SCREAMERS

This altogether ridiculous 1979 film, an Italian made MYSTERIOUS ISLAND-meets-THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU-meets-THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT trash-fest, has been released in many versions.  As of 2022 two of them are battling for dominance: the Americanized cut prepared by New World Pictures that’s known as SCREAMERS and the original version, put out on DVD in 2009 by MYA Communication under the film’s original title ISLAND OF THE FISHMEN (L’ISOLA DEGLI UOMINI PESCE).  Having viewed both I can report that this is one of the very few instances where the recut version, featuring newly shot footage from writer-director Miller Drake (who also did uncredited reshoots on PIRANHA II: THE SPAWNING) and editing by Joe Dante, is preferable to the original.

“You will see a man turned inside out!

The setting is 1891, on a secluded tropical island where one Lieutenant Claude de Ross (Claudio Cassinelli) and several convict companions have washed up after their ship was brought down by humanoid fish creatures (actually guys in dopey-looking suits).  This follows (in the SCREAMERS version) a twelve minute prologue in which a corrupt sea captain and a companion lead a couple to the “Cave of the Dead,” where all four are attacked and killed by the fish monsters.

More such critters, whose only evident aim is to slash and kill, turn up as Claude and his charges explore the island.  Eventually they happen upon a compound owned by a creep named Edmund Rackham (Richard Johnson) and his sexy companion Amanda Marvin (Barbara Bach).  The latter, we learn, is the daughter of Ernest Marvin (Joseph Cotton), a disgraced scientist who’s created the fish monsters, which are being used by Edmund to filch treasure from the submerged city of Atlantis (fortuitously located beneath the island).  But of course things come to an apocalyptic head, hastened by an erupting volcano.

The director of this mess was Sergio Martino, a veteran sleazemeister who was attempting to rehabilitate his reputation.  Present in the cast are several slumming stars, including former supermodel turned Bond girl Barbara Bach, two-time Bulldog Drummond performer Richard Johnson and former Orson Welles cohort Joseph Cotton, none of whom succeed in elevating the proceedings.  Nor does Martino, who tries for immediacy in his staging and camerawork, but the poorly calibrated pacing, unconvincing model work and uninspired performances (not helped at all by the expected horrendous English dubbing) do the film in.

All those criticisms apply to both the ISLAND OF THE FISHMEN and SCREAMERS cuts, but the latter has a slight edge.  The gory twelve minute prologue added to SCREAMERS, featuring a cast that includes Mel Ferrer and Cameron Mitchell, may be clumsy and (the gore scenes aside) uninvolving, but it works as an effective tone-setter.  Also added to SCREAMERS is a laboratory scene featuring a CREATURE FORM THE BLACK LAGOON-esque guy in a suit in place of the more unique aquatic creature depicted in ISLAND OF THE FISHMEN (a rare instance of an element of the original film outdoing SCREAMERS), and an ominous underwater set final shot that makes for a far better ending than that of ISLAND OF THE FISHMEN, which freeze frames on the ocean-bound protagonists jumping for joy upon sighting a ship on the horizon.

Another addition, inspired by the poster tagline “You will see a man turned inside out!,” was just that, which New World inserted after drive-in patrons rioted due to the fact that no such scene was extant in the original SCREAMERS cut.  Yet the inside-out shot didn’t appear in the SCREAMERS home video version, meaning no truly “uncut” non-theatrical version of the film exists.

FYI, a Martino helmed sequel to this film, FISHMEN AND THEIR QUEEN/La Regina Degli Uomini Pesce, appeared in 1995.  Quite simply: it’s not worth it.

Vital Statistics

SCREAMERS (ISLAND OF THE FISH MEN; L’ISOLA DEGLI UOMINI PESCE)
Dania Film/Meduza Distribuzione

Director: Sergio Martino (and Miller Drake)
Producer: Luciano Martino
Screenplay: Sergio Donati, Cesare Frugoni, Sergio Martino
Cinematography: Giancarlo Ferrando
Editing: Eugenio Alabiso (and Joe Dante)
Cast: Barbara Bach, Claudio Cassinelli, Richard Johnson, Beryl Cunningham, Joseph Cotton, Franco Iavarone, Roberto Posse, Giuseppe Castellano, Francesco Mazzieri, James Alquist, Eunice Bolt, Tom J. Delaney, Mel Ferrer, Cameron Mitchell