Evengyny Thanks for the memories!

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

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.

SixteenHorsepower I was at my cousins house a while ago and he had this box of DVDs he was borrowing from a friend. We'd seen pretty much everything in the box except this, and so we decided to try it out.The only reason I'm writing this review is so maybe somebody out there will decide not to see it and save themselves from an excruciating amount of pain.So pretty much the movie is about McDowell (a heartless businessman type) and a bunch of other people (including Mos Def) who some how get stuck on an island where McDowell's company plans to build something (I don't know exactly but that's pretty much the idea) and eventually there is some half-ass-ed dialog about corpses being buried or dug up or something. so like I said they get trapped there and for about eight ninths of the film you expect some zombies to pop up. Well what really happens is these flies begin attacking everyone,picking them off one at a time. And, I have no idea why, there are constant flashbacks to some children playing jump-rope which I think is supposed to be scary or something (I s--t you not, the writers seem to think Jumpropes are horrifying.)And that is pretty much the entire film. Kinda stupid huh? well its even worse on film.This movie is so bad it becomes painful. It then becomes so painful it becomes tiring. Then by the last five minutes you're too tired to think and can't help but laugh at how idiotic the film is and how you were somehow tricked into watching all of it.Even if you get a chance to see this for free, I'd recommend avoiding it.

preppy-3 A bunch of people--including evil industrialist Malcolm McDowell, policewoman Talisa Soto and prisoner Bruce Ramsay--are on Hart Island--an actual island off the coast of NYC where unidentified dead people are buried. While there they desecrate one of the graves. You would expect by the title that the dead would come to life and attack. Wrong! They instead are attacked by...flies. If the flies bite you, you die and almost immediately begin decomposing.This sounded pretty promising--not in a good way but a bad camp movie sort of way. Unfortunately this is just bad. The soundtrack has annoying rap songs which don't even fit the movie; the dialogue and characters are all clichés that you've seen and heard before; the fly POV shots are hysterical; in one shot it's daytime--a minute later it's pitch black night (shades of Ed Wood Jr.!); lousy makeup and boring CGI effects and a stubborn refusal to be scary even once! I was so bored I dozed off for about 10 minutes (I didn't miss anything). It really boggles the mind that anyone would think this would ever work.Some good performances make this bearable--Soto is beautiful but wooden however Ramsay is surprisingly good and McDowell is just great--he's obviously enjoying himself and his enjoyment rubs off (a little). Still this is a stupid, dumb, boring and completely illogical horror film. Right down there with "House of the Dead". A must miss.

metalface101 99% of all the reviews for this movie are correct.............the packaging makes you believe that it's a zombie movie.........but the only thing dead in this movie is the movie itself. The acting wasn't bad, there just wasn't any freaking zombies. Stay away if possible, unless you like a "bugs-that-sting-you-and-make-you-decompose" type of movie. The packing also noted that the movie was rated "R" for graphic violence..........where was the violence?????????? A complete waste of time. Talisa Soto makes for some cool eye candy when she's not watching urban kids jump rope and singing a stupid song. Again, don't bother.......................