If the Zuni fetish doll in Trilogy of Terror (1975) is considered by many to be the scariest doll in horror movie history, then a movie with an entire tribe of wannabe fetish dolls ought to be even scarier, right? Well, not so much, in this case.
Tagline: “Who Will Survive The Terror?”
AKA: Hell Island (original title), Beast Creatures
WTF Factor: ****
Notable Dialogue:
- Quinn: “I don’t get it, John. We’re supposed to be in the North Atlantic someplace. If you asked anybody who didn’t know any better, they’d swear we were in the tropics.” [It’s clearly a temperate deciduous forest.]
- John: “I know, this whole damn place doesn’t make any sense. Maybe it’s just a bad dream.”
Shoutout: To deadlydolls over at The Deadly Doll’s House of Horror Nonsense, for hosting this February’s Tenth Annual Shortening, dedicated to vertically challenged evildoers.
Synopsis: The title card says we’re somewhere in the North Atlantic in May 1920, as the credits roll on top of a Phantom of the Opera-style organ/synth score. There’s apparently been a shipwreck, with a group of randoms in a lifeboat that drifts away from the others. They eventually find an island. One man, Bruin, is badly hurt and Morgan (John Vichiola) wants to leave him behind on the beach as a lost cause. The others actually do leave him behind on the beach but insist he’ll be fine. [Wanna bet?]
The group trudges into the woods, endlessly, looking for food and water. There is abundant rustling in the trees. A few characters get a single personality note: Morgan has a sick wife; Phil (Frank Murgalo) is a veterinarian and finds berries; Mrs. Gordon (Kay Bailey) misses her husband; John (top-billed Robert Nolfi) worked on the ship. There’s one sailor, Case Quinn (Robert Lengyel), and everyone else is apparently dressed for a party.
Pat: “All I wanted was to see a little of the world but I never expected anything like this.”
Pat (Frans Kal) finds some water but it’s actually acid and he burns his face off [don’t you hate it when that happens?].
Phil takes the women to pick berries while the men bury Pat, and Mrs. Gordon gets a nasty bite from something in the bushes. John and Quinn go back down to the beach over Morgan’s objections.
Morgan: ”How do we know you won’t just take off with the boat and leave us on this godforsaken island?”
John: “Morgan, the one thing that bothers me is that of all the poor souls on that ship worth saving, we had to pull you from the water.”
When they get to the beach, there’s nothing left of Bruin but a skeleton. John and Quinn agree not to tell the others.
Around the campfire that night, John immediately tells Phil, who doesn’t recognize what made Mrs. Gordon’s bitemark, about Bruin. Everyone but Morgan, who seems to drift in and out of the group, agrees to take turns keeping watch. John gives Diane (Lisa Pak) his coat and they flirt.
During the night, Cathy (Julia Rust), the nervous one, keeps watch and sees glowing eyes in the forest.
Suddenly they are attacked in the dark and bitten by multiple little creatures with large glowing eyes and gleaming teeth. Everybody screams a lot but fights them off. Cathy is in shock. Morgan is badly bitten but they bandage up his leg. They all agree to find a better place to defend themselves when it gets light.
John: “Morgan, will you be able to keep up with us with that leg?”
Morgan: “Are you trying to get rid of me? Is that what you’re trying to do, huh? I’ll keep up with you if I have to crawl.”
They head out in the morning and we get our first real glimpses at the creatures.
More trudging through the woods. The creatures are shrieking in the trees and bite Morgan in the leg again. The others keep getting nipped.
Mrs. Gordon finds a water hole with real water and the women freshen up. Phil tells John and Quinn that he might have to amputate Morgan’s leg if it gets worse. Morgan isn’t having any of that.
Mrs. Gordon settles in at the waterhole by herself [great move]. The creatures watch and then attack, first her, then the rest of the group. The rigid dolls are clearly thrown into frame and the actors clutch them close to their bodies or fling them away to bounce off the scenery. [This is obviously more humorous than scary.]
Everyone survives except Mrs. Gordon and we have more trudging through the woods. Morgan becomes delirious and attacks Diane, thinking she is one of the creatures. He then runs off into the woods [so much for needing his leg amputated], foaming at the mouth, and ends up in an acid pool.
More trudging. In a moment of “excitement,” Quinn almost goes over a cliff. The score changes from organ to drums. The group heads up a rocky hill and hear a buzzing sound at the top. When they get there, they see this:
They sneak back down the hill but a creature spots them and the drums stop. Now they’re running with the creatures in pursuit. And still running, with repetitive synth music. Phil runs into a tripwire vine and impales himself thoroughly on a pointy stick. John sends Quinn ahead to get the boat ready and then sends Cathy and Diane after him while he stays with Phil.
The boat is gone.
The women run into a pack of creatures. Diane tries to use herself as bait so Cathy can run for it [I think] but it’s too late for that.
Phil dies so John makes a break for it. Quinn sees something that pleases him at the beach and runs back to find the others, but he falls in a hole [presumably a trap] and gets chewed up, slowly.
Cathy meets up with John but Diane is dead. As John and Cathy run, we see flashbacks to all of the deaths. There’s also a lot of creature-height camerawork. They find Quinn’s body. When they get to the beach, they see a ship sending a lifeboat and run into the water. They finally make it to the lifeboat safely.
Sailor: “What were those things?”
Indeed.
Thoughts: I have a soft part in my heart for low budget regional filmmaking, although Attack of the Beast Creatures manages to be even more obscure than Sting of Death (1965). Filmed around Stanford and Fairfield, Connecticut, in 1983, Beast Creatures eventually went to video in 1985. It was not released on DVD until 2006, and was not sold through typical distributors. It does not appear to be available for new purchase at all these days (hence the sub-optimal screencaps).
This was the first movie directed by Michael Stanley, who also served as a producer/camera operator/editor/puppeteer. He later became active in regional theater and did not direct another movie until 2008. Despite the sometimes ludicrous elements, he took this movie completely seriously and insisted that cast and crew do the same. I admire any filmmaker who has a personal vision and follows through with it, even when the results are questionable.
The cast was mostly recruited from regional theater and had no experience in movie acting. It shows, for the most part. There really isn’t much for the actors to work with; it takes a while to even find one note of individuality for most of the characters. The one exception is Mr. Morgan (John Vichiola); Morgan may be a jerk right from the beginning, but he’s the only character with a recognizable personality.
Attack of the Beast Creatures is, of course, infamous for its creatures’ resemblance to the Zuni doll from the Amelia segment of Trilogy of Terror (1975), which is unlikely to be accidental.
It’s more than thirty minutes into the movie before the first on-camera attack of the creatures, and that happens in the dark. However, it’s already apparent in that scene that there is something…off…about the creatures. When we get a good look at them, they are so obviously rigid dolls/puppets that it begs the question: are these meant to be flesh-and-blood creatures or animated dolls? In either case, I find them rather endearing.
Make no mistake; this is a bad movie. A good portion of the runtime is taken up with footage of the actors plodding around in the woods, or eventually, running through the same woods. I can’t in good conscience recommend it for your undivided attention. However, as background entertainment, you can jump in when the creatures appear and enjoy yourself. Admire the vision and the no-budget practical effects.
Quick bits:
- The director used night-for-night shooting, leaving many scenes, including the opening, hard to see.
- The flashback footage was included near the end because they ran out of sufficient film stock to fill out the movie’s running time.
- There is no apparent reason for this movie taking place in the 1920s.
Suggested double feature: Of course, you could pair this with Trilogy of Terror (1975), but that just makes Attack of the Beast Creatures look bad. Why not a regional duo with Sting of Death (1965) or Godmonster of Indian Flats (1973)? Be sure to bring popcorn.
Tagline for Coming Attraction: “What Made Them Half-Human Creatures From The 4th Dimension?”
Few things please me more than actors having to do all the work in selling an attack by a tiny thing. I’ve long heard of this one, but have yet to take the plunge! One of these days!
The actors work extra hard trying to sell this one. It’s a fun watch for a rainy afternoon. Thanks for commenting!