Watch Island of the Doomed For Free

Did you people see the same film I saw?

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

It's always quite a painful and embarrassing establishment having to admit after watching a movie that the opening credits were, in fact, the best part. My mate and I got suckered into watching this Spanish/German co-production because of the appealing title in English – "Man Eater of Hydra" – and because we saw a little preview of the credits, which are animated and really look like a lot of fun. The film itself, unfortunately, never at one point surpasses the level of mediocrity, but it's still very endurable in case you're a tolerant fan of cheap 60's Euro-exploitation and/or an admirer of the charismatic B-movie villain Cameron Mitchell. I was quite intrigued to discover here on the IMDb that director Mel Welles also co-directed the Roger Corman vehicle "Little Shop of Horrors" (albeit unaccredited), as that particular no- budget classic actually has fairly many components in common with this "Man Eater of Hydra". With a slight bit of imagination, this film could even have been titled "Little Shop on Horror Island", because it likewise deals with murderous plants on a rampage. An assembly of stereotypical, and thus very dim-witted, tourists goes on an excursion to Baron Von Weser's island to visit the famous botanical gardens. Immediately upon their arrival, the witness the gruesome death of one of the Baron's servants, but he assures the group that this man was ill since a very long time already. Still, the cadavers start piling up and all the blood has been drained from their bodies. The stupider guests begin to believe in the old legend of a vampire living on the island, but the smarter ones gradually discover that the Baron is secretly experiencing with crossbreeding flesh-eating plants. "Man Eater of Hydra" is slow-paced and cheaply produced, but it could still be entertaining if you watch it with the right mindset. Instead of anticipating suspense and bloody carnage, please yourself with spotting all silly dialogs and obligatory horror clichés, like thunderstorms and grisly looking servants. The film could also be discovered as some sort of homage to those typical "Mad Scientist" horror movies of the 30's and 40's, in which the role of evil genius on his private island was standard played by either Boris Karloff or Bela Lugosi. From that point of view, Cameron Mitchell was a terrific choice to play the Baron, as he always drags this sinister aura around with him. And hey, even if you end up hating the film, at least admit that the crazy animated opening credits were fantastic.

A motley assortment of tourists are vacationing on a remote island. The group runs afoul of evil botanist Baron von Meser (the ubiquitous Cameron Mitchell in top suavely sinister form) and his lethal giant vampire tree (!). Director Mel Welles (Mr. Mushnik in the original "The Little Shop of Horrors") treats the laughably ludicrous premise with total seriousness, thus resulting in a true so-schlocky-it's-downright-spectacular unintentional camp riot. The colorfully quirky stock cardboard supporting characters are especially amusing; my favorites are feisty old bat Myrtle, eccentric botanist Prof. Jules Demerest, shrewish slattern Cora, and creepy mute servant Baldi. The great animated opening credits sequence, the poor dubbing, the completely inappropriate, but still cool jazzy'n'smoky cocktail lounge score, and the incredibly wild over-the-top gruesome ending are all likewise hilarious. Only the fairly slick cinematography manages to rise above the general ineptitude of this gloriously ghastly marvel. A total howler.

Maneater of Hydra was a regular part of the Creature Double Feature program rotation, which aired in New England during the 70s-80s showing monster/sci-fi movies. I remembered this one vividly, for it features a vampiric tree killing the visitors to a mad baron's island. Z-grade movie regular Cameron Mitchell played the Baron. Memories of the film were better than the actual movie, which I managed to hunt down 20 years after last seeing it, but I still find in enjoyable and there is a great B-monster payoff in the last 15 minutes. The animated opening credits with orchestrated music is worth the price of admission alone.Maneater is a great bit of nostalgia, bringing back childhood memories of rushing home every Saturday to catch Creature Double Feature, spending 3 hours of the afternoon watching the cheesiest movies ever made, and having a blast doing it. This film isn't as bad as people would have you believe.

Back in seventies a lot of obscure European movies mostly from the sixties used turn up lot on late night television and then seemed to vanish, going back under the rocks they seemingly came out from under. However, recently many of these films have recently surfaced on small video labels. Often these film starred either European casts unknown in the U.S.A. with anglicized names in the credits and/or as in this case, American stars who had fallen on hard times. In this film Cameron Mitchell, whose voice appears to have been dubbed by another actor, plays Baron Van Wiser, an evil scientist who has been creating monstrous plant mutations. He invites an assorted group of characters to visit his island estate, where one by one the guests become meals for his creations.The film was shown on American television as MAN EATER OF HYDRA, although the plants really don't eat anyone, they suck their victims blood like a vampire. The murderous plant, which we really never get a good look at (perhaps we can be thankful) resembles a yew tree with weeping willow like branches. At the end of the branches are flowers whose stamens do the blood sucking. The killer trees are apparently able to walk, but we never see them walking. It's unclear why the baron invited the visitors, but apparently he wanted them as food for his creations. The baron tells a botanist visitor the he wants to keep his discoveries secret. The baron seems to think having a group of visitors to his island all end up dead isn't going arouse any suspicion, even though the island would be crawling with police once word got out the hapless visitors were reported missing. Why is it these mad scientists/crazed maniacs never lure people who go un-missed like tramps, cheap hookers, homeless bums for their evil purposes? MAN EATER OF HYDRA (or ISLAND OF THE DOOMED) is one of dozens of cheaply made 1960's shockers from Europe. This film is slightly more entertaining then most these films. The film tries to drum up some atmosphere, throws in a little sex, and provides a few good shocks, but like most of these cheap sixties European shockers, there is an air "lets get this thing over with" attitude prevailing over the film.