The Island (1985)

"The Hill Have Eyes: Chuckle Brothers Edition"

Eureka are releasing Northampton-born director Po-Chih Leong's TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE-inspired Hong Kong comedy horror on Blu-ray.

Mr Cheung (John Sham) decides his class of geography students are so useless that the only way to get them to pass their exams is to take them on a field trip to an island he used to visit in his youth. What he doesn't realise is that the island is now home to three insane brothers whose mother has just passed away, with her dying wish being that they find a wife for the least intelligent and able of them so he can carry on the family line. Mayhem ensues. Eventually. And after quite a bit of mucking about.

The swings from horror to humour and back again are extremely broad in THE ISLAND, so broad in fact that this one isn't going to be to everyone's taste. The humour especially tends to be of the BBC children's pantomime show variety, and if you don't find the repeated use of words like dickhead funny you may find it all gets a bit wearisome.

The island location itself is quite something and the direction get creative with a number of interesting shots. The film starts off with scenes of horror and downright oddness that are pleasingly disorientating, and the climax is horror all the way, so if you want to see an interesting variation on a theme visited repeatedly and done to death by American horror cinema then THE ISLAND is worth a look.

Extras include two commentary tracks, one from Frank Djeng who, amongst other things was involved with Severin's ENTER THE CLONES OF BRUCE, and the other with Mike Leeder and Arne Venema. Both tracks offer highly enthusiastic and engaging commentators who have a lot of interesting things to say, not just about the film but its cultural context, too. Tony Rayns provides a 17 minute talking head piece that includes the history of production company D & B Films (who made THE ISLAND), influences on the film, and its curious lack of a screenwriting credit. There's also a Po-Chih Leong 'masterclass' from 2023 which is essentially a very pleasant roundtable discussion with the director. Eureka's disc also comes with a booklet with production notes and an interview and a limited edition O-card slipcase.

Po-Chih Leong's THE ISLAND is out on Blu-ray from Eureka Entertainment on Monday 13th October 2025