Blood Tide

Starring:Blood Tide
Studio: Vidtape
Product Type: DVD

Average customer rating:

Astonishingly bad but lovable
Darth Vader: Treasure-Hunter...
Blah Tide
Abominably stupid, but still intriguing.
Lots of flaws but acceptable

Blood Tide
Starring: James Earl Jones , Lila Kedrova , Martin Kove , Deborah Shelton , and Mary Louise Weller
Director: Richard Jeffries
Manufacturer: Platinum Disc
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000054OTH
Release Date: 1999-06-29

Customer Reviews:

Astonishingly bad but lovable.......2007-03-07

If you like schlock, you will like this movie. Seeing a younger James Earl Jones is a curiousity. The acting really isn't bad. The story is discombobulated, at best. But it's entertaining -- you could do worse. Not appropriate for younger viewers due to a one-second glimpse of a pair of mammary glands.

Darth Vader: Treasure-Hunter..........2005-08-03

BLOOD TIDE is an interesting movie. It's sort of a monster movie, but we see so little of the actual monster or it's exploits, that it's easy to forget about it altogether! When we do see it, we get underwater stalking scenes not unlike those in JAWS. Aside from this, we get three bodacious babes and that mean guy from KARATE KID running around on a Greek island. There's also a nutty treasure-hunter (James Earl Jones) and an even nuttier town leader (Jose Ferrer). It seems there's an ancient curse on the island. The rarely seen monster is unleashed when Jones' character, Frye uses plastic explosives to open a sealed gate in an underwater cave. This gives us some rather decent flesh-munching sequences! Only a virgin sacrifice can stop the creature before it kills everyone. Will anyone survive? No spoilers here! BT is nothing spectacular, but it does have enough going on to be entertaining...

Blah Tide.......2005-04-05

Gorgeous Greek locales and the ever-strong presence of Mr. James Earl Jones is not enough to save this shlock. I'm a big fan of monster movies, especially aquatic monster movies and this one delivers none of the cheesy entertainment you'd expect from greats such as Humanoids from the Deep and Piranha.

Martin Kove(bad guy from Karate Kid)and his wife venture to a remote and lovely Greek island in the Aegean, looking for Kove's sister. Typical of most Greek cultures, the islanders are far from friendly and the town mayor(Jose Ferrer) makes it clear that their welcome is officially worn out. But Kove is deadset on finding his sister, which he does, although she isn't too thrilled to see him. In fact, she's gotten a case of the weirdies. Along with her are Othello-quoting treasure hunter Frye(JEJ) and his blonde bimbo mistress. The sister is too wrapped up in uncovering the secrets of an ancient painting to leave, so Kove and his wife opt to stay. Frye, meanwhile, is frequently entering an underwater cave which has a large doorway that was walled up long ago. Thinking there's some goodies in there, he blows the place open with plastics and before you know it something is gobbling up young girls on the island. The mayor reveals that in ancient times a deadly sea beast dwelled beneath the island and it was only through the good ol' fashioned practice of virgin sacrifice that the creature was kept at bay. Can Kove and Frye stop the rubbery nonexistent monster before Kove's gorgeous but brainless soap opera actress sister offers herself up as the next main course?

First and foremost, Blood Tide has a terribly disappointing villain in its sea monster. The creature is barely seen, but when shown, it is a pathetic skinned horse/camel/dragon creature that certainly isn't the least bit frightening. I understand that many Greek sea monsters of mythology where often mammalian but personally I like my sea monsters to be reptillian or fish-like. Another thing that takes away this monster's scare factor is the fact that it has a wrinkled horse-like mouth filled with blunt incisor teeth instead of big sharp flesh ripping fangs which you usually expect of big sea predators. Also, the monster is dispatched relatively easily by monster standards, and one wonders why the ancestors of these Greeks didn't simply find someone brave enough and strong enough to take the creature out himself instead of imprisoning it. The only saving grace to this creature are the curious sound effects and underwater POV photography used. The waters of the Aegean are largely devoid of a lot of marine life so watching the monster stalk his victims through these deserted waters is somewhat effective.

But there is soooo much that is soooo bad with this film! The Greek culture is nicely portrayed, with a small hinted subplot about the clash between christianity and the traditional beliefs of the islanders. Jose Ferrer is wasted, but he has been in similarly awful films so its no huge loss. The Americans definitely fulfill the stereotype of the loud obnoxious tourists that people have come to know and hate, with Kove's wife remarking how "Greek" everyone is and Jone's girlfriend playing loud obnoxious 80's aerobic workout music on an otherwise lovely beach. There is no character developement whatsoever, and we never know why Kove's sister just up and decided to venture out to the island in the first place, nor why the islanders wanted to keep her a secret. Overall, Blood Tide is a lame monster flick that is short on monsters and thrills and long on yawns.

One more saving grace, the main piano theme is pretty stirring.

Abominably stupid, but still intriguing........2005-04-01

Blood Tide (Richard Jeffries, 1982)

Screenwriter Richard Jeffries, recently responsible for the half-decent Bill Paxton flick The Vagrant and better-than-half-decent Dennis Quaid flick Cold Creek Manor, made the mistake of attempting to direct his first screenplay. He has not made the same mistake again, for which the world remains thankful.

Blood Tide is a monster movie that doesn't contain a monster. Still, Jeffries managed to assemble a pretty high-powered cast for this film, headed by James Earl Jones and Jose Ferrer. More's the pity, as a lot of folks turn in decent performances in what would've made for a good piracy-on-the-high-seas tale, had it been filmed as such.

Neil (Martin Kove, whose next role was in The Karate Kid) and his new wife Sherry (Mary Louise Weller, fresh off the underrated cult hit Q, in her final film role to date) have come to a remote Greek island looking for Neil's sister Madeline (beautiful veteran TV actress Deborah Shelton of Dallas and TJ Hooker fame). First, they're warned off by an old man who seems to be the unofficial leader of whatever passes for society on this remote island, Nereus (Ferrer). Ignoring him, they see Madeline and pursue her to the home of Frye (Jones), who's on the island for reasons unknown, and his lovely blonde sidekick Barbara (Lydia Cornell, who took an almost twenty-year vacation from the big screen after this role). Frye's presence on the island is quickly established; he's here to plunder ancient ruins hidden beneath the island. In doing so, however, he lets out an ancient evil...

The main problem with this movie, as I said before, is that said ancient evil doesn't really make itself all that well seen. (It has less than a minute of actual screen time). Most of the Americans are pretty good in their roles, even if Cornell and Weller are trapped into playing bubbleheaded blondes, and Shelton shows a tendency for overacting. (In her defense, the inanity of the script, at times, would demand nothing less.) Ferrer doesn't really get enough screen time to do his character justice, but as always, he's fascinating, stealing any scene he's in, even in his confrontations with Jones.

Jones' part is the most interesting, however; a seaborne raider who quotes Othello at odd, inopportune times and refers to Weller as "white meat" on one occasion. An interesting mix of Captain Quint and Dolemite, but his role isn't fleshed out enough to be truly memorable in the face of Jones' full oeuvre.

It's got some good points, and it's got some bad points, but James Earl Jones fans and those who enjoy putting themselves through Z-grade monster movies should definitely keep an eye out for this one. **

Lots of flaws but acceptable.......2005-03-29

What do you get when you mix Martin Kove, Lydia Cornell, Jose Ferrer, and James Earl Jones? Why, a schlock horror film called "Blood Tide," of course! I knew it was schlock before I even watched the picture because it is one of those films that have a lot of "also known as..." after the title. For instance, "Blood Tide" also played under the labels "Bloodtide," "Demon Island," and "The Red Tide." Whenever you see a movie sporting this many alternate titles, you know you're in for something special--special meaning either cheese filled fun or stick a needle in your eyes bad. A bit of investigation revealed that director Richard Jefferies not only wrote the screenplay for "Blood Tide," he also went on to write the scripts for the Chevy Chase dud "Man of the House," the ultra atmospheric William Wesley flick "Scarecrows," and the Dennis Quaid vehicle "Cold Creek Manor." Sadly, Jefferies never stepped behind a camera again after "Blood Tide." I can't really say why he never got a chance to direct again. While "Blood Tide" is hardly a masterpiece of the genre, it fits together well and makes sense in spite of its cheapness.

Set on a mysterious Greek island somewhere in the Aegean, "Blood Tide" opens with a bizarre ritual. A young girl with a Greek letter painted on her forehead drifts into an alcove, also marked with the same Greek letter, where a hideous creature lies in wait. Flash forward a thousand or so years to the present day as Neil (Martin Kove) and his pretty wife Sherry (Mary-Louise Weller) arrive at the same Greek island in search of Neil's missing sister Madeleine (Deborah Shelton). The isle seems abandoned at first, oddly enough, but it isn't too long before our two victims...er, I mean main characters run into a cranky old salt named Frye (James Earl Jones) and his vivacious blonde girlfriend Barbara (Lydia Cornell). Then we meet the locals, a cantankerous bunch of kooks led by the sullen Nereus (Jose Ferrer). These are weird people with weird customs, and they quickly claim they don't have a clue about anything that goes on around the island. Obviously they are hiding something. What could it be? Oh, I don't know...perhaps it has something to do with the opening segment of the film where the pretty young girl (who looks suspiciously like Madeleine in the present day) disappeared into the maw of a repugnant sea monster?

Sure enough, that's exactly what happens. We learn that Frye has been snooping around where he doesn't belong searching for submerged treasure and in the process blasted open the sealed cave housing the ancient beastie. Now all sorts of local people are disappearing beneath the waves as the kraken (or whatever the heck it is) feeds with nary a care in the world. Meanwhile, Madeleine turns up and acts real strange. She has spent the last couple of years living in a convent on the island staring at an ancient painting depicting religious scenes. Whenever she peels off a layer of the painting, she uncovers a more ancient series of scenes beneath. Through a succession of nonsensical events, Madeleine somehow comes to understand that she must enter the cave and offer herself up as the latest sacrifice to the monster in order to spare the innocents on the island. Or something like that. Whatever. The movie consists of lots of lingering shots of the sun-bleached island, boats zipping around on the waves, and dialogue that runs on for so long that it takes the strength of Hercules to wade through it. And all of this unfolds in a movie where we see the monster for roughly two seconds. Bummer.

The flaws in "Blood Tide" are many. One, the dialogue is pedestrian, although hearing James Earl Jones spit out tripe in that voice is worth a giggle or two. Two, the pacing drags horribly. It takes forever for the sauce to start flowing in this movie. Three, the special effects are mediocre. We hardly ever see the monster, and when we finally do it looks like some cheesy, flaky sea horse thing. Four, the plot is hardly original seeing as how it resembles every monster run amok film made in the last fifty years. Five, the quality of the DVD is terrible; it looks like someone transferred the film to disc from a second or third generation VHS dupe. Six, the gore is often half glimpsed and largely ineffective. Seven, what in the heck is Jose Ferrer doing in this movie? Eight, what in the heck is James Earl Jones doing in this movie? Despite these eight very huge flaws, and they are quite huge, I somewhat liked "Blood Tide." The atmosphere of the film attains a nice level of gloom and doom that contrasts nicely with the sunny climes of the Aegean. Moreover, seeing Lydia Cornell run around in a bikini certainly made my day. Deborah Shelton is awfully easy on the eyes as well.

The only extra included on the DVD version of "Blood Tide" I saw was a cheesy trivia game. I recall seeing somewhere on the web recently that this movie is about to receive a decent DVD release. Whether that means a commentary track from Jones, Kove, and other cast members remains to be seen. At the very least I suspect that a new release will address the shoddy picture quality. I recommend "Blood Tide" to lovers of creature features, lovers of low budget horror, and James Earl Jones completists. All others would do well to stay far, far away from this one.

Average customer rating:

Camera-Shy Monster Eats Virgins
Mufasa vs. the Monster
Boredom Tide
What Were They Thinking?
All Star Cast, Low Budget Monster

Blood Tide
Starring: James Earl Jones , José Ferrer , Lila Kedrova , Mary Louise Weller , and Martin Kove
Director: Richard Jefferies (II)
Manufacturer: Unicorn Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0000640US
Release Date: 1999-06-09

Customer Reviews:

Camera-Shy Monster Eats Virgins.......2007-01-22

Ever seen a movie that just made you angry? BLOOD TIDE made me quite angry. James Earl Jones visits a Greek island and frees a monster who starts eating the local women. James, how could you go from STAR WARS to this?

And don't you just hate it when the Monster Staff design a cool creature, but then the director decides to be a jerk and give the beast about three seconds of screentime? That's exactly what they did here. And what's with that cheesey pop song in the end credits?

Avoid this tripe. It could of been so cool, but wound up sucking hard.

Mufasa vs. the Monster.......2006-06-30

Blood Tide stars James Earl Jones (Field of Dreams, The Lion King), Joe Ferrer (Blood & Orchids, Dune), Lila Kedrova (Some Girls, A Star for Two), Mary Louise Weller (Q, Forced Vengeance), Martin Kove (Messages, Con Games), Lydia Cornell (Biggest Fan, Steel) and Deborah Shelton (Blood Type). the story goes as this, Jones dives deep down into the water where he finds a secret entrance that he has to blow up which he thinks treasures lie behind it. When he blows it up he unleashes a pretty ridiculous looking sea monster in which back in the day the villagers sacrificed virgins to it. It starts to attack people in the small community and when Jones' blonde bouncy friend bites the dust Jones goes after the sucka to rid it. Pretty much a waste of cast and time.

Boredom Tide.......2006-06-07

This movie is awful. There are some good actors wasting their time and talent in this dreck. James Earl Jones and Jose Ferrer deserve better. Hell, even Deborah Shelton deserved better. Something about ancient virgin sacrifices on a remote Greek island and the monster the sacrifices were made to being released from its prison. Who knows, the movie is so boring you'll find no reason to follow the plot. The monster isn't seen until over an hour into the film which tells you how proud they were of it and when you see it, you will laugh. Go get some glue and construction paper and you too can be a special effects artist. Eventually, after many dull scenes, the movie finally ends.

What Were They Thinking?.......2006-05-14

"Blood Tide" is an extremely cheap monster movie from 1982. It stars some very talented people, most notably the wonderful James Earl Jones as Frye, the legendary Jose Ferrer as Nereus, and the unknown Spyros Papafrantzizas as Dionysis [sic].

The movie opens with a little background on ancient virgin sacrifices then turns abruptly to the world of watercraft recreation. Indeed, the bulk of this film consists of either footage of boats whizzing around Greece, James Earl Jones chewing the scenery and mean tempered (watch for the spear gun intimidation scene), or various rituals in an old church.

The plot is somewhat reminiscent of "Jaws" (OK, it's in many ways fairly blatant...) especially the first "monster devouring girl" scene which is extremely similar (down to the skinny dipping subplot) to the famed "Chrissie's death" scene in "Jaws." It seems that the monster that hungers for the ancient virgin sacrifices has come back to life and is now devouring women at an alarming rate. There is a lot of prattling on about the monster, and many talky scenes, a lot of which take place in the dark; so dark, in fact that sometimes you can hear dialogue, but can only see pure black on the screen. (I wondered if my monitor had malfunctioned at one point. Really.)

This movie gets my vote for worst soundtrack of 1982, featuring not only a faux-pop song of extremely poor quality over closing credits (by Deborah Shelton), but also many extended piercing electronic notes designed to induce terror, or at least a little malaise. The monster itself (created by Vince Jeffords) is utterly laughable (and stays offscreen until about an hour into the film). Overall, the movie would probably rate one star if not for the talents of Jones and Ferrer, who do as much damage control as can be done.

Fans of bad movies may want to watch this once, but once is definitely enough. It is of thoroughly marginal quality, but does not contain enough camp value to make it a real joy to watch.

All Star Cast, Low Budget Monster.......2006-03-05

I have tremendous respect for James Earl Jones. This man has a phenomenal talent and an incredible voice. Jones was on a roll in the 70s and 80s, doing the voice of Darth Vader, and then playing the role of Thulsa Doom in "Conan the Barbarian." In between these incredible roles Jones appeared in the 1982 film "Blood Tide."

This movie has its moments. Neil Grice (Martin Kove of "Karate Kid" fame) has traveled to an isolated Greek island to find his sister Sherry (Mary Louise Weller, who some may remember as Mandy in "Animal House"). Once on the island, Neil and his wife Madeline (Deborah Shelton) encounter strange islander Nereus (Jose Ferrer) and visitor Frye (James Earl Jones) and his girl friend Barbara (Lydia Cornell). Jones is looking for treasure, while his girl friend likes to go skinny dipping in the ocean.

Jones releases an ancient evil creature that then swims and runs about killing and eating targets of opportunity, which are nearly always women. We see a painting of the monster; it has a large member, which may explain its enjoyment of women. Much of the movie is spent on trying to build a spooky atmosphere and killing the creature.

The acting talent is excellent, and I enjoyed every scene with Jones, Ferrer and Weller. If you like any of these three stars, this movie is worth a watch. However, this movie is a low budget film and it shows. The monster itself is cheesy, and the director cleverly minimized camera shots of the monster to reduce the effect the cheesy monster suit had on the production. The director almost could have eliminated the monster and the film would have been nearly as effective.

I have watched a number of low budget films, and typically they are worth only one watching, or I find myself reluctant to provide much of a recommendation. However, this low-budget monster movie is not too bad as long as you keep your expectations for the monster and for action low.

Sci-Fi Classics: Assignment Outer Space; Laser Mission; Blood Tide; Brain Machine [4-Movie Pack]

Average customer rating:

Sci-Fi Classics: Assignment Outer Space; Laser Mission; Blood Tide; Brain Machine [4-Movie Pack]
Starring: Sci-Fi Classics 4pak
Manufacturer: Mill Creek Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Sci-Fi Classics: King of Kong Island/Bride of the Gorilla/Attack of the Monsters/Gammera the Invinc
This Island Earth

ASIN: B000BBOUIQ
Release Date: 2005-11-08

Blood Tide/Deadly Drifter/The River Niger/Death of a Prophet/TNT Jackson/South Bronx Heroes

Average customer rating:

Blood Tide/Deadly Drifter/The River Niger/Death of a Prophet/TNT Jackson/South Bronx Heroes
Starring: Blood Tide , Deadly Drifter , River Niger , and De
Manufacturer: Platinum Disc
ProductGroup: DVD
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Horror Express/Blood Tide
Starring: Horror Express , and Blood Tide
Manufacturer: Krb Music
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ASIN: B0009JRN1Q
Release Date: 2006-04-04

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Blood Tide
Starring: James Earl Jones , Lila Kedrova , Martin Kove , Deborah Shelton , and Mary Louise Weller
Director: Richard Jeffries
Manufacturer: Madacy Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
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The River Niger / Blood Tide
Starring: James Earl Jones
Director: Multi
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Product Description

"The River Niger" James Earl Jones is riveting and Cicely Tyson is fantastic in this wonderful adaptation of the Tony Award winning play about life in the ghetto. "Blood Tide" An American treasure hunter awakens an ancient sea creature who has been resting near the shores of a Greek Island. It's up to the island's lifelong resident to stop the creature from excecuting it's wrath on humanity.

Average customer rating:

Blood Tide (1982)
Starring: Jones , Ferrer , Kedrova , and Cornell
Manufacturer: Legacy Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0009X57P6
Release Date: 2005-03-01

Average customer rating:

Blood Tide
Starring: James Earl Jones , Lila Kedrova , Martin Kove , Deborah Shelton , and Mary Louise Weller
Director: Richard Jeffries
Manufacturer: Genius Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0006H320M
Release Date: 2004-01-01