Blood Tide
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''Blood Tide'' is a 1982 British
horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit physical or psychological fear in its viewers. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with Transgressive art, transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements of the genre include Mo ...
directed by
Richard Jefferies John Richard Jefferies (6 November 1848 – 14 August 1887) was an English nature writer, noted for his depiction of English rural life in essays, books of natural history, and novels. His childhood on a small Wiltshire farm had a great influ ...
, and starring
James Earl Jones James Earl Jones (January 17, 1931 – September 9, 2024) was an American actor. A pioneer for black actors in the entertainment industry, Jones is known for his extensive and acclaimed roles on stage and screen. Jones is one of the few perfor ...
,
José Ferrer José Vicente Ferrer de Otero y Cintrón (January 8, 1912 – January 26, 1992) was a Puerto Ricans, Puerto Rican actor and director of stage, film and television. He was one of the most celebrated and esteemed Hispanic and Latino Americans, Hi ...
,
Lila Kedrova Yelizaveta Nikolaevna Kedrova (Russian: Елизавета Николаевна Кедрова; 9 October 1909 – 16 February 2000), known as Lila Kedrova, was a Russian actress of the screen and stage. She won the Academy Award for Best Suppo ...
, Lydia Cornell, Mary Louise Weller, Martin Kove, and
Deborah Shelton Deborah Shelton is an American actress and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss USA 1970. She is also known for her appearances on ''Dallas'' for three seasons, with a special guest return in 2013. Pageants In 1970, Shelton competed ...
. Its plot follows a young American couple visiting a
Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
island where the husband's sister disappeared; they soon find that an ancient
monster A monster is a type of imaginary or fictional creature found in literature, folklore, mythology, fiction and religion. They are very often depicted as dangerous and aggressive, with a strange or grotesque appearance that causes Anxiety, terror ...
has been released, forcing the villagers to return to the practice of
human sacrifice Human sacrifice is the act of killing one or more humans as part of a ritual, which is usually intended to please or appease deity, gods, a human ruler, public or jurisdictional demands for justice by capital punishment, an authoritative/prie ...
to appease it. The film is also known as ''Bloodtide'' (in the US) and ''Demon Island'' (American TV title). It has been misconstrued as a
public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no Exclusive exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly Waiver, waived, or may be inapplicable. Because no one holds ...
film and pirated by many distributors who copied it from DVDs. However, as per The Copyright Office, copyright is registered under Omega Entertainment, Inc. and the writer/producer of the film, Nico Mastorakis.


Plot

Neil and Sherry Grice, a young American couple, are visiting
Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...
in search of Neil's missing sister, Madeline, an artist who traveled to a remote island off the coast shortly before her disappearance. Upon arriving on the island, the couple are met by Nereus, the elderly mayor. While touring the island, Neil and Sherry see Madeline walking along a rocky hill, and follow her. They find her in the company of Frye, a middle-aged
treasure hunter Treasure hunting is the physical search for treasure. One of the most popular types of modern day treasure hunters are historic shipwreck salvors. These underwater treasure salvors try to find sunken shipwrecks and retrieve artifacts with both ...
who is initially hostile toward Neil. Later that night, Frye and Madeline's friend, Barbara, use Neil and Sherry's boat to visit a remote area of ocean off the island where Frye scuba dives into an underwater cavern. Inside, Frye gets drunk and uses a homemade bomb to unseal a walled-off tunnel which bears a
sigil A sigil () is a type of symbol used in magic. The term usually refers to a pictorial signature of a spirit (such as an angel, demon, or deity). In modern usage, especially in the context of chaos magic, a sigil refers to a symbolic represen ...
engraved above it. While Neil and Sherry visit the beach the next day with Madeline, Frye, and Barbara, Sherry observes Madeline acting strangely, in a seemingly
trance Trance is a state of semi-consciousness in which a person is not self-aware and is either altogether unresponsive to external stimuli (but nevertheless capable of pursuing and realizing an aim) or is selectively responsive in following the dir ...
-like state. When Sherry gifts Madeline an expensive perfume, Madeline pours the entire bottle over her body. Madeline visits a
convent A convent is an enclosed community of monks, nuns, friars or religious sisters. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The term is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglican ...
on the island where she speaks with Sister Elena, and confides in a number of bizarre paintings she has uncovered after stripping the paint from the walls of the monastery. Among them are a portrait of a saint and a serpentine creature, which predates Christianity. Later, Barbara is attacked while swimming on the beach and killed in what appears to have been a shark attack. Her dismembered corpse is found by local children after it washes up on the shore. Meanwhile, several other young women in the town go missing. While out boating, Neil and Sherry come across Frye's boat, and assume he is diving. Neil decides to follow him, and enters the underwater cave. Once inside, Frye tells Neil that it was Madeline's idea to come to the island in the first place, and that he had met her on the mainland prior—she was drawn to the island, and insistent they go there. He recounts how, after they arrived there, Madeline's personality began to change. Neil and Sherry visit the convent in an attempt to locate Madeline, but a nun forces them to leave. Meanwhile, Lethe, a young village girl, falls off a cliffside into the water while playing with the village boys. Her mother attempts to save her, as does Frye, who witnesses the accident from his boat. Frye saves Lethe, but her mother is eaten alive by the serpent. That night, Frye, Neil, and Sherry attend a festival held by the villagers. Meanwhile, Madeline, back at the convent, witnesses the nuns holding a ceremonial prayer. A short time later, a bloodied and shocked Sister Anna, the mother superior, stumbles into the festival. Neil, Sherry, and Frye rush to the convent and find it in disarray, the nuns all dead. Madeline, meanwhile, in a trance state, jumps from a cliff into the ocean, and swims to the underwater cavern. Frye and Neil follow after her. As Neil helps pull Madeline from the cave, Frye detonates it, blowing up the serpent and sacrificing his own life. Madeline, Neil, and Sherry depart the island at dawn.


Cast


Reception

Charles Tatum from ''eFilmCritic.com'' awarded the film 3 out of 4 stars, noting that, although the film wasn't perfect, it had its moments. In particular, Tatum commended the film's suspense scenes, and monster design. Author and film critic
Leonard Maltin Leonard Michael Maltin (born December 18, 1950) is an American film critic, film historian, and author. He is known for his book of film capsule reviews, '' Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide'', published from 1969 to 2014. Maltin was the film criti ...
awarded the film 1.5 out of 4 stars, stating that the film's Greek scenery was the film's only distinction, calling it " substandard programmer". ''
TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media In mass communication, digital media is any media (communication), communication media that operates in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital content can be created, vi ...
'' offered similar criticism, awarding it 1/5 stars, calling it "An embarrassing picture for all concerned, but fun for devotees of "bad enough to be good" movies."


References


External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Blood Tide 1982 films 1982 horror films 1980s monster movies British monster movies 1980s English-language films English-language Greek films Films set in Greece Greek horror films Films scored by Shuki Levy 21st Century Film Corporation films 1980s British films English-language horror films 1980s Greek films 1982 science fiction films English-language science fiction horror films