Island of Terror (1966)

Due to all the new submissions, I'm rather intrigued by this film.
Any chance of a review for it Mr. Kooshmeister?

OB

As a matter of fact, yes, I have a review for this movie written up if you'd like me to post it. It's very long and quite detailed, scene by scene in fact.

Without a doubt, please post it! Your writeups have made me realise I need to get this film on DVD.

OB

Heh, OB i think some of these submissions have made me realise that they dont make them like they used to! Personally i am interested in the Warlords of Atlantis, with Doug McClure

Mouseburger

old bluffer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Without a doubt, please post it! Your writeups
> have made me realise I need to get this film on
> DVD.
>
> OB

Okey-dokey!

Island of Terror begins on Petrie's Island, a small island off the eastern coast of Ireland. The island was apparently only recently modernized: when the weekly supply ship comes in, farmer Ian Bellows is talking with store owner Peter Argyle and complaining about the fact the government hasn't installed their telephones despite promising to do so for about two years now. We're also introduced to a few other characters during this scene who will become important later on, including Constable John Harris, the island's sole police official, Roger Campbell, the head of the only town on the island, and local physician Dr. Reginald Landers. Neither Harris nor Campbell are too important right now as most of the talking goes on between Ian, Argyle and Landers.

The men gossip about a certain Dr. Lawrence Phillips, who we see with one of his assistants at the docks to take possession of a wooden crate marked "Chemical Equipment." It seems Phillips recently came to Petrie's and set up shop in the old mansion located on the northern point of the island. He's very reclusive and secretive, and the other men find this odd, but Landers says that all researchers are like that. There's more complaining about the lack of phone service before we see Phillips and his assistant load the crate into a Land Rover and drive off.

Cut to Phillips' high-tech laboratory. We see that it comes stocked with the usual assortment of beakers, test tubes and flasks, as well as three very large fish tanks filled with a yellowish liquid. Phillips and another one of his assistants, Carson, discuss their experiments, using a lot of techno-babble that sounds made up. The basic gist is that they're doing oncology research and Phillips thinks they're close to finding a cure for cancer. He hopes to use the newly-arrived equipment to speed their work up.

Carson warns against this, as they're working in conjunction with similar laboratories in Rome, New York and Tokyo. Phillips waves him off, saying he sent his colleagues a notice that morning of his intentions to continue and advising them to do the same. "I've waited a long time for this moment," he declares, and they begin the experiment. There's suddenly a bright flash of red, the sound of breaking glass, and then brief glimpses of dead bodies littering the floor and the main titles begin.

After the credits come to a close we find Ian Bellows, the farmer, headed home through the woods that night. His walk is interrupted by an eerie electronic echo noise coming from a nearby cave that rises and lowers in pitch. He goes to investigate. No sooner has he disappeared into the cave than we hear Ian scream in agony. His cries are cut off and we hear loud slurping sounds.

Cut to Constable John Harris' house, which apparently doubles as the island's police headquarters. There's a knock at the door, and the officer admits a woman he calls Mrs. Bellows, Ian's wife, and she seems to very upset. Harris sits her down and asks her to tell him what's wrong, and she says Ian is three hours late coming home, and she wants the constable to go look for him. Harris agrees, but tries to assure her nothing has happened to Ian.

Later, Harris rides his bike down a path through the woods. Getting off, Harris wanders around for a bit and calls out to Ian. He eventually spies him laying just inside the entrance of the cave. Going over, Harris uses his nightstick to prod the corpse, and is shocked when it sinks into Ian's chest as though he hasn't got any ribs. He then jumps onto his bike and heads straight for Dr. Reginald Landers' house.

Once there, he tells the doctor, "You know that I'm not a man that's easily shaken, Dr. Landers. I've just seen somethin', and by all that's holy I just can't be sure but... I think it's Ian Bellows." Landers is incredulous at first when Harris describes Ian's body as being "like jelly," but he can see how distressed the constable is and so agrees to go have a look.

At the cave, Landers examines the body briefly and says from the looks of it there's no bones in it, using his walking stick to lift the arm up and it bends in places an arm wasn't meant to bend, and although it's wearing Ian Bellows' clothes, he's not even sure it even is Ian.

He and Harris take the body to the local clinic where Landers performs an autopsy. He discover's it is Ian Bellows by identifying an appendectomy scar and birth mark. He also ascertains that, indeed, there is no skeleton whatsoever in the man's body. After trying to think of a way to tell poor Mrs. Bellows about her husband, Landers instructs Harris to try and see Dr. Phillips while he takes the island's launch to the mainland, to see a man named Dr. Brian Stanley in London. Stanley, he reveals, is a renowned pathologist who teaches at "the university."

Cut to the university, where Dr. Brian Stanley is finishing up a lecture on... er, something. He just tells his students he's hoped they've learned something before dismissing them. Some guy I'm assuming is either another professor or some kind of faculty person shows Landers into the classroom and he and Stanley shake hands. When asked what it is he wants, Landers cuts right to the chase and asks him if he knows of a disease that can completely dissolve human bone. He's disappointed when Stanley says he hasn't, and insists that he's got a corpse on his hands without a trace of a skeleton in it. Stanley is appropriately shocked, but Landers insists and, seeing how desperate he is, Stanley agrees to help in any way that he can. After striking out at the university's medical library the two decide to go and visit a colleague of Stanley's, a certain Dr. David West.

We go now to Dr. David West's swinging 60s shag pad. West is a doctor who specializes in bones and bone diseases, and although I'm sure there's a term for this sort of medical professional I have no clue what that is. West is, at the moment, entertaining a young woman named Toni Merrill. Toni is a former patient of his, and dialogue between the two of them reveals that she and West met following her involvement in a car crash that gave her a broken leg. Toni comes in wearing nothing but one of West's shirts, because, we're told, he's "better with a scalpel than he is opening a bottle of wine" and spilled some onto her dress while trying to open it. What a goof.

Although it's never actually said, Toni is apparently the daughter of a wealthy London businessman or something since quite a large chunk of the dialogue during her and West's first scene together hints that she has a lot of money. As they sit on his sofa they have some quasi-romantic banter, they're interrupted by the doorbell. Toni gets up and goes to put on one of her boyfriend's bathrobes while West goes an answers the door, and voila! It's Stanley and Landers. He lets them in and introductions are made. Stanley explains that Landers has got a "very interesting problem," and West replies he already has an "interesting problem," whereupon Toni re-emerges wearing his bathrobe.

West makes fun of the other two doctors when they tell him about the corpse without a skeleton. Sarcastically, he says, "Yes, well, this is quite a common occurance!" Landers protests, assuring him he can show him the body back on the island. West, finally taking him seriously, apologizes and says he's never heard of anything like what they're describing, then asks what Ian Bellows' medical history was. Landers says there was nothing unusual in the man's time as his patient, and West is especially flabbergasted by Landers' insistence there are no visible wounds on the body.

Stanley suggests if West comes along they'll name the newly discovered disease after him. West retorts that he's astounded by Stanley's "sudden show of humility." "They've named so many after me, old boy, it's liable to cause confusion," Stanley replies. Ultimately, he agrees to go with. Instead of taking the launch, Landers and Stanley want to take a plane back to the island. Suddenly Toni butts into the conversation and offers the use of her father's private helicopter. This sounds great, but there's a catch. "I should've known," West moans, and Toni demands to come along. West tries only once to change her mind, but she stipulates it's the only way she'll let them use the 'copter.

Cut to the airfield. The helicopter pilot explains that Toni's father will need the 'copter first thing tomorrow morning, so in other words he can't stay on the island and wait for them. He can only drop them off and then fly back home immediately. It's "too late to make any other arrangements now," so they decide to risk it. Stanley seems to think a week stuck on Petrie's Island will be boring and asks what Napoleon did while marooned on his own little island. West responds that Napoleon invented Solitaire, leadng to this exchange between Toni and Stanley: she insists she has "a much better game in mind," and Stanley asks, "Can three play?" Oy. So they board the helicopter and it takes off.

That's all for now. This recap is so long I'll have to post it in spurts like this.

It's nighttime by the time our four heroes arrive at Petrie's Island. Constable Harris lights a signal fire to give the pilot an idea of where to touch down, then greets Landers and the three mainlanders as they disembark from the 'copter. The aircraft then immediately takes off. Landers asks if Harris has been able to get in touch with Dr. Phillips, but the constable says Phillips won't answer the door. West, overhearing Phillips' name, asks if he means Dr. Lawrence Phillips the oncologist, and they tell him yes. Toni proceeds to vanish completely from the movie for a good while, as West and Stanley accompany Landers to the clinic to examine Ian Bellows' corpse.

We get our first good look at the boneless dead man on the examination table, with an unnaturally stretched, nearly featureless face. It's quite a yucky sight for such an old movie. Stanley, looking at some "dermal segments" under a microscope, finds a series of tiny holes in Ian's skin. Landers wonders if this means something went into the body, or came out of it, and West says that it's possible that some kind of enzyme which dissolves calcium was introduced through the microscopic holes, and then the liquefied bones somehow extracted. Eww.

Despite reaching this conclusion, West whines that the clinic doesn't have sophisticated enough equipment for them to use. Landers says that Phillips' lab is more complete, but he doubts the oncologist will see them. Stanley asserts himself and says Phillips will see him. Suddenly the lights wink out, then come back on a second later, and Landers explains that the island's generator has been on the fritz lately. They leave a note for Constable Harris telling him where they went, "just in case," then pile into Landers' car and drive out to the mansion.

Upon arriving, Stanley comments that the gothic, nearly medieval-looking manor "looks like Wuthering Heights." They ring the doorbell a couple of times but no one answers the door. Stanley gets a flashlight and, telling the other two to stay put, goes around the side of the house looking for an open window. He finds one and climbs in. Inside, there are no lights on at all and it's very spooky. While crossing a large dining room Stanley stumbles over something on the floor, which turns out to be a dead man in his bathrobe, in the same state as Ian Bellows. Uh-oh. Stanley then goes and does the single most intelligent thing I've ever seen a character do in a horror movie upon discovering a dead body: he turns on the lights.

He unlocks the front door and lets West and Landers in, showing them the body in the dining room. Deciding to start searching for the laboratory, they try a couple of rooms off the dining room with no luck, and then Stanley suggests they try one door that opens onto a stairwell leading down. Heading down, they find themselves in a stone hallway with three doors: one marked "Keep Out! Radioactive Danger!", one marked "Laboratory," and one marked "Test Animals." They try the "Keep Out!" room first and discover that it contains an isotope storage facility. After commenting that Phillips has "as much equipment as I have at the university," Stanley leads the way through the door marked "Laboratory."

This turns out to be - yup, you guessed it - the lab from the beginning. The room is a shambles. There is broken glass and spilled chemicals everywhere, and all but one or two of those big fish tanks has been broken open from the inside. Oh, and Phillips, Carson and a third scientist are laying dead on the floor, equally as deskeletonized as the body upstairs. It looks like our heroes have reached a dead-end. Since Phillips never had any contact with Ian Bellows, West says they can rule out some kind of contagious disease. As to the destruction of the lab, West says, "They were either fighting something or the death throes were pretty violent."

They decide to collect and study Phillips' notes, thinking that maybe there's a connection between the boneless corpses and whatever it was Phillips was trying to do. By the time they've gathered up all the notebooks and papers from around the lab and left, morning has come.

Meanwhile, we are introduced to another farmer named Morton. Morton is out for an early morning stroll when he sees one of his horses lying dead in his field. He goes over to investigate, prodding the animal with his foot. His foot sinks into the horse as though, yep, it's got no bones, and Morton freaks out and runs to Constable Harris' house.

Morton interrupts Harris having breakfast and tells him about the boneless equine, which makes Harris remember the note from the doctors he found at the clinic. After telling Morton to keep mum about the horse, he puts his uniform on and bikes out to Wuthering Heights.

West, Stanley and Landers return to the inn in town where the visiting doctors are staying and dump all the notes onto the nearest table. Landers reasons they should tell Constable Harris they're not at the mansion anymore and leaves to do just that while West and Stanley start reading over the notes.

Back at Wuthering Heights, Harris finds the front door open. He goes inside and almost immediately finds the dead guy in the dining room. He begins to search for the doctors in a rather lengthy sequence that ultimately has Harris venturing down into the stone hallway. He avoids the "Keep Out!" room and is about to enter the lab when he hears the same weird electronic sound we heard coming out of the cave earlier. It seems to be coming from the final door in the hall, the one marked "Test Animals." Harris goes over and nudges the door open to discover the room is filled with rabbit cages. The moment he walks in, a green tentacle drops down from above and wraps around his neck.

He screams and we cut away to Landers pulling up outside Harris' house. He knocks on the door and, receiving no answer, gets into his car and drives down to the docks. Here he happens upon Morton talking with Peter Argyle, the store owner from earlier. Despite the fact Harris told him to keep quiet about the dead horse, as Landers approaches that's precisely what Morton is telling Argyle.

Landers asks them if they've seen Harris, and Morton says that Harris went up to the mansion looking for him. He also tells Landers about the dead horse (what part of "Tell nobody" doesn't this guy understand?), and Landers quickly hurries off, leaving the two men stumped. Morton thinks something strange is going on, and Argyle seems to agree and says he's going to go speak to Roger Campbell about it.

Roger Campbell turns out to be the man in charge of the island. Whether this means he's the mayor is up for debate. Cut to Campbell's house as he and Argyle are leaving, with the store owner asking the boss what he plans to do about "all this." Campbell thinks for a moment, and then says they ought to go talk to the other farmers, then see Dr. Landers.

Landers returns to the inn with the news of the dead, boneless horse, as well as the fact that Constable Harris has gone up to the mansion. In the meantime, West and Stanley have gotten far enough into Dr. Phillips' notes to have learned that Phillips was working on a cure for cancer. West puts it thusly: "He was trying to create some form of living matter to counteract the cancer cells." But this is all they know at the moment. They haven't gotten far enough into the notes to discover what went wrong or why.

It's at this point that Toni re-enters the movie, coming downstairs bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and greeting the three haggard men, asking them if they've been up all night. They admit that they have. Landers suggests they go see the dead horse, then go and get Harris. West and Stanley agree, but Toni wants to come. West tries to talk her out of it, based on the assumption that "they created something in that laboratory" that is dangerous, but Toni manages to persuade him by whining that if there is in fact something dangerous loose on the island, the safest place she can be is with him.

We then cut to her sitting in Landers' car as the three men examine the boneless horse in Morton's field a few yards away. Guess West made her stay in the car. Suddenly she hears that the weird electronic echo, and something thuds onto the roof of the car, and then she turns and sees something big, green and ooky slither down the rear window and screams. The others come running, but by that point the thing has vanished. Being a woman in a horror movie, Toni can't coherantly explain what it was she saw despite West's repeated insistences that "it's important!" All she does is whine and scream "I don't know!" a lot. She does, however, tell them it was "grayish," which is a blatant lie, as it was quite obviously green.

Stanley then approaches a cluster of boulders nearby where, I'm assuming, he thinks the creature has hidden itself, but West calls him back because he doesn't think they ought to take any unnecessary risks just now. "Yes, especially with me!" insists Stanley, which I find a bit odd considering just a moment ago he was the one who was all about going over there. They then pile back into the car and drive on to Wuthering Heights.

Finding Harris' bicycle out front and the door open, they go inside and proceed immediately to the cellar after calling Harris' name fails. Landers spies the unfortunate constable's corpse on the floor through the now-open "Test Animals" door. As everyone approaches, they hear the strange electronic echoing noise again, and stop dead in their tracks as a green tentacle snakes around the corner of the doorframe, reaching for them. Everyone backs up. A two-foot tall lumpy green mass which slides along like a snail and has a long green tentacle extending from the front of the body slithers out of the room and into the hallway.

Wisely, West suggests they vamoose, but as they turn to flee they discover that there is a second creature between them and the stairs. Everyone backs up against the wall as the two monsters close in, and Landers, attempting to be a hero, grabs a handy axe off the wall. Despite Stanley's warning not to get too close, Landers walks right up to the creature and swings the axe. It thunks uselessly into the thing's back.

The monster responds to this by grabbing Landers' ankle with its tentacle, and Landers drops the axe and starts screaming bloody murder as we begin to hear familiar loud slurping sounds. He then falls over and after writhing and screaming for about a minute, Landers finally dies. Suddenly, the creatures stop and their tentacles retract into themselves. As they look on in shock, the two creatures begin to divide into four creatures, secreting a really gross mass of what looks like pulpy orange juice and wet noodles as they do so. After this is over with the electronic warbling stops and the creatures sit perfectly still. Playing Captain Obvious, Stanley exclaims, "They divided!"

He carefully steps around the one(s?) that killed Landers, picking up the axe along the way for some reason, and makes it safely to the stairs and then calls for West and Toni to follow. Toni refuses to budge from where she is, and West tells her that they don't know how much longer the things will remain static like this and that now is their only chance. She finally screams that she's afraid, to which West says, with total convinction, "So am I!" He grabs her by the wrist and runs past the creatures, then rushes up the stairs after Stanley, dragging Toni with him.

The run outside only to hear the electronic sounds emananting from the surrounding forest, meaning there are more nearby. Stanley, apparently realizing the axe is, erm, kind of useless, throws it down and they all run and get into the car. However when West tries to start it up, the engine turns over and dies. He is forced to get out and pop the hood. From inside the car, Toni and Stanley see a creature approaching from a nearby field and yell for West to hurry up. Finally, he gets the engine going, then jumps back behind the wheel and burns rubber.

We cut back to the inn where we see West put some white powder into a glass of water, then carry it over to Toni who is in bed. Despite the fact she seems pretty relaxed, West insists she drink the stuff because it'll help her sleep. She does so, and as she gets sleepier and sleepier she mumbles about how awful it was seeing Landers die. "I've never seen anyone die before," she says, then adds she's never seen anything that terrible, to which West replies that he hasn't either. He then says he's sorry he brought her here, but she him reminds she came of her own volition. After this she asks if he's still sorry he brought her here, then falls asleep. He kisses her on the forehead and then tucks her in and leave the room.

West heads downstairs where he finds Stanley drinking a tall glass of beer and still going over Dr. Phillips' notes. He explains he gave Toni a sedative, and Stanley says he needed one himself, indicating the beer. Apparently our doctor friends didn't have the notes organized properly, but Stanley has done that now. He's discovered that the last entry made by Phillips was a personal note talking about his pet Great Dane becoming sick after getting an accidental overdose of radiation from the lab.

West finds this odd because they didn't find a dog at the mansion. In fact, mention of radiation crops up several times in the notes, and West and Stanley seem to infer that this had something to do with the creation of the monsters, whatever they are.

Meanwhile, we see a random islander named Dunley pacing back and forth in front of Peter Argyle's store. Hearing an approaching car, he sees Argyle drive up in a Land Rover with Roger Campbell. He demands to know why the store isn't open and that he wants his "goods." Argyle replies the store is closed until further notice and Campbell asks the man if he's seen Dr. Landers. Dunley replies he saw Landers leave the inn earlier with "two men and a girl, strangers." Argyle and Campbell decide to head back to the inn, then.

They walk in on West and Stanley still going over the notes. Gosh, there's a lot of them. Seeing these two strangers poring over papers and notebooks they infer that they're the ones Dunley was talking about and walk over and introduce themselves. Once the introductions are out of the way, Campbell demands to know where Landers is. West and Stanley exchange uneasy glances before West explains he was killed, and that Campbell had better sit down. He admits that what he's got to say may sound outlandish, but he lays it out straight and says, basically, there's dangerous, seemingly indestructible creatures loose on Petrie's Island. Needless to say, Campbell and Argyle look at them like they're nuts.

West insists they're not insane and and stresses that they'll need Campbell's help if Petrie's Island is to survive. Argyle says it's all a bit hard to swallow, but Campbell, cool as a cucumber, simply asks what it is they need, because, as it turns out, Morton's horse is not the only boneless animal that's been discovered. West says first he wants Campbell to get about ten or twenty reliable men, and to arrange for everyone in town to come down to "the meeting hall" so he and Stanley can explain the situation to them. As he and Argyle go to leave Campbell pauses to ask precisely how many of the creatures there are, but West and Stanley aren't sure so they shoo him and Argyle away before returning to discussing experiments and stuff.

All of the townspeople file into the meeting hall, a large single story building adjacent to the clinic and actually connected to it via a short hallway. Campbell, standing on a stage, has just finished explaining everything that West and Stanley told him. Speak of the devil, they come in at this point with Toni (guess that sedative that West gave her was pretty weak), who remains in the audience as the two doctors ascend the stage and address the locals. Here, they finally dub the monsters "silicates," and they give the townspeople (and us) the whole sordid history of Dr. Phillips' doomed experiments: "In order to understand the nature of cancer, Dr. Phillips was trying to create living cells. Cells that he hoped would attack the cancer."

According to Stanley, Phillips originally based his creations on the carbon atom, and when that ended in failure he tried the silicon atom... and succeeded a little too well. The silicates eat the calcium phosphate in the bones of people and animals, and needless to say the science here isa bit fuzzy because I've got no clue how monsters that eat your bones came about as a result of oncology experiments. As if their diet wasn't horrifying enough, Stanley says they have "an external skeletal structure that is tough and resiliant."

Just when the shocked townspeople think it can't get any worse, Stanley further reveals that they divide every six hours. They think there are approximately sixty-four silicates on the island as they speak. There will be one-hundred twenty-eight by this evening, and by midnight, two-hundred fifty-six. West chimes in at this point, depressing everyone by saying that if the silicates continue to divide unhindered there will be "about a million of them" by the end of the week. He then says he wants everyone to remain in the meeting hall until further notice, and above all else to remain calm. If all else fails the only way to kill the silicates will be to deny them food, after all.

Later, he, Stanley and Toni meet with Campbell and the ten good men he picked in the back room of the building, where they begin formulating a battle plan. First, they'll send Dunley and two other dudes to scout the island for any sign of the silicates. Two men mentioned in passing as Williams and Martinday are assigned the task of getting all the cattle on the island rounded up and brought into town so that the silicates won't be able to get them. As far as going on the offensive, Campbell says there's plenty of guns on hand, and Argyle has got two cases of dynamite at his store. basic plan is that once they find the silicates, they'll take guns and bombs and just throw whatever they've got at them and see what that does.

Everyone sets out. Toni remains behind, West entrusting her to keep an eye on the sequestered townspeople and keep them from panicking. He promises to return for her, whether they succeed in destroying the silicates or not.

It isn't long before the little buggers are found. Some of them, anyway. Roughly twenty-five of them are clustered in a grove of trees somewhere on the island, sliding around and waving their tentacles and emitting their high-pitched echo noises. West, Stanley, Campbell and some of the men are observing them, awaiting the arrival of Argyle and the stuff they need.

Argyle drives up with Morton and a young fellow named Halsey in the Land Rover, which contains guns, dynamite and other goodies, including geiger counters. Exactly where these came from is never revealed, but we do learn Stanley is the one who wanted them. Apparently he thinks the Silicates themselves may prove to be radioactive, and so they should of course take steps to protect themselves from radiation poisoning. Better safe than sorry, I guess.

Rifles, ammo and molotov cocktails (referred to as petrol bombs) are passed out among the men, with Morton in charge of the petrol bombs and Halsey in charge of dynamite. Everyone moves towards the silicates. West and Stanley open things up by shooting at the nearest of the beasties with their rifles to no effect. Stanley points out the painfully obvious fact that the Silicates are really slow, and so he goes over to one with a geiger counter to try and get a reading. He's almost killed when a second one creeps up behind him, but West shouts a warning in time. Barely avoiding the tentacle, Stanley runs back over to the safety of the group, grumbling, "Nasty little creatures, aren't they?"

He does say that there was no register on the geiger counter, which means the silicates are not radioactive like he thought. West admits that's good news. It does mean, however, he ordered all those geiger counters for nothing. Campbell and Morton come forward with the molotov cocktails. West hurls two at one of the silicates, and they explode to no effect.

Morton takes two molotov cocktails and says he's going to get closer, going over and standing by a tree a safe distance from the silicates. The first explosive has the same result as the two West threw, and then Morton looks up and sees a silicate in the branches of a tree several feet above him. Morton just stands there and gawks as the silicate falls out of the tree and flops down on top of him. Exit Morton with the requisite screaming and sucking sounds as he goes to join his horse.

Deciding it's time to break out the big guns, Halsey brings forward the boxes of dynamite. Many sticks are lit and thrown by our heroes, but with the same results as the bullets and the molotov cocktails. Nothing seems to hurt them, as West and Stanley so aptly point out. If anything, all it does is make them really, really mad. Even if an explosion occurs right beside them nothing even so much as flips them over. West and Stanley are about ready to turn and run and have everybody barricade themselves indoors, so as to revert to their backup plan to starve the Silicates, when suddenly Dunley comes running up.

He brings news that he's found a dead silicate. They ask him if he's sure, and Dunley says it is because it hasn't moved in over twenty minutes after partially eating a dog. Remember Dr. Phillips' missing dog? Radiation overdose? West and Stanley do, too, because that's the first thing that pops into their minds.

They make Dunley take them and Campbell to where he found the two dead animals, which turns out to be on the beach. While Campbell and Dunley maintain a safe distance, West and Stanley cautiously approach the silicate first. Stanley pokes it with a stick a few times and it does not move. Its tentacle is retracted, and it also appears to have vomited a yellowish liquid. It's quite dead. Stanley waves the geiger counter over the silicate and the reading buries the needle. Highly radioactive, unlike the other, living silicates. Just to be sure they also use the geiger on the dead dog (represented by a hilariously fake dead puppet) and it, too, is radioactive. Eureka!

They take both the dog and the silicate back to the clinic to examine them more properly (what happened to the clinic not having the proper equipment, huh, Dr. West?). West briefly announces to the understandably worried townsfolk they found a dead one but that they need to determine precisely what killed it, and, again, West makes Toni promise to keep everyone inside the meeting hall for now.

West and Stanley examine the dead silicate in the clinic as Campbell and Argyle look on. They discover that the dead dog was contaminated with Strontium 90, specific kind of isotope that settles in bone matter. Obviously, Phillips' dog became contaminated accidentally up at the lab and the silicate, upon eating the luckless pooch, also ingested the Strontium 90 and died. Now West and Stanley hatch themselves a plan. There must be more Strontium 90 up at Wuthering Heights, and they have a whole bunch of cows on hand. They tell Campbell and Argyle that they're running up to the mansion again, and to tell them not to let anything happen to the cattle while they're gone.

In the even that they don't return, West and Stanley make it a priority to tell Campbell and Argyle how to get the Strontium 90 themselves, in a rather nice nod to the fact that although intelligent, our heroes are entirely mortal.

Taking Landers' car, they drive up to Wuthering Heights. En route they pause to observe a large group of silicates meandering about in the woods, before driving on. Upon arriving they leave their coats in the dining room and Stanley says, "I'm not too keen on going down there in that cellar again," but go they must. Proceeding cautiously down the steps, they don't see any silicates and yet do not dawdle, immediately entering the "Keep Out! Radiation Danger" room. Here, West, reasons, they must have some kind of instrument they used to contaminate those rabbits in the "Test Animals" room for their experiments. Stanley finds a weird-looking tool that resembles a vaccination gun inside of a silver case. Bingo.

Unfortunately, here is where the movie partially derails. In order to access the facility's supply of isotopes safely, West and Stanley must don radiation suits. Sadly, this film's idea of radiation-proof gear are these big clear plastic things that are clearly designed for germ warfare or something along those lines. The fact we're treated to an almost unbearably overlong sequence of West and Stanley putting them on isn't helping matters much. Anyway West opens the sealed cabinet thingie and removes a large canister bearing the radioactive warning symbol, opens it, and then Stanley uses a pair of tongs to remove the small metal doohicky containing the Strontium 90 (gosh I'm so unscientific it hurts) and inserts it into the vaccination gun.

A jump-cut later and West and Stanley have changed out of their, er, radiation suits and are in the process of leaving, Stanley carrying the vaccination gun's case. By the time they're already out in the hall and West has closed and locked the door, he realizes he "forgot the gloves," and goes back to get them while Stanley hurries upstairs to put the case in the car. After putting it in the trunk he is immediately attacked by a spontaneously-appearing silicate which grabs him by the wrist, and he hollers for West.

West, the gloves in hand, comes running outside to find his colleague writhing around on the driveway in agony. Tossing the gloves into the car he grabs the axe from where Stanley threw it down earlier, and approaches his friend. However since we've already established that axes do not work against the silicates, West instead saves Stanley's life by severing his hand at the wrist, complete with a loving closeup of the blood-spurting stump (a shot which is cut - no pun intended - out of the DD Video Masters of Horror DVD I have; the shot is in the Universal VHS release however).

West then grabs Stanley, who is understandably kinda bleeding everywhere, and drags him into the relative safety of the car where he ties a tournaquite (how do you spell that anyway?) to stop the bleeding. But they're not out of the woods yet, as West must now get back out of the car, avoid the silicate that's still hanging around, and the get the keys from where Stanley left them: still in the trunk's keyhole. Get the keys he does, and for final time they burn rubber away from Wuthering Heights.

Once back in town his first priority is to get Stanley to the clinic. With that accomplished, he takes the vaccination gun (using the gloves, mind you, considering how much trouble he went through to get them) and accompanies Campbell to the pens where the cows are. Campbell has his men lead the cows by one at a time so West can inject them with the Strontium 90. But there's a problem: there's not enough Strontium 90 for all the cows, forcing West to "cut down the shots" on the last few bovines. Campbell wonders whether that will make a difference. West says he's not sure, and that they'll just have to wait and see.

Meanwhile we see that the townspeople are erecting large bright lights around the meeting hall, which is a stone's throw awat from the cattle pens. Precisely why they do this is never revealed, and it seems especially dumb because Campbell complains later that these lights will be a strain on the already-wonky generator. While awaiting the arrival of the silicates inside the meeting hall, West, Campbell and Argyle sit and discuss their situation, with Campbell wondering aloud what they'll do if the Strontium 90 fails. West replies that in that event they'll just have to sit tight and either wait for the silicates to starve or for either the supply ship or Toni's father's helicopter to return (the helicopter pilot having been almost completely forgotten about by this point).

Campbell realizes that if the Strontium 90 fails the silicates will be all over the outside of the building, making me wonder why in the hell none of them have thought to board up the windows. Ultimately they decide to go check on the cattle, and West tells them he needs to check on Stanley first. As he heads to the clinic to do just that, Campbell tells Argyle to get "Dunley and some of the others" and move around the townsfolk and talk to them, keeping them calm.

In the clinic, Stanley is bandaged up and being tended to by Toni. It seems to keep him from dying he's needed several blood transfusions. Trying to remain in good humor, Stanley weakly says that if gets one more transfusion he'll be a full-blooded Irishman. He also refuses more morphine because he's worried about being addicted to it.

West and Toni retire to the hallway that adjoins the two buildings for some more romantic mushy talk. The basic gist of this is that they love each other, and that West is secretly doubtful they'll all survive. He initially tells Toni the usual stuff, that they'll be okay, not to worry, etc., to which Toni replies that he doesn't really believe that. West sighs and shakes his head and says, no, he doesn't although he wishes he did.

Meanwhile, Halsey, the younger guy who was seen with West, Stanley and Campbell earlier during the group effort to destroy the silicates, is spreading crazy talk amongst the sequestered townsfolk, to the effect that, "if you'd seen what that thing did to Morton you'd swim for it!" when an old woman tells him they can't reach the mainland. Campbell comes over and pulls Halsey aside, telling him he'll beat the crap out of him if he hears another word out of him.

Later, West joins Campbell and Argyle outside the meeting hall with binoculars to watch the cattle, who according to the two islanders are getting restless. Suddenly the silicates appear and swarm the cattle pen. Because the movie is pretty much low-budget, they couldn't afford to show any more of the slaughter than a few of the silicates getting into the pen. The rest is just off-screen mooing, electronic warbling, and lots of sucking sounds as West, Campbell and Argyle look on and make comments like, "This is it!" and "It's a nightmare!" The end of the slaughter is heralded by Argyle saying, "It's all over..."

It's over before long, and the men look appropriately disgusted, but what's this? The silicates divide AFTER feasting on the cattle (again, this is never shown; Campbell just looks through his binoculars and cries, "They're dividing!". West is horrified. He was hoping the silicates would divide before eating the cows. Now, the effects of the Strontium 90 will be cut in half and it'll take it longer for it to kill them.

West, Campbell and Argyle quickly rush back inside and lock the doors as the Silicates approach. West rushes into the clinic to inform Toni and Stanley of this, but before the words are out of his mouth we here the electronic warbling of the silicates. He goes back out into the meeting hall, and chaos ensues as the generator finally konks out, plunging the whole building into darkness. Despite repeated assurances from West and Campbell, several of the townspeople, led by Halsey, stampede for the doors.

The silicates start breaking through the windows with their tentacles. Guess they should've boarded those up. Halsey is the first to go as he gets too close to one of the windows and isn't even paying attention because he's covering his ears to block out the sound of the silicates' shrieking. Silicate tentacles grab him and quickly bites it. Another silicate comes in through the skylight and flops on top of some poor bastard like Morton earlier and starts a-suckin' his bones out.

West and Toni lead the majority of the townspeople run through the adjacent corridor and seek refuge in the clinic, and now that the Silicates have actually entered the meeting hall, Campbell and Argyle are forced to follow and close and lock the doors. There are some people trapped in the meeting hall, and they can be heard screaming to be let in, but the others can't risk it, especially when a silicate tentacle smashes through the wood.

The silicates bust through that door, and soon fill the corridor connecting the meeting hall and the clinic. Anyone left in the meeting hall itself is a goner. Everyone who is still alive rushes into the clinic, and they close the doors and push anything they can up against it, like medical equipment and a big heavy table of some sort. Campbell moans that they've got nowhere to go and then the silicates' tentacles start to smash through the frosted glass windows of the clinic doors.

West rummages through a drawer and finds a syringe of some sort of presumably fast-acting poison, and it's obvious his plan is that they should all commit suicide. It'll be quicker than dying the slow and agonizing way of having their skeletons sucked out. He plans to start with Toni. But, as he approaches Toni and Stanley with the syringe, Campbell yells for him to stop and points out that the silicates appear to be weakening. Indeed, their flailing tentacles move slower and slower and slower, and then finally either go limp or drop out of side beyond the broken windows of the doors. Their ear-splitting electronic wails die down until all is silent.

After a few moments, West asks the others to help him move the stuff away from the doors. He slowly opens the doors to reveal the hallway is littered with piles upon piles of dead silicates. He then practically collapses from relief and emotional exhaustion.

As the mood gets more relaxed, Stanley tries to lighten things up by saying his hand itches - i.e., the one he no longer has. When West tells him to stop it, he jokes that he should sue West for medical malpractice. West and Toni embrace as everyone celebrates.

Cut to the following day. Toni's father's helicopter finally returns. West, Toni and Stanley await it with Campbell and Argyle. They discuss the events of the last couple of days, and Campbell says he wishes Dr. Phillips had never done his experiments, but West sticks up for Phillips, saying he wasn't an evil mad scientist. He just wanted to help humanity by curing a disease. He just got too impatient and careless and his experiments resulted in the silicates. West says science has its risks, but these are not enough to hinder progress - someday someone will cure cancer.

Stanley asks if they're absolutely certain all the silicates are dead. Argyle says they're positive because they've searched every inch of the island. The helicopter lands, and before they depart West promises Campbell they'll radio London and ensure that some aid is sent out to Petrie's Island as soon as possible.

As they walk to the 'copter Toni says she can't get the silicates out of her head. West tells her just not to think about them, and she says that's easier said than done. West sighs and says he knows. West then says he's glad it happened on such a small, remote island. "If it had happened anywhere else, I don't think we would have been able to stop them."

Cut to Tokyo, Japan. A Japanese scientist in one of the laboratories mentioned way, way back at the beginning approaches the office of the director of research and knocks on the door. Getting no answer, he knocks again. Still nothing. Stumped, he opens the door and we hear an all-too familiar electronic echo coming from within. The scientist enters, and a moment later we hear horrible screams and sucking sounds. Cue end credits.

The End

And that, is Island of Terror.