CELLAR DWELLER (1987) Using a Satanic text for inspiration, comic book artist Colin Childress (Jeffrey Combs) accidentally conjures his creation (an eight-foot tall demonic creature) into the real world and the two go up in flames. Years later, Childress’s house is turned into a residency for aspiring artists operated by a snotty has-been (Yvonne De Carlo) and home to Childress-worshipper Whitney (Debrah Farentino), who wishes to revive his most famous series, Cellar Dweller—but in doing so unknowingly summons the demon into reality. The beast rips through the cast—the decapitation scene is gore-drenched—until Whitney sends the creature back to Hell by dousing her art in White-Out and setting it aflame. The monster FX are good and were supervised by director John Carl Buechler, but the film itself is extremely stupid and never makes much sense. The screenplay was written by Don Mancini of Child’s Play fame.
ISLAND OF THE FISHMEN (1979) (AKA:Screamers) People stranded on a volcanic island find themselves hunted by the half-man, half-fish creations of a marine scientist (Joseph Cotten) in this retread of the Island of Dr. Moreau theme. The fishmen are controlled by their maker’s beautiful daughter (Barbara Bach), who herself is under the watchful eye of the island’s owner (Richard Johnson), a maniacal baron using the fish monsters to retrieve lost loot from the drowned city of Atlantis. Johnson overacts, Bach barely acts, and Cotten is just along for the ride in this Italian production that was made at the same time and with most of the same cast and crew as director Sergio Martino’s equally absurd The Great Alligator. Compared to that stinker, Island of the Fishmen looks like a classic, but it’s still not very good.
MUTANT (1984) Two brothers (Wings Hauser and Lee Montgomery) driving through backcountry stumble onto a redneck town crawling with hostile locals. After Montgomery goes missing, Hauser and the alcoholic sheriff (Bo Hopkins) search the place and discover most of the population has been mutated into light-sensitive humanoids by a toxic sludge emanating from a nearby chemical factory. An effective variation on the zombie and vampire subgenres—with specific references to Night of the Living Dead (1968) and Salem’s Lot (1979)—Mutant gets points for not only doing something different with its familiar plot, but also by infusing its story with sympathetic characters, good special effects, and some actual tension, most of which is showcased during the third act. John “Bud” Cardos apparently replaced House on Sorority Row‘s Mark Rosman as director after distributor Film Ventures International was unhappy with the dailies.
