(Streamed via FilmRise)
Here’s a surprising horror comedy that was made for MTV in the mid ‘00s. I wasn’t watching the channel at that time since they had long stopped playing music videos by then. Because of that, I’m a little late to the party.
A class clown (Daniel Letterle) wins his school a class trip to party on an island in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle (sponsored by MTV, of course). As a bonus, he also gets to meet Carmen Electra (playing herself) and wins backstage passes to her concert. Meanwhile, he tries to win back his socially conscious ex (Mary Elizabeth Winstead, two years away from starring in Final Destination 3) while trying to rescue Electra from the giant insects that inhabit the island.
I was fully prepared for this to suck, mostly because of its association with MTV. Much to my surprise, it had a few tricks up its sleeve. I mean I never thought I would see stop-motion monsters in a straight to MTV horror flick. As a bonus, Adam freaking West is the mad scientist named “Dr. Harryhausen” responsible for their creation!
I expected Monster Island to be bad, but it’s harmless cheesy fun. One great so-bad-it’s-good scene is when Electra takes the stage and sings. Naturally, the song is awful (she whispers breathlessly the entire song), but the staging is particularly hilarious. It’s obvious she’s lip synching the whole time and about halfway through the number, the editor gives up the entire charade and the song plays out while she doesn’t move her lips. Brilliant.
The giant insect monster didn’t like her singing either, which is why it swoops down mid-performance and kidnaps her. I didn’t know I needed a movie in which Carmen Electra gets kidnapped by a stop-motion bug, but here we are.
The stop-motion effects are a lot of fun. The giant praying mantis fight is particularly well done, as is the scene where the victor dukes it out with a bulldozer. The cheesy (on purpose) models of the island and mountain (which is revealed to be a giant anthill) are cool too. We also get a pretty good Gillman knockoff in there as well.
Sure, some of the acting is bad and the characters are annoying, but it’s breezily paced and highly enjoyable, making Monster Island a destination getaway for fans of cheesy monster movies.
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