Tommy Snöberg Söderberg 
Island of Blood is a horror movie from 1982. When I first saw it on VHS 30 years ago or so, it was titled Scared Alive. I don’t know who figured out that it would be a good title but since then that is what I always have referred to the movie as. Island of Blood is a much better title when you take the story into consideration. It takes place on a remote island with no population. An independent or low-budget movie is supposed to be shot there and when the actors, director etc. start working on the film, they die one by one.
So, I think you could say that it’s a slasher of sorts. There’s no masked killer or something like that; it has more of a “And Then There Were None” kind of vibe to it. But just the fact that the murders happened one at a time over the course of the film, and by some gruesome methods I might add, makes me think slasher. Surrounding every murder, there is a punk song with the lyrics matching the exact method used. If the lyrics say that the victim will be burned, there’s a fire, or acid. If the lyrics say chopped, the body is found chopped up and so forth. It’s a great premise!
It’s obvious that Island of Blood is a low-budget movie in itself. So, we’re talking about a low budget movie about the shooting of a low budget movie. It doesn’t reach the state of any meta-story though. I guess they could’ve gone all in and created something really complex, but I don’t think the budget or the script could have taken it. Plus, no one expects a movie like this to be multifaceted and complex. Most of us will probably just want to see interesting kills.
And, I must say, some of the kills are really unusual. Of course, you could do much more with the effects these days and the acting is not that great, but it has a natural, raw feel to it. In my mind it’s oozing with the 80s and that’s a good thing in this case. That is what brings the charm and maybe, in my case, the nostalgia factor into the playing field.
The story isn’t complex and the characters are quite wooden, but that’s what we would expect from a flick like this. If it were anything else, I think I would’ve been disappointed. Speaking for myself, I didn’t figure out who the killer was or what the motives were until it was designed to be told. And I’ve even seen it before. Sure, it was 30 years ago or more, but still. So that was a refreshing experience.
Quality-wise, Island of Blood is not a good film. There’s no real tension and no suspense, but the methods are fun and the film is entertaining, and somewhere down the line, this is what’s important.
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