Stoutor It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.
Derrick Gibbons An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.
Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.
Cheryl A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.
Scarecrow-88 Tim Southam's Island of the Dead is shot dead serious with a minor few humorous touches, lensed in a wintry blue / gray color scheme, removing as much rays of sunshine and light as possible, seemingly more focused on some sort of depressing message regarding the "disposal" of the undesirables, on Hart's Island, off the coast of New York City, a veritable "place for the dead", a "Potter's Field" where the paupers and unnamed are buried away from civilization. The tone and musical accompaniment are just as drab as the look, and the film's mood compliments cop Talisa Soto's attitude and her job..to put a name to missing persons since she herself was left on a street corner, abandoned by her mother. Malcolm McDowell is a millionaire, Rupert King, the mind and money behind the developmental project of "Hope City", a community for the poor and less fortunate who can contribute to society..or that's what it appears to be. There's actually something far more sinister behind his motives(..hinted at later but not quite elaborated on to full detail, dealing with genetic experiments). Along with some short-term cons helping bury dead in wooden boxes, Matos(Bruce Ramsay), Neely(Kent McQuaid), and Robbie J(Mos Def), & King and his slimy associate Mckloe(Paul Hopkins), Melissa O'Keefe(Soto)will head for Hart's Island on ferry in the hopes of putting a name to her missing person's report. King and Mackloe are on the island for business purposes. What the group are not expecting is a major attack from predatory houseflies whose bite sets off an infectious disease that causes immediate skin and bodily harm, resulting in those bit bursting with maggots.McDowell doesn't have to stretch in his role as a loathsome, self-absorbed businessman with ulterior motives, and Soto remains with a sulk. Mos Def provided some well needed laughs as he takes jabs at Neely, an obvious addict on the mend, with various tattoos and piercing. Ramsay's Matos is a clean-cut con proclaiming his innocence to O'Keefe, very insistent on how he was framed by police. Tyrone Benskin is Dwight Truman, the security in charge of the prisoners working detail on the island.Houseflies are not exactly the most menacing threat against humankind, but there's some effectively icky make-up work, showing how the body externally reacts to the disease..plus bodies riddled with maggots always seems to get a properly skin-crawling reaction. Southam uses a lot of point-of-view camera work in regards to the flies themselves charging towards potential victims. We also see them in swarms(..mostly during the night)forming in the sky. I found the idea behind the swarm actually singling out their victims, as if having a motive behind their activities(..specifically, in regards to Rupert King)rather preposterous and silly. Southam insists on cementing his movie with a gloomy atmosphere, and it's hard to take it seriously when you are dealing with hostile flies whose bite somehow infect humans with a disease. In regards to O'Keefe, an indelible image that reoccurs is these kids playing jump rope on a street corner providing the movie with an ever present theme on abandonment that motivates her character in every way. Great setting of the isolated and lonely island is never quite utilized as it could've been which is a shame.
mondo1287 The only thing interesting about this film was Hart Island's history. This is an island which contains the bodies of nearly one million destitute people, and the best idea they can come up with is killer flies and meal worms? This island's history is ripe for horror exploitation, and they chose killer flies. Forty five minutes and half way into this film nothing had happened and I was still hoping this movie was going to be about some zombies or monsters, or at least some ghosts. I got flies, and not in a good way like the X-Files episode from the first season.Then there's the actions of the characters. The first guy that gets attacked by the fies doesn't even run. He just stands there flailing around in slow motion, only it's not slow motion he's just moving slowly. Then when the guy dies in the office the inmate just has to bury the guy when the building is still full of flies? There also just happens to be a gun in an unlocked desk drawer where prison inmates are roaming freely. The boat captain places two big wads of chew in his mouth and doesn't realize it's giant meal worms and not chew until he goes for the third wad?Also, never mind explaining where these flies came from or how they even managed to make it back to the mainland. Worst movie ever.
Johnathan B Yes, I'm a sucker for zombie movies. I bought this thinking it was a zombie movie with Mos Def and Mc Dowell, two people I thought I would never see in a zombie movie. Looks like I was right. They could have at least tried to make it suspenseful. If you need to give it a try just remember to rest your fast forward finger up first. Its going to have a workout. Here is an idea, a giant granddaddy fly whose buzzing blocks cell phone transmissions. Put the sexy chick in some beat up outfit armed with a blow torch ala Aliens, or even better, a backpack sized can of Raid rigged up for use in a way not authorized by the makers. (A Raid Bomb!) My point is, there are ways to make movies like this better, They could have dumped one of those quickly forgotten actors to pay for the cheap rubber effects I mentioned. Hey, before it explodes she could say "Fly away, Mother*%@*&$!" I'll stop know, I'm making myself sick.
Rupert__Pupkin This movie was given to me as a gift. So because I own it, I really wanted to like it. Sucks to be me.The thought that kept bothering me throughout this terrible flick was, "Doesn't anyone have a cell phone?" It was made in 2000. Cell phones were rampant by then, especially in New York City.The movie had great promise. Hart's Island is a real place, and surprisingly, I've never seen it in a movie before (with the exception of Michael Douglas' "Don't Say a Word" which happened to have one scene on the island. The movie wasn't about the island.) The history of the island is extremely interesting and quite scary. The movie failed to capitalize on any of the history and instead tried to scare us with....HOUSEFLIES!!! I guess flies and maggots are cheaper and easier to get than zombies. Totally ridiculous.Plus, the movie had the usual things you see in stupid, poorly written horror movies (i.e. cars that won't start, love interest between two unlikely heroes, etc.).What a waste. Can I regift it?
