Reviewed by: Jonny T
Posted by: Root Rot
Tower of Evil (1972)
aka
Horror of Snape Island (USA Title)
Directed by: Jim O’Connolly
Starring: Bryant Haliday, Jill Haworth, Nora Winthrop, and William Lucas
Hello good people,
I recently put an idea past Mr Root Rot about doing this section and he kindly agreed to let me share it with you all on his awesome blog. The section i will be doing is called “Sunday morning classics” and basically it will be reviews of the classic films i get to watch in bed on a Sunday morning with a nice cup of good old English Tea and a biscuit (cookie) or 4.
So this week it was Tea (with milk and 2 sugars) Chocolate digestives and the classic British film Tower of evil.
Now it has been many a year seen i have seen this but always wanted to pick it up but it was always quite expensive even 2nd hand but i was lucky enough to find it in a 2nd hand shop for a mere £2, i was pleased.
So last Sunday morning we watched it, bloody marvellous film i must say,
Starts off with 2 old salty sea dogs drifting slowly through the fog on there way to the infamous Snape island, upon there arrival they can see that somethings not quite right Que the flashbacks of 4 teenagers arriving on the island after attending a jazz festival with such great lines as “This place is far out man” 70′s tastic complete with hipster flares and swinging titties!
Now right from the start you get nudity and violence, lots of both and i can imagine around the time of it’s release it raised an eyebrow or 2, Hand chopped off, naked dead body of a man laying in a pool of blood, naked dead lady when moved her head falls off and rolls down the stairs towards the camera in a great scene and all of this is within the first 15 minutes!
We the get to see one of the teenagers that managed to somehow get away alive, she is now in a mental institution in a state of complete traumatic comatose, she doesn’t react to anything, lift her arm and it stays there. The doctor then decides to show the detective that he has a way of bringing her slowly out of this state with the use of an injected drug a darkened room and what looks like two banks of disco lights,i kid you not!
This does work until she becomes hysterical and has to be sedated again, no wonder she’s fucked up!!
So along with the detective a few others decide to go to Snape Island and investigate what has actually happened. What follows is a great 5 minute or so long sequence with them on a boat with the best or worse back projection sea scene you will ever see, hilarious, the cocky young chap with his hand on the mast his hair flowing and his flares flapping in the wind, fan bloody tastic!
They arrive on the island and then all the weird shit happens, some kind of God and a story of a lost explorer buried on the island along with a shit load of his gold. Seems at some point that one is possessed (well to me anyway) the return of the nudity and sexy time with gory flashbacks and the murders start. They find a photo of a family, a man and his wife and a small baby ,you have to see this photo people, when it comes on the screen just pause it, its genius.
Transpires that the family moved there to escape the real world, i won’t really say anymore but it does have a good double twist which i wont spoil but with a short running time its well worth a watch whether it be on a Sunday morning or with a few beers and friends. Just tune your mind in to watching a great 70′s cheese filled gory movie and you’ll be on the right track, by no means a stone cold classic but to me it definitely is a Sunday morning classic, So until my next Sunday morning with a cup of tea and biscuits and a classic, take care all and enjoy.
Jonny T. http://jonnyscultfilms.blogspot.com/
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