Terror Is a Man Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		2.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.0

Terror Is a Man Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 7, 2019

Note: This film is available either as a standalone release or as part of The Blood Island Collection.

H.G. Wells’ chilling 1896 novel about a mad scientist creating human-animal hybrids on an isolated blip in the ocean has been adapted for films several times, with manifestly different results. 1932’s Island of Lost Souls, 1977’s The Island of Dr. Moreau and 1996’s The Island of Dr. Moreau are probably the three most widely known adaptations, but there have been others, as mentioned in my The Twilight People Blu-ray review (The Twilight People being among them). There are a number of interesting connections between The Twilight People and at least three of the four films Severin has assembled in its Blood Island Collection, including star John Ashley, director Eddie Romero and a Philippines location. All of the Blood Island films, like The Twilight People, also obviously owe their genesis to Wells’ original conception, though none of the films actually credit him. While the inherent quality of any and/or all of the Blood Island films may be questionable (and of course up to individual tastes), Severin has assembled a really interesting package here that includes some excellent supplements which may provide further allure for the “franchise”’s fan base while also perhaps offering a bit of a selling point for those who may not know of or especially like any of the outings. Hemisphere Films "marketing consultant" Samuel M. Sherman's commentaries for some of the films are among those supplements, and Sherman makes it clear that no one associated with these productions had any illusions about making "Art", these were all churned out as drive-in fare, with an emphasis on sex and gore that had proven to be a winning combination for largely teen audiences.

Terror is a Man is probably most in line with many of the other cinematic adaptations of Wells’ totemic work, as well as the Wells original, with a shipwreck survivor named William Fitzgerald (Richard Derr) washing up on Blood Island and being rescued by Dr. Charles Girard (Francis Lederer), a tony New York surgeon who of course has decided to “go native” and pursue some questionable experiments in the wild. Girard’s wife Frances (Greta Thyssen) is predictably less than pleased to be in the uninviting wilderness, and she isn’t especially shy about letting Fitzgerald know about her unhappiness. She also seems to know more than she’s letting on about Girard’s experiments, and seems to be nursing a soft spot for the deformed creature Girard seems to be creating (and which keeps getting loose).

There's actually almost a Southern Gothic feel to parts of Terror is a Man, and that ends up working unexpectedly well for this admittedly pretty low rent enterprise. There's some actually kind of unintentionally funny material here, including what seems to be hints of Frances "satisfying" herself in bed as the beast watches, and a completely lunatic climax atop a cliff where the bandaged half animal-half man will probably provoke more laughs than scares, but the film offers a decently claustrophobic mood and an appropriately smarmy, fetid atmosphere. As Sherman gets into in some of the supplements included in the complete Blood Island Collection, some of these films had almost William Castle-esque gimmicks which were used to hopefully up audience interest. In the case of Terror is a Man, it's the warning of a bell that will ring at a particularly gruesome moment (a surgery scene) so that viewers can avert their eyes (see screenshot 14 for the warning card).

Terror Is a Man Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Terror is a Man is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1. The back cover of this release states "featuring a new 4K scan from a fine grain print recently discovered at the UCLA Film Archive and presented totally uncut". This is by and large a rather nice looking transfer, at least in the better lit moments, where contrast looks generally solid and the grain structure is organic if at times fairly heavy. Fine detail on elements like the "beast"'s hair and whiskers, or even the gauze wrapped around his face, is also very good in close- ups. However, there are pretty wide fluctuations in densities and contrast that are especially noticeable in the many darker sequences, with grain looking kind of gray and speckled in several moments. There are some curious brightness variances, like one that appears in the middle of an outdoor sequence circa 25:14. Some of the most problematic material is toward the end, at around 1:17:38, where the aforementioned issues with darker scenes combine with some noticeable vertical scratches. All of this said, this is never less than watchable, and the daytime sequences tend to look very good.

Terror Is a Man Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Terror is a Man features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track whose harshness in the higher frequencies is noticeable right up front courtesy of pretty loud hiss underlying the otherwise "silent" warning title card. Hiss only increases once the credits and score begin, and the very highest string cues actually were almost painful for me, though that said, midrange and low end sounded relatively full bodied. The track continues to have various minor issues like occasional pops and cracks, with dialogue coming through well enough, but what is really problematic is a very loud buzz that shows up and almost overtakes the track at around 54:40, continuing on for quite a while thereafter. It's actually under the big "gimmick" moment of the film, the bell ringing conceit. I actually wondered if this was supposed to be a sound effect for the lab scenes, but it continues under scenes that are far removed from that setting.

Terror Is a Man Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Man Becomes Creature: Interview with Hemisphere Marketing Consultant Samuel M. Sherman (1080p; 5:50) is, like many of the interview supplements on all of the discs in the Blood Island Collection set, culled from interviews Mark Hartley did for his 2010 documentary Machete Maidens Unleashed!. This particular piece allows those interested to put a face to the voice that adorns the other three films in the set on commentary tracks, though a lot of this short piece is actually clips from the film with Sherman talking.


• Dawn of Blood Island: Interview with Director Eddie Romero (1080p; 5:12) is similarly drawn from the Hartley documentary and similarly features a lot of clips from the film (and its ostensible "sequels").


• Terror Creature: Interview with Pete Tombs, Co-Author of "Immoral Tales" (1080p; 2:23) is another brief piece excised from Machete Maidens Unleashed! and offers a brief introduction to this film and the whole Blood Island "franchise".


• When The Bell Rings: Interview with Critic Mark Holcomb (1080p; 2:15) follows the "tradition" of supplements by being another short snippet from the Hartley piece, and contains a bit more of an introduction, with some brief information on the film's "bell ringing" gimmick.


• Trailer (1080p; 1:12)


• Poster and Still Gallery (1080p; 3:08)

Terror Is a Man Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Terror is a Man is, like all of the films in the Blood Island Collection, undeniably hokey, but it has some effective moments, and there's a really interesting mood in this film that the later, color, outings rarely match. Both video and (especially) audio have some intermittent issues, for those considering a purchase.