Having already taken a look at the first two titles in Severin’s limited edition box set The Blood Island Collection – Terror is a Man (1959) and Brides of Blood (1968) – let’s move on to our last pair of Blood Island adventures new on Blu-ray. Mad Doctor of Blood Island (1969) is, like Brides, co-directed by Filipino directors Gerry de Leon (the artsy one) and Eddie Romero (the shameless one). John Ashley, the would-be teen heartthrob from many American beach movies, is once again the lead, now establishing himself as a key partner in sleazy exploitation; Ashley would linger in the Philippines as an actor and producer with films like The Big Doll House (1971), Beast of the Yellow Night (1971) and The Twilight People (1972), and eventually produce TV shows like The A-Team, Something is Out There, and Walker, Texas Ranger. Here Ashley plays Dr. Bill Foster, who comes to Blood Island with his assistant Sheila Willard (Angelique Pettyjohn) to investigate strange happenings and also to find her father (Tony Edmunds), whom she hasn’t seen since she was a child. This latter plot is something of a red herring, as the real melodrama unfolding on the island involves a mad scientist, Dr. Lorca (Ronald Remy), and his experiments with chlorophyll injections. With this technique he once hoped to treat a man with leukemia, but instead turned him into a rampaging green monster. The creature’s son, Carlos (Ronaldo Valdez), joins Dr. Foster, Sheila, and her father in investigating the killings – the crime scenes are stained with green blood – while romancing the mysterious Marla (Alicia Alonzo), who holds a secret of her own.
In “Mad Doctor of Blood Island,” a creature with green blood stalks his prey.
The sex and gore elements are even more explicit than in Brides, as exemplified in the cold open, which involves a fully nude island native running through the jungle pursued by the green-blooded monster; later, partially nude characters are graphically dismembered by the fiend. Of course, it all just feels like a harmless drive-in romp. A William Castle-like introduction from the original release urges audience members to partake in the “Oath of Green Blood,” showing groovy teenagers smiling at each other and drinking together from vials of green liquid while an oath to be recited by the audience scrolls up the screen. Packets of the stuff were actually distributed to theaters for brave audience members to try. Another gimmick runs throughout the film: whenever the monster is about to attack, the camera begins to zoom in and out wildly. This might as well be called MigraineVision. Presumably this was to disguise the cheapness of the monster makeup, though it really looks no worse than anything else that would have been on drive-in screens at the time. A climax in a cave where Dr. Lorca conducts his experiments looks like something from a Gilligan’s Island episode. But this is quality cheese. As Marla, Alicia Alonzo makes the strongest impression, perhaps because, unlike everyone else, she seems to consist of more than two dimensions. She has nude scenes (including some completely unnecessary skinny dipping), but she also has the meatiest part. When, in the finale, she slumps slowly down with flames climbing the walls around her, satisfied that her vengeance is complete, the image is unusually potent – de Leon had a good eye.
Eddie Garcia as Dr. Lorca in “Beast of Blood.”
The final film, however, is directed by Romero alone, and it shows – for better and worse. There’s nothing artsy or attractive here, just lean, mean exploitation. Beast of Blood announces itself immediately as a direct sequel to Mad Doctor, which is interesting, given that previous films showed no interest in continuity. Picking up right where the last film left off, Ashley’s Bill Foster is leaving Blood Island on a boat on which the monster has stowed away. It rampages, as is its wont, spilling gasoline everywhere, and Foster is flung from the boat just as it explodes, killing Sheila and Carlos (who are never seen, since Angelique Pettyjohn and Ronaldo Valdez didn’t return for this round). Much later, Foster returns to the island with a reporter in tow, Myra (Celeste Yarnall, who passed away in October of this year). No sooner has Bill reunited with tribe leader Ramu (Alfonso Carvajal, who played the same role in the last film) than Myra is kidnapped by Dr. Lorca (now Eddie Garcia). Lorca, in contrast with the last film, now has an armed militia at his disposal. With a half-scarred face from the fire in Mad Doctor and wearing an eye patch, he looks like a Bond villain, which makes sense, as the plot bears a passing resemblance to Dr. No (1962). In sharp contrast with the other films in the series, Beast of Blood plays out as one long spy mission, culminating in a shootout climax against numerous henchmen. Dr. Lorca retains his subterranean laboratory, but this time it’s equipped with metallic doors that slide open automatically. The well coiffed Ashley gets to be the cold man on a mission, not even pausing to make love to local rebel leader Laida (Liza Belmonte) because apparently he’s still mourning Sheila, with whom, he claims, he was in love. (Which should lead anyone who’s seen the last film to say, Really?) Never mind, because once he rescues Myra he gets naked with her immediately. I guess he got over it.
The disembodied head of the Beast of Blood.
This more action-oriented film does have a horror highlight, the green-blooded monster which Lorca has recovered and now keeps in two pieces in his laboratory: body on the slab, head in a pan. He’s kept the creature sentient through electrodes, but gets ornery that it won’t talk back to him, leading to a handful of unintentionally humorous monologues as he demands the creature get over itself and talk. A failed attempt at a head transplant features graphic surgery close-ups that take a page from Terror is a Man – though without the warning bell this time. We soon learn that the monster has been plotting, and the head can actually control the detached body, leading to the inevitable scene in which Lorca is subdued by the headless beast; and now, at last, the head talks. Perhaps Stuart Gordon was taking notes, since he revisits the concept in Re-Animator (with greater imagination and black humor). Beast of Blood offers lurid fun in keeping with the tone of the series, though it’s less colorful and exotic, and Severin’s 2K scan is only from a 16mm print, looking much rougher than its predecessors; accordingly, it’s the only film not for sale outside the box set. Mad Doctor, by contrast, looks very nice indeed on Blu-ray, though it suffers from the aforementioned problem with Brides of Blood – day-for-night shots are left undarkened so that characters run from night to day and back again. On the whole, however, the set – chock full of interviews and commentary tracks, along with a soundtrack CD for Mad Doctor – is a welcome presentation of four films that have never been treated that well in the first place. Take the Oath of Green Blood, if you dare.
