Hidden Gem: Blood Tide

Howdy readers. So racking my brain on what to view and I just decided on a coin toss and a RETURN TO PUBLIC DOMAIN. Yes the Public Domain roulette can be deadly to one's sanity or it can entertain on many levels. Did I reach in a septic tank and find a plum? Well it wouldn't matter. The hygiene and health issues alone sound too awful to begin to speculate. What do you get with a Playboy playmate, the voice of Darth Vader and a sea monster? This is Blood Tide

Right now she is thinking, "I should have jumped Marko's bones.

Writer/director Richard Jefferies (Bloodtide, 14 Going on 30, Scarecrows, The Vagrant, Man of the House and Cold Creek Manor) is an English director, filming in Greece with American actors. Should be fun. This film just boast treasures, adventures, a monster and sacrificing innocent virgins and wonder of wonders, it is a Also Known As with alternative titles like: Blood Tide, Demon's Island, The Red Tide and Demon Island.

With a booming voice over, we know now that thousands of years ago life was an eternal struggle for good and evil. A creature haunted the Aegean Sea. Only with the sacrifice of virgins, appeased the beast. Guess Hercules left this part of Greece alone to keep chucking attractive women to an sea beast. You suck Herc!  Treated like an everyday occurrence, they sent out on a small raft like a buffet conveyor belt from an Automat; and are given a coin in the mouth to bid farewell to the mortal realm and Lord Charon, ferryman of the dead safe passage to the other side. Worry not sexist pig types that read this, the sacrifices are at least topless.

Not the best transition as we don't hear a blood curdling scream or see blood spraying the caves but modern time (well for 1982) as a speedboat makes some chop in the water, a happily newlywed couple Neil (Martin Kove of Last House on the Left, Death Race 2000, The Karate Kid, Rambo: First Blood Part II, Cagney & Lacey, Black Scorpion, Black Scorpion Returns and Revamped) and Sherry (Mary Louise Weller of Serpico, Kojak, Hunters of the Reef, National Lampoon's Animal House, Starsky and Hutch, Supertrain, The Bell Jar and Vega$) Grice, vacationing on their honeymoon. A pleasant enough synthesizer intro for our couple and their 80s hair has been coifed just so. Think it's freeze dried from all the mousse. 

Nero the Hero vacations!

 They're stopping off to look for Neil's sister, Madeline (Deborah Shelton of of Fantasy Island, The Fall Guy, The A-Team, The Yellow Rose, Body Double, Dallas, Nemesis and Silk Degrees) as she has been missing or simply out of contact for four months. Neil and Sherry seem to be in a constant state of next to no clothing on. This is pre-boner pills so maybe they have to work more at it.

Wise old man/mayor Nereus (Jose Ferrer of Cyrano de Bergerac, Moulin Rouge, The Great Man, Dune, Seduced, Covenant, Blood & Orchids, The Love Boat and Newhart) is the voice of the movie similar to Donald Pleasance's portrayal of Dr. Loomis in Halloween, and similar to another Donald Pleasance film; Land of the Minotaur, the villagers are next to useless for Neil's questions.  I was waiting for Greek Crazy Ralph to appear and scream about death curses and how all was doomed. Hey I am just thrilled night shots are actual night shots and not that horrible day for night filter.

Neil encounters Shakespearean spouting, hard drinking and wealth obsessed Frye (James Earl Jones of Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, The Great White Hope, Claudine, The Greatest, Star Wars: Episode IV- A New Hope, Exorcist II: The Heretic, Paris, The Flight of Dragons, Conan the Barbarian, Soul Man, Coming to America, Field of Dreams and Star Wars: Rogue One) and by encounter I mean he gets a butcher knife drawn to his throat and a look of a man willing to slash another from ear to ear. Y'know, a warm fella.  Did appreciate the Othello quotes though.

This is CNN...

Big sister seems barely lucid one moment and a bit snarky the next. Could be a dark and ominous portent or she could be high as a kite. Who can say. Embrace the possibilities.

Overtly jiggly and giggly Barbara or "Babs" (Lynda Cornell of Steel, Bloodtide, The Dukes of Hazzard, Too Close for Comfort, The Love Boat, Hotel, T.J. Hooker and Hunter) is giving the text book definition of dumb blonde. Turns out Frye is working to build up a substantial treasure find but those pesky kids he hired disturbed the ancient slumber of the beast.

With the whole town in a panic, Nereus speaks of the old ways of dealing with the creature. Yeah the lobbing virgin girls to the beast idea.

What we is a standard creature of legend story arc, some set of family values and the cliche greedy treasure hunters. The script is fair, the action is decent and the overall performances are quite good. The padding of the film however, is a bit long. Almost feels like they didn't really know what tempo to run it at so it does drag in places.

I was a little disappointed in the monster. Even some of the creatures of Danger on Tiki Island looked more believable and the premise is a bit similar. Perhaps with some additional POV shark like shots would have helped. I couldn't say. The creature's growl or sound effects sounded like someone walking in either a vat of grapes or jumping up and down in a crate of oranges.

Overall, it was enjoyable and is only an hour and a half. The fact that it was in public domain and I hadn't heard anything of it, makes this a find.  This can be found in public domain as well as my old buddies via Mill Creek Entertainment on one of their many 20 to 100 title launches.

POV of the Damned!!!