Scott LeBrun B movie perennial John Ashley stars as Matt Farrell, a diver / "renaissance man" who is kidnapped by thugs and taken to an isolated tropical island. Said thugs represent a mad scientist named Dr. Gordon (Charles Macaulay), whose experiments have involved turning people into half-human / half-animal aberrations. Matt falls in lust with the doctors' sexy daughter Neva (Pat Woodell), who sympathizes with him and the doctors' other "subjects". So she helps them to escape.This escape takes up quite a bit of the rather brief running time of 81 minutes, but instead of ramping up the tension and sense of urgency, things start to meander too much. Obviously nobody is in a big hurry here, including the filmmakers.This was the second unofficial Filipino adaptation of "Island of Dr. Moreau", after the 1959 feature "Terror is a Man" (a.k.a. "The Blood Creature"). That fact becomes easy to understand very quickly, and the material still has a compelling nature, but the film is rather underwhelming, with a script (co-written by director Eddie Romero) that isn't all that hot. The creature makeup is adequate at best; we've seen better work in other, official versions of the H.G. Wells tale. The location shooting is fine, and the film does possess that great atmosphere common to other Filipino genre & exploitation features. While it is mostly played straight, there is some comedy relief from a "bat man" (Tony Gosalvez) who tries in vain to fly. There's even some "romance" between the "antelope man" (Ken Metcalfe) and "wolf woman" (Mona Morena). The score is a mixture of stock music and new compositions by Tito Arevalo & Ariston Avelino.The performances, much like the makeup, are very much adequate - no more - across the board. The main attraction for a number of people will undoubtedly be the prospect of Pam Grier playing one of the creatures, the feral "panther woman". One undeniable standout is the very amusing Jan Merlin as Steinman, Dr. Gordons' main henchman. Often seen smiling, he cheerfully encourages Farrell to escape, while having his own motivation for this attitude towards the prisoner.Watchable, but only really worth recommending to die hard devotees of Filipino B cinema.Six out of 10.

rposton To his Family, and Fans: I met Mr. Ashley in Hollywood 1971-72, not sure. I was totally impressed with him. A beautiful man and gentleman. I thoroughly enjoyed my meeting with him. He introduced me to Robert Conrad and I was blown away. Talk about beautiful men in my company.Just want to say after after 40 years my heart still remembers John in a positive way. He, to me was a wonderful actor/person/father. I treasure my memories of him.I just wish we could have met again, just for old times (whatever that means), I hear that phrase all the time so thought it was appropriate, excuse me for being so dramatic! The shock came when I learned he passed in 1997 on the set of Scared City in New York. I was devastated . . . John was to live forever.All good things do come to an end, and this was definitely one of those good things. John was the epitome of success, talent, and fortitude. He was brilliant as an actor, and stunning as an individual.To his family: Bless you for being a part of this wonderful human being: Entertainer, Singer, Actor, Husband, Father. Truly a God Send to all of us to learn from.Your Friend, Rita

worldsofdarkblue It's hard to imagine a world where all the stations you could watch would 'end their broadcast day' if you're too young to have lived it. That's the world where this movie was great as a late-night treat that aired very rarely. I only saw it the one time and forget the story completely but its images remain in my memory. I knew it was a cheap, bad movie when I was watching but my reaction ranged from bored to bemused to fascinated. Additionslly, there was invoked a sweet nostalgia from seeing John Ashley headlining a movie. I'd watched that guy battle mostly black and white monsters since I was 8 years old. I saw this movie when I was 26.It's a new world now and there's no reason to recommend this movie anymore. But I liked it and would sit through it again.

rufasff In case you haven't gotten your fill of bad "Island Of Lost Soul" remakes, there is this beauty. Producer writer John Ashley, a long way from Frankie, Annette, and the rest of the gang, is the hero who is kidnapped and taken to an Island where a mad doctor does mutation experiments; with a little "most dangerous game" rip off thrown in. This must have been enough to make him miss Eric Von Zipper. Pat Codell, from Pennycoat Junction, shows some real charm in rolling with the punches, the poor thing quit the biz soon afterwards. And you get an early appearance of Pam Grier, and a flying batman livens things up a bit. Mostly however, this is for hard core bad movie fans only.