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.
"Characters" are sketchy and stereotypical. There's the retired couple still in love, the wife doting on her husband because he has a "bad ticker." There's the hippie pothead, looking wasted, eyes sleepy, giggling, and simpering that everyone should mellow out and not worry. Other characters are less well defined.
Because both a hero (David Broadnax; Cotton Comes to Harlem) and villain (Trevor Reid) are black, the film avoids some traditional stereotyping without falling into political correctness. Broadnax does a decent job looking resolute and brave, but Reid breaks new ground in bad acting. His voodoo priest is hammy, bug-eyed, and stiff - all reminiscent of Mal Arnold in Blood Feast.
"Actress" Rita Jenrette is the film's most notable element, the big selling point for whatever scant attention it drew when first released. She was wife to Democratic South Carolina Congressman John Jenrette, whose infamy from the Abscam scandal launched Rita on her fifteen minutes. They divorced, she posed nude in the April 1981 Playboy, then attempted an acting career. After some B projects and a second Playboy spread, she returned to near obscurity.
In Zombie Island Massacre, Rita goes topless in two brief scenes. And once we see her ass through a shower glass door. That's all she bares. Not much, but as it's doubtless why she was cast (still coasting on her Playboy publicity) we should keep score. Yes, her breasts are very firm. But her acting only looks good compared to Reid's. (Is that why he was cast?)
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