The early and mid-70's saw a lot of attempts to shock within the world of B-Horror and Exploitation. With the Pink Flamingos and the Blood Sucking Freaks here in the states, but you better believe good ol' Europe got in on the fun, and then some. Germany gave us Mark Of The Devil, Denmark gave us The Sinful Dawrf. But I'd like to talk about a pretty little sleazefest from Greece that I absolutely love. And as far as I can remember, the only Greek film I have seen. A beautifully scored, wisely casted, brutal Horror flick that was originally inspired by the success and macabre nature of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. But with a far nicer location and far more taboos broken. This is Island Of Death.

Happy, young couple, Christopher and Celia, arrive on the island of Mynokos, looking for a place to stay. At first, they seem fairly normal, but it's quickly revealed that they're on the run. Christopher and Celia are killers. It's soon established that Christopher is a bit of a judgemental prude, and a hot head. He seems to think it's his job to rid the world of perversion. Celia seems to be along for the ride, but far from innocent. We then cut to a scene the next morning, as the two are in bed, Christopher tries to get Celia to take care of his morning wood. She refuses because she wants to sleep. Frustrated and hard, Christopher wanders outside and stumbles upon a very loud, yet strangely cooperative Goat. "Masturbation is for pussies", he probably thinks to himself. Christopher then picks up the goat, takes it behind a bush, and sticks his dick in the damn thing. True story. And after relieving himself into the animal, he goes that extra, unnecessary mile and slits its throat. Just for fun, I guess. It's not like the goat was going to cry rape. Christopher kinda sucks.

Later on, after pimping out Celia to some Frenchman, the two quickly and brutally murder him. Christopher later sets his sights on a newly married gay couple who he has proclaimed an abomination. He also develops a grudge against an old whore, and goes after her with a bulldozer after pissing all over her. And some other "sinners" get it, as the guy goes wild on this very small island, ignoring any possible consequences. However, it's difficult to figure out where Celia's head is at, at times. sometimes, she seems to be the sympathetic voice of reason. Other times, not so much. Is she a victim of Christopher's influence, or is there some kind of game being played, here? One thing is for sure. Celia is not playng when she insists they need to get get away from this island and soon.

As I said before, Island Of Death was some greek guy's attempt at capitalizing on the success of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. There are killers, and that's about where the similarities end. He wasn't a Horror director, or even someone who knew anything about Horror. Just a guy who wanted to make a movie about people doing fucked up shit to other people. Well, obviously, mission accomplished, here. Not exactly a gorefest, but quite a few things happened that I didn't expect to make this one hell of a brutal film, at times. But aside from that, a beautiful film, indeed, with a gorgeous blonde model, Jane Ryall as Celia, who, in my opinion, is the highlight of the film. An adorable lady with a cute British accent and a very hot body which gets shown off quite a bit in more than a couple sex scenes. At well over 100 minutes, this runs a little long for something of this nature, but tends to keep your attention and offers not a dull moment. So, time spent on this gem is very much worth it. And rewatch value is abundant, at least for me. Island of Death is one of my all-time favorite European Horror flicks from the 70's, and I would highly recommend it to anyone with a fascination with the morbid. As well as the unusual and the beautiful. 7/10