There are virgin sacrifices and an ancient sea monster in Arrow's latest Blu-ray release in its Nico Mastorakis collection. He didn't direct BLOOD TIDE (Richard Jefferies gets the honours) but he did co-write and co-produce.
Neil (Martin Kove from THE KARATE KID) and his wife Sherry (Mary Louise Weller) are searching for Neil's sister Madeline (Deborah Shelton, who gets an 'Introducing' credit here despite having already appeared in 1977 Greek sleazefest DANGEROUS CARGO before appearing in a lot of US TV including 63 episodes of Dallas).
They arrive on a remote Greek island that was Madeline's last known whereabouts. Jose Ferrer tries to make them leave. James Earl Jones is grumpy too, but that's because he wants all the underwater treasure he's busy looting for himself. He blows up the entrance to a cave, releasing an ancient demon that demands virgin sacrifices but seems to be happy to make do with anyone female.
There's the kernel of a good idea in BLOOD TIDE, plus some decent shots, great locations and a good cast, but sadly overall the film never really gets going. What it really needed was taking to pieces back in the editing room, followed by complete reassembly and a new score and it might have been halfway decent. In fact in these times of coronavirus with so many doing jigsaw puzzles to pass the isolation time here's one film that really could have done with a 'do your own edit' feature. Maybe competitions could have been run for who could come up with the best version. All this and more will no doubt be going through your mind as the film runs through its regular cycle of something slightly interesting happening on screen, followed by nothing at all for several minutes.
Arrow's Blu-ray comes with a commentary track from director Jefferies and a thirty minute interview with Mastorakis who is his usual ebullient self. You also get a couple of trailers, a reversible sleeve and the first pressing contains notes by Michael Gingold.
BLOOD TIDE is out on Blu-ray from Arrow on Monday 25th May 2020
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