Somewhere in the 19th century, several men are shipwrecked and wind up on a remote island controlled by an evil landowner who employs a mad scientist to turn natives into fishmen, so that they can recover treasure from the Lost City of Atlantis, which happens to be nearby.
This Italian horror/adventure is a sort of a companion piece to Big Alligator River from the same year, both share many cast and crew, including director Sergio Martino and stars Barbara Bach, Claudio Cassinelli and Richard Johnson. Like that movie, this one seems like it must have been aiming to surf the wave created by Jaws, yet unlike that film, its only really the promise of the fishmen of the title which ties it into water-based monster mayhem. This one in fact has a very similar set-up and storyline to the 1977 version of The Island of Dr Moreau, with monsters akin to The Creature from the Black Lagoon thrown in for good measure. The horror is pretty light overall, with the film benefitting most from its lush location photography and solid genre cast - with Joseph Cotton even pitching up as the mad scientist. Its solid daft fun, which has enough production value to ensure its pretty enjoyable.
This Italian horror/adventure is a sort of a companion piece to Big Alligator River from the same year, both share many cast and crew, including director Sergio Martino and stars Barbara Bach, Claudio Cassinelli and Richard Johnson. Like that movie, this one seems like it must have been aiming to surf the wave created by Jaws, yet unlike that film, its only really the promise of the fishmen of the title which ties it into water-based monster mayhem. This one in fact has a very similar set-up and storyline to the 1977 version of The Island of Dr Moreau, with monsters akin to The Creature from the Black Lagoon thrown in for good measure. The horror is pretty light overall, with the film benefitting most from its lush location photography and solid genre cast - with Joseph Cotton even pitching up as the mad scientist. Its solid daft fun, which has enough production value to ensure its pretty enjoyable.