I'd seen bits and pieces of this Italian-monster-gore classic over the years and I've owned the VHS forever but never felt the need to watch the whole movie up until recently thanks to a midnight showing in the local weirdo cinema. It's a pretty wacky but good example of Eurotrash horror involving an island of these fishmen creatures(hence the alternate title ISLAND OF THE FISHMEN) who will rip you to pieces and tear your head off in a gory fashion unless you are Barbara Bach and you feed them this special potion. It turns out Barbara's father(Joseph Cotton) is a mad scientist who may have been involved in the creation of the fish-faced monsters in the style of a certain Dr. Moreau that this movie may be ripping off. And there's also Richard Johnson (the doctor from ZOMBIE) who acts as the master of the island and is in search of the treasure of Atlantis which just so happens to be buried right in the local underground bay.
I've only viewed this under the SCREAMERS title but apparently the original FISHMEN cut is longer and makes a bit more sense but it doesn't include the gore that producer Roger Corman added for the American version so I'm torn as to whether I really need to see this. Oh and sadly also no Cameron Mitchell(who only appears briefly in the opening sequence but it's still good to see that chubby old fellow) in the Italian print.
The VHS box-cover and the poster for SCREAMERS promises us that we will see men turned inside out which is bullshit but there is a guy who our mad doctor is trying to turn into an amphibian-man who does kinda look like he's inside out with his lungs on the outside so I guess that's where they came up with this idea. AKA SOMETHING WAITS IN THE DARK
This is a really weird trailer since the scenes shown aren't even from this movie!:
I guess they thought the actual creatures looked a bit too goofy to advertise:
Lies!:
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