Something's Fishy

 

ISLAND OF THE FISHMEN-1979-Survivors of a shipwrecked prison ship including a Lt./doctor Ross (Claudio Cassinelli; in MOUNTAIN OF THE CANNIBAL GOD the same year) and some prisoners have their lifeboat attacked by a sea monster. The survivors of that attack wind up on an island where they find a voodoo altar and one of them declares the island is inhabited by zombies. When a snake threatens them it's shot by a mysterious woman on horseback. She warns them to leave as the owner of the island, Edmund Rackham doesn't want visitors. The group also seems to be followed by a strange frog-like creature. They meet the smug, pompous Rackham (Richard Johnson; in ZOMBIE the same year)  who offers them shelter. Rackham and his wife Amanda (Barbara Bach; THE SPY WHO LOVED ME) obviously have some marital problems. He invites Ross to dinner and while they discuss various things an old man spies on them. Later Rackham watches his smirking head servant Shakira (Beryl Cunningham) perform a voodoo ceremony and then sees her bonding with the frog monster. After one of the cons is killed attacking a woman Ross has his own encounter with Froggy but is saved when Amanda orders it to stop. Ross discovers that a famous biologist Prof. Marvin (Joseph Cotton; in GUYANA: CULT OF THE DAMNED the same year) is in the house too and very sick. He's also Amanda's father. Rackham seems desperate to have Ross keep him alive. Finally Rackham reveals some secrets to Ross. Under the island is the last remnants of Atlantis now occupied by the fish men. There's a huge treasure there but it's too deep. Rackham needs the fish men's help to get it. Prof. Marvin invented a potion that allows him to communicate with the creatures. Amanda can too. But Marvin is actually a mad scientist drummed out of the medical profession for his experiments on humans. Turns out the amphibian inhabitants are actually humans mutated by him. 

This movie isn't great with too many long stretches of nothing happening and some very dark scenes. A lot does happen in the last half hour though as a volcano erupts, Ross almost drowns but is saved by the dying Shakira who Rackham shot when she attempted to kill his wife, Ross and Rackham have two fights, the last resulting in Rackham's bloody death at the claws of the fish men who save Amanda from drowning. She and Ross survive.

Sergio Martino directed this Italian production that played in US theaters under the titles SOMETHING IN THE DARK and SCREAMERS. Both feature a new gory opening sequence featuring Cameron Mitchell & Mel Ferrer. 

The same year he made FISHMEN Martino also made THE GREAT ALLIGATOR which featured Bach, Cassinelli and Johnson. In 1995 he made a sequel for Italian TV "The Queen of the Fishmen". 

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"I've made a lot of junk". ..Joseph Cotten