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Mad Doctor of Blood Island

"If I ever killed anyone in cold blood, I'd probably do it for profit."
Starring: John Ashley, Angelique Pettyjohn, Ronald Remy, Ronaldo Valdez
Rating: 6.5/10
Directed By: Gerardo de Leon, Eddie Romero
Runtime: 85 Minutes

The 1980s are often maligned as a period of exploitative crap in the vein of Sorority House Massacre (1986) and Don't Answer the Phone (1980); obvious sleaze with an overabundance of breasts and violence and a dearth of acting ability and story. Though the 80s did produce some excellent trash cinema, the decade pales upon a closer examination of the exploitation cinema of the 1960s and 1970s. The roots of this genre can almost be traced back to the invention of the motion picture and crosses all geographic boundaries. The 1960s, however, ushered in a "Golden Age" of exploitation that exploded like the Challenger in the 1970s and even now shows little sign of stopping, especially with Hollywood all but giving up on any semblance of reasonably good and looking for the fast buck in an already dwindling market. Proving an old adage, T+A will bring viewers into the theater and if you can pile a huge amount of violence into that nudity-filled extravaganza I'll go to the theater. Or drive-in.

Which brings me to Mad Doctor of Blood Island (1968). Hailed as a drive-in classic, Mad Doctor brings all the thrills and skin-bearing terror it can muster in one hour and twenty-five minutes, living up to it's reputation yet adhering to the genre convention of less (clothing, plot) is more (violence, nudity). Shot on location in the Philippines, Mad Doctor was made with a total seriousness that is rare for exploitation films, which tend to magnify the campier elements of the genre, though Mad Doctor also falls prey to this flaw. Despite the inherent pitfalls, it's obvious the director and cast attempted to make a serious, Hammer-style film though the end result would not nearly be equatable.

The movie opens by having you, the viewer, take the Oath of Green Blood:

"I, a living, breathing creature of the cosmic entity, am now ready to enter the realm of those chosen to be allowed to drink of the Mystic Emerald Fluids herein offered. I join the Order of the Green Blood with an open mind and through this liquid's powers am now prepared to safely view the unnatural green-blooded ones without fear of contamination."

Far Out. Underneath all this Scientology bullshit plays images of happy college kids holding this green liquid, actually given out at theaters during Mad Doctor's run, alleged to raise perception of the supernatural as well as young passions! This is a cleverly veiled drug reference and these kids, after the oath of Cthulhu, are more than happy to chug it down Jim Jones-style. The movie then begins and Good Christ! A fully naked Philippino chick is chased and mauled by the monster a mere 1:48 into the film! Mad Doctor is very up-front about itself, it seems, and this bodes an interesting viewing. There is a story in here somewhere. Ah, yes.

Government pathologist Bill Foster (John Ashley) is sent to Blood Island to investigate some strangeness with the natives. Carlos (Ronaldo Valdez) is a native coming home for a rare visit to his mother. Sheila Willis (the always heart-stopping Angelique Pettyjohn, whom nerds will remember from Star Trek Season 2 Episode 16: "Gamesters of Triskelion.") is along for the ride attempting to find her long-lost father. Most of the background on these characters is lost due to the boat's motor severely muting most of Pettyjohn's dialog; not that this is a problem since she was mostly hired to look hot and she succeeds in a "if there was an Academy Award for 'hot babe in a B movie' she'd have ten" kind of way. Every time Angelique is on the screen it is a cause for celebration. Directors Romero and de Leon really know how to maximize her contributions. Anyhow, the island's resident Dr. Lorca (Ronald Remy) has a more pressing crisis than some government tool ("Forgive my rudeness but...uh.. a small crisis. I fear I have mislaid one of my patients.") and Sheila's dad is an alcoholic who totally disses her. Seems like this working vacation is kind of a bummer.

After a bunch of jawing about Sheila's dad and his booze addiction, Mr. Willis gets a peep of Marta (Alicia Alonzo) skinny-dipping her little heart out. These natives sure like to be naked. Sheila herself has a little adventure with the most awesome rubber snake ever. This is a warm-up for her night time surprise: the monster attacks! Poor Sheila, screaming, running about, bosoms heaving. The monster's proximity causes the camera to start zooming in and out crazily in the most disconcerting (read: annoying) Mtv-ish kind of way; most likely an attempt to distract the viewer from the pretty shitty makeup effects. This hogwash continues every time the monster is around. The monster takes a spear from a native - oops, ex-native - and still gives Sheila chase, proving not only does the monster know what he wants, he's smart to want it too. Sheila waits until the monster is engrossed in rending the native into more manageable chunks to make a deft escape.

After this event, if you're a native you only have one choice: perform a ceremony to drive out evil. The ritual is reminiscent of an American ceremony called an orgy except this is one of the rare times the natives have their clothing on. If you're the primary cast you have dinner, a good place for story building. By the end of the scene (in which Dr. Lorca makes mention of a regional plant that produces a strain of chlorophyll that can be absorbed by humans), the viewer really has a sense that everyone's in on some big conspiracy except for Bill and Sheila...one big chlorophyll-filled conspiracy. Of course the monster continues to kill natives making out in the woods and we find out it hates radio transmitters, especially when tuning. Dr. Lorca and Marta decide you need to know she's only had one true love and she's miserable without him.

"I was 14 when he took me. No man has ever been more to me...no man. Not before, not since."
"You poor fool. If I had the sentiment to spare, I'd pity you."
"Be careful, Dr. Lorca. Mad people can be quite unpredictable."

All right. We the viewer now knows that Lorca is experimenting with chlorophyll, Marta's sexual predator is presumed dead and a green monster is mauling horny islanders. Yet Foster and Carlos cannot figure out what's going on. Sheila possibly could but she's shut away and only hauled out to look great and get told what to do by Foster (that cad).

The monster could care less about orgy ceremonies and conspiracy theories. Chlorophyll-man wants revenge on the radio transmitter and he gets it too, as well as bonus revenge on Carlos' mom (another clue). Carlos rushes in just in time to go mano a monstro until Chlorophyll-man correlates a baby picture with Carlos and does not rend his unconscious ass asunder (alliterative, no?). Holy Crap! That means a probable SPOILER but more importantly it makes that Marta/Lorca exchange mighty creepy (did I mention Carlos looks late 20s?) The monster splits, presumably to kill more natives and the movie continues to it's semi-logical, grave-digging, native chasing, Pettyjohn screaming, fire blazing chlorophyll-filled climax. Mysteries are solved, Foster proves that a man of science doesn't have to be John Agar (and maybe can pull off Chuck Norris) and a total set-up for the next film is introduced.

Next film? Indeed. Mad Doctor of Blood Island is actually number two in the series. It is preceded by Beast of Blood (1971) and Brain of Blood (1972) and follows Brides of Blood (1968) in the quadrology. Arguably the best of the set, Mad Doctor is pretty gory and has proper nudity throughout. Angelique Pettyjohn, once again, is a vision and you'll find yourself waiting for her to appear on-screen again. The famous love scene with Ashley that Angelique claimed was real comes with less that twelve minutes left in the film but is pretty worth it, fake or not, though Angelique's telling adds a certain mystique. Sadly, her later 1968 Star Trek episode featured no such scene (though much of her oeuvre does). The script is surprisingly tighter than one would expect but a movie of this caliber does not exactly raise expectations. All in all, Mad Doctor of Blood Island is the perfect drive-in movie, providing enough twisted thrills and a bit of the other to make it a proud viewing worth sharing with friends.