Leofwine_draca Even for television standards this movie is bad, a lifeless exercise in non-entertainment that rehashes all of the old Dr Moreau clichés into one wholly unsatisfying new variant. In fact the film is so poorly made that it lacks all the basics of movie-making; for instance, there is no beginning to the story, so you are left waiting forever for something to happen, and on top of that there is no ending either. What we do have are a lot of minor scenes, mostly containing dialogue, with some incidents occurring here and there. The film doesn't even have a back story to it, instead murky events of the past are merely hinted at and the whole picture is never developed.What we do learn is that twenty years previously some scientists have been doing some gene-altering experiments which have resulted in affected folk turning into hideous mutant creatures. That's it. Most of the suspense is copied from other films; for instance at the beginning there are loads of underwater shots with sinister music playing, copied from JAWS, but this time some cheap-looking tentacles are to blame (what do they belong to? who knows - and frankly you won't care by the time this film drags to a close).Later, a mutant is hiding in the ventilation system of the building, with ALIEN the obvious inspiration. The mutant action is just an excuse to show off some makeup, turning a guy who looks like Mick Jagger into somebody only that little bit weirder, and another guy into a silly STAR TREK alien lookalike. The only special effects the film contains are some offscreen gun battles and a couple of morphing effects, which seemed to be popular at the time as far as I can remember, but now look dated to the extreme.The script is strictly at soap level, with the cast populated by only a few faces familiar from television. Although a diverse group of characters is assembled - a computer nerd kid, a shifty businessman, a Hispanic soldier - nothing is ever done with them; they just sit around and talk for ages and then the film ends. Because DANGER ISLAND has a total lack of characteristics which make a film enjoyable - no action, excitement, plot, character development, suspense or originality - I am forced to rate it as being the lowest of the low.

merklekranz My main problem with "Danger Island", also known as "The Presence" is that it tries to accomplish way too much. It is part airline disaster/ island survival, and then morphs into a quite intricate biological laboratory experiment gone horribly wrong horror movie. The whole thing seems overly ambitious for a TV movie, and indeed it collapses under the weight of the underdeveloped script. Logic is gone for good, when the laboratory which has been abandoned since 1976, seems to have a miraculous and unlimited source of electricity. The monster transformations are not bad, but they're not worth sitting through 90 minutes of this scrambled mess. - MERK

Laura B-3 The movie was cute. I caught it on the Family Channel at the end of July. Most of the actors were familiar. I like Sci-Fi and I always enjoy watching a Joe Lara show or movie. Check this one out.

TVholic Yet another guilty pleasure. If you're looking for state-of-the-art special effects, snappy dialogue, or a plot that's original or logical, you'll have to look elsewhere. Otherwise, Danger Island is a best watched for its lush locations, a little suspense and leggy lovelies Kathy Ireland and Beth Toussaint. Future sex kitten Nikki Cox is also here, but won't reach her potential for another three years. There are worse ways to kill two hours, as long as you turn your brain off.Danger Island follows in the grand tradition of campy shows with a group of people marooned on a isolated tropical island. Sort of like Gilligan's Island meets Lost In Space. As if to reinforce the analogy, here's June Lockhart reprising her sweet, motherly role from Lost In Space. With Kathy Ireland as a Gingeresque supermodel who presumably would never run out of cosmetics even after years on the island. Lisa Banes is a female "Professor." Vic the Marine stands in for Major Don West. Christopher Pettiet is the Will Robinson replacement. And Richard Beymer's oily, enigmatic Ben is reminiscent of the early, not very cowardly Dr. Smith. Irwin Allen would have been proud. Or he would have sued for plagiarism.Interestingly, the music is quite similar to the original score for "Nightmare Cafe." What makes it uncanny is that this was written by Peter Manning Robinson while that was written by J. Peter Robinson. (No relation as far as I can tell.)This was made by NBC as a pilot for a series that never materialized. Danger Island bears more than a passing resemblance to the 1951 movie Mysterious Island, from the motley crew thrown together by circumstance to the fateful flight through a violent storm to the abandoned habitat they find and make their own and the monsters they have to fight. During the 1992 TV season, NBC seemed to like sci-fi groaners, as four months later they showed Journey to the Center of the Earth, a remake of another movie based on a Jules Verne story. That also never found a spot on NBC's regular schedule.As a failed pilot, Danger Island laid out numerous loose ends meant to be tied up in later episodes. What tentacled menace attacked Rick and Frank? What was done to the island's natives? Who was watching them when they first made it to the beach? What does Ben know about the MK-Naomi project? The secrets of Danger Island were limitless. Perhaps it's best that they remain hidden. This way, the MK-Naomi research station will be forever shrouded in mystery, as it should be.