambiguous and very shocking incestuous kiss, which closes out the film and certainly leaves you guessing. It should be mentioned here that the print I screened is shorn of around 15 minutes from the original runtime, which goes a ways towards explaining the abruptness of the ending, but I’ll take whatever I can get of this film. This ambitious little gem plays out like what an H.P. Lovecraft written script for the film “Humanoids From the Deep” might and comes highly recommended to those who like a bit of smarts along with their well-hung monsters.

Jason’s Grade: B