Director Nico Mastorakis has made a cynical cash-grabber (by his own admission) that is too cynical to impress anybody but a sophomore genre fan.

The most extreme, confronting genre pics, to paraphrase a character in VIDEODROME, "have a philosophy"; that is what makes them dangerous.

ISLAND OF DEATH's philosophy is to throw many "shocking" elements into a cinematic mix and stir slowly. The result is a dish with no taste but an ugly appearance.

Not to be confused with Serrador's brilliant WHO COULD KILL A CHILD? (sometimes called ISLAND OF DEATH), Mastorakis's effort is set on a Greek island which is a stage for various forms of slaughter, a little bestiality and some wholesale perversion.

Everything moves at a snailish pace and the violent set pieces are poorly directed.

Touted as "The movie that the censors didn't want you to see", I'd hazard a guess that the censors never saw it, they simply read the presskit until their knees jerked upwards.

Island of Death, Nico Mastorakis' much-banned exploitation horror, sees a pair of sadistic lovers, Christopher and Celia (played by Robert Behling and the lovely Jane Lyle), travel to Mykonos where they proceed to punish anyone they deem to be perverted, a definite case of 'the pot calling the kettle black' since the murderous couple are easily the biggest deviants on the island: their numerous killings aside, Christopher calls his mother whilst having sex with Celia in a phone booth, Celia shags a French painter as Christopher watches from a distance, the couple masturbate over photographs of their victims, and a goat gets a good seeing to from Christopher when Celia turns hims down for nookie!

On top of all of this, Mastorakis' delightfully trashy film also tackles such unsavoury subjects as rape (both female and male), drug abuse, incest, and water sports (and I'm not talking about scuba-diving and wake-boarding), offering oodles of nekkid flesh and soft-core humping in the process, making it perfect viewing for anyone who likes their entertainment to constantly challenge the boundaries of taste.

Despite none of this dodgy content being overly explicit (and in the case of the goat sex, I've got to say that I'm rather glad!), the mere fact that the film even dared to explore these usually taboo themes qualified it for a place on the official DPP Video Nasties list during the 80s, and it is these high levels of extreme wrongness that still draws fans of such fare to seek out the title. The direction may be uninspired, the story not exactly riveting, and the gore rather tame, but I still recommend Island of Death simply for being so depraved.

And if you don't believe me, the end of the film reveals that Christopher and Celia are actually brother and sister, which makes that phone call to their mother all the more indecent!

A murderous couple from England are vacationing on the island of Mykonos in Greece. While an investigator from England tracks them to the island, they go on a killing spree removing the island's inhabitants one by one to cleanse the place of all perversions. But the killers have a few perversions of their own.

When you give a film a high rating you need to justify that rating. Most people find this film to be slightly above average, whereas I found it to be a couple notches below perfect. Why? Because while this is not a stand-out film in the general sense, it does touch upon the important horror themes: psychotic killers, excessive nudity and rampant bloodletting. The plot, albeit a thin one, is decent enough to carry this sort of promise for the viewers.

Some have said this film is more of a "softcore porn" than a horror film and I would disagree, though I see their point. The lead actress (Jane Lyle) gets naked repeatedly, sleeps with at least three men and walks around topless in other scenes. There are also gay men and lesbians doing what they do in privacy, and a very disturbing scene between a man and a goat.

The gore is relatively minor. There's a crucifixion, plenty of gun and sword play, a bulldozer and more... but most of the action happens off-camera leaving it to our imaginations. Although, I did feel this was done well enough that I expected gore again and again, leaving me constantly in suspense. The closest I recall to a direct shot was a scene with a home-made flamethrower.

No one is safe: rapists, homosexuals, women who enjoy urine and black men are all targeted. If you're easily offended, you really should look elsewhere because you're going to see and hear things you never wanted to see and hear. But if you love exploitation horror (and I do), this one is right up your alley and you'll be calling your friends the next day saying "You won't believe what I saw!"