Tower of Evil (1972) - An early entry into the slasher genre

Pretty people.  Remote location.  The cast getting picked off one by one.  It can only be a 'slasher' film, only this one is actually quite early on, making it one of the first of the what we consider a 'modern' slasher film (if 'modern' can still be applied to the seventies!).  It starts off with two old sailors, setting foot on an island for the first time in a while and finding a load of kids butchered, with only one surviving.

Skip forward a few weeks and the only survivor has been returned to civilisation, but in a comatose state.  She can let the authorities know roughly what happened, but they need more concrete answers, so they pick a load of young people (all of which have intertwined love lives!) and send them there to investigate.  Something to do with archaeological artifacts, or something... I guess it doesn't really matter!

What matters is that you get a 'who-done-it?' which will leave you guessing who's going to live and who's going to get chopped up, screaming while being knifed.  And, boy, does the director like screaming.  There's about a five minute montage of most of the characters screaming midway through.  I seem to remember it was about that time I nipped out to get a cup of tea.

Don't expect too much in the way of gore, as the film doesn't seem to be able to produce the funds to manage much in the way of special effects.  And, while we're on the subject of things and how they looked, the whole 'island' they're stranded on looks more like a set than my own living room.

All in all it feels like the cousin of a British 'Hammer House of Horror' film as it's kind of cheesy, but with a few more s3xual references thrown in as if they're deliberately trying to up the rating to an 'R' level.  If you're into the genre, there's certainly fun to have here - especially if you're in a forgiving mood.  Or you've enjoyed 'Yes, Minister' (the British sit-com from the eighties) and you want to see one of its stars (Sir Bernard) in a completely different role.  Plus you have the 'It's...' guy from the opening of 'Monty Python's Flying Circus' thrown in there for good measure.

6/10 Should probably keep you awake if Freddy Krueger was haunting your nights