SCREAMERS (aka ISLAND OF THE FISHMEN)

Screamers Movie Review

After their ship goes down, a doctor (Claudio Cassinelli) and some prisoners end up on an island inhabited by a few people and, you guessed it, fishmen. There's a bit of confusion when it comes to this movie, so let me knock that out right from the start. Italian film L'isola degli uomini pesce (The Island of the Fishmen) was released in 1979. A couple years later, in 1981, it was Americanized and released as Screamers. For this, around a half hour of footage was removed from the original version, a new opening was shot, new dubbing was added, and so on. The version I watched, and am subsequently reviewing, is the Americanized one--I hear the original film is much better, but I'll take everybody's word for it. The new, American opening is groovy enough, with a decapitation and more than enough blood and guts (literally) to get you excited for the movie. If you have never seen this film, you may be thinking "This is some sort of Creature from the Black Lagoon" ripoff, and to some degree, that is certainly true--at least in the look of the monsters.

"That's Fishman, NOT Gill-Man!"

 You can pretty much stop the comparison there, however, as Creature from the Black Lagoon is an all-time great, and Screamers is...not. We get to know the doctor, and discover rather quickly the dubbing is horrible. We find there are evil people on the island, and at least one, Amanda (Barbara Bach), who is not only nice to the doc, but also to the fishmen. After a hot start, the movie slows to a crawl, and by the time you get to the somewhat entertaining twist near the end, you may be struggling to stay awake. The dialogue is not interesting in the least. The acting is nothing special. Your level of appreciation of the creatures will depend on if you lean toward CGI or the practical approach--if you lean toward the latter, your level of snobbery will also play a part in what you think of these guys. I personally found the costumes to be the best thing about this movie, with the sets and locations coming in just behind. Is this enough to make me want to watch the movie again, or search out the original Italian flick? Probably not. 

On A Scale Of One To Ten: 4

Screamers Movie Trailer