No flesh-eating zombies here. Zombie Island Massacre isn't even a horror film, not really. It's structured as a horror film in the first hour, then reveals itself to be a crime thriller in a "surprise twist" that comes out of nowhere.
As horror, Zombie Island Massacre belongs to the "wandering victims" subgenre. You've seen it often. A group of nondescript people enter a closed or deserted locale, usually at night. The woods, the beach, a desert, ghetto, ghost town, department store, mall, school, mansion, shack, mine... Anyway, they wander around this locale while some unseen killer picks them off. Occasionally a couple sneaks off for sex ... and are picked off. So the survivors resolve to do some really determined wandering, to find the missing couple ... and are picked off.
Dialogue is usually limited to debating, and re-debating, two options: stay put or move on.
"We gotta get to that [house, phone, highway, gas station]!"
"I'm not moving! Let's just wait until [morning, somebody finds us, they open the store, Joe returns]!"
"I'm not staying here, waiting for him to get us!"
"Don't leave me here alone!"
And so on, in round robin fashion.
Zombie Island Massacre begins in a Caribbean luxury hotel. From there, a boat transports some Western tourists to Zombie Island, to view an authentic voodoo dance ritual. During the show, two lovers wander into the woods ... and the body count mounts!
After the show, the remaining tourists return to the bus, and discover the driver is missing. Odd. Then the tour guide can't start the bus, so he leaves to find the driver. But the tour guide doesn't return. Strange. Then one tourist, Paul (David Broadnax), goes in search of the missing tour guide...
When Paul returns without news, everyone debates whether to stay on the bus, or walk to a house they'd passed "a few miles back." Might have a phone. They could call the hotel for help. They resolve to head for the house. Everyone. (Minus the two lovers, who are mysteriously missing.) So the tourists enter the dark island woods—and are picked off by unseen killer(s). The tourists cross a river, and more must die. Still more die in a jungle trap. A few reach the house, but still, the body count mounts.
As in similar horror films, the big question is: Who will survive and what will be left of them?
Zombie Island Massacre was photographed night-for-night, which is aesthetically appropriate, but annoyingly murky. The pitch-black night conceals the menace; the lighting exposes the victims. However, the nighttime darkness also conceals the gore. We don't always discern what horrors befall the victims; we only know that they're injured by hearing their screams.
Still, considering the shabby "special" effects, perhaps it's best we don't see it. Much of the gore occurs offscreen, and the onscreen gore is of hobbyist quality. One decapitation looks like a plaster head knocked off a dummy. Yet director John T. Carter seems proud of this marvel. The plaster head reappears in a later scene, stuck on a pike. It's supposed to be shocking but, apart from looking like a plaster head, it doesn't even resemble the victim it's supposed to be. Not even a plaster head of the victim.
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