Blood Tide (1982)

   

Directed by: Irvin S. Yeaworth Jr.

Written by: Kay Linaker & Theodore Simonson

Starring:

James Earl Jones .... Frye
Martin Kove .... Neil Grice
Mary Louise Weller .... Sherry Grice
Jose Ferrer .... Nereus
Deborah Shelton .... Madeline Grice
Lydia Cornell .... Barbara


Release Date:
Theatrical: September, 1982

 

Rating:

 

A married couple named Neil (Martin Kove) and Sherry (Mary Louise Weller) travels to a mysterious Greek island in the search of Sherry's missing sister Madeline (Deborah Shelton) where they find her but she doesn't seem to be the same after being tormented by nightmares and other twisted events in her life along with encountering a drunken and obnoxious man named Frye (James Earl Jones) who has a twisted secret of his own and one of them is a cave that has some hidden treasure and a monster of some sort that eats people up whenever they decide to take a dip in the ocean.
Both Neil and Sherry spots a group of children doing a ceremony on the top of a rocky cliff and one of them tries to sacrifice their life by throwing herself in the ocean for this creature and they also realises the residents there are revealing their horrible secrets to them too.

 

We spot a very boring prologue with a virgin in a cave with a ceremony happening and it doesn't overly explain itself but of course that's due to bad writing yet the directing itself doesn't look too believeable. There's the odd good performance and the ceremony looked quite descent but the film was a bit of a disappointment after watching it all the way through. Well at least they tried and it looked better than most of those other trashy obscure horror flicks.
We have many slow discussions between the married couple Neil and Sherry while landing and trying to enjoy themselves which look not too shabby but nothing to brag about.
We have some descent discussions with the main character's around a table as well as Frye getting stern at times which seemed a bit amusing.
There's a good scene with Madeline taking a whole set of perfume type lotion and rubbing it on herself and going into the water to do so as well like she's in a trance.
There's a great strong conversation between Madeline and a Nun at a cathedral in which their discussing something serious as this was strongly done.
We spot a good camera shot on Madeline waking up from a nightmare with different clips here and there from the nightmare.
There's many interesting camera shots in the ocean approaching someone member in the water.
We spot a nice scene with Frye pointing his speare gun towards Neil in a water cave with him acting aggressive towards him.
There's a nice shot with a group of kids practising their own ceremony near a cliff of rocks near the ocean with a girl standing in the middle with the other kids circling around her singing a chant in Greek language and then a good suspenseful shot on her falling into the ocean with her mother crying out and jumping into the ocean to try and rescue her. This I had to say looked well done.
We spot a nice shot on Madeline looking afraid and then screaming after looking an an obscene artwork picture and then a good shot on her running through some corridors and then a perfect shot on the nun sitting near a fireplace and then turning her head showing a monstrous face.
We have some good intense moments with Neil and Sherry towards Frye acting drunk and out of it during the ceremony along with the odd jumping moment that involveda character named Lethe doing her performance. Plus we get a good close up shot on a roast on a fire.
We have a nice camera shot on Madeline lying on a rock in the cave along with Frye swimming into the water trying to battle the creature.
Bottom line is that
I spotted clips of this film on the Terror on Tape show which was about a look at various obscure trashy horror flick. It was trashy and a little dull at times but sometimes it was interesting wondering about this monster in the sea as well as the nice looks at Greece.

The acting is just above average but nothing too spectacular. However, James Earl Jones (Frye) gives his performance a real kick in the butt showing a great obnoxious attitude to his role and behaving powerfully nasty too. He shows some good blocking by grabbing someone and pointing a knife to his throat which was well performed. He does well by being stern too in another situation.
I always like Martin Kove (Neil Grice) in his criminal or bad ass roles but this time he plays a good guy and still pulls it off with his full of life attitude and knowing how to be loud and aggressive too when necessary. At first he seemed a little too stale but when the story rolls he fully gets into it.
Mary Louise Weller
(Sherry Grice) tried her best playing the wife but she seemed a little too plain. Oh well.
Deborah Shelton
(Madeline Grice) was perfect in her mysterious role of the film seeming silent which she seemed to come across mysterious as well as seeming normal too in other spots. She also had a nice stunning look to her part too which is a bonus for a horror film. Plus she knew on how to scream after spotting something. She also does a nice job by acting emotionally frightened when the terror strikes.
Lydia Cornell
(Barbara) was not a terrific actress and made the direction look lacking since she was basically all looks and not much talent. There's a moment when she acts sarcastic towards others which needed to be whipped in better shape here. Typical trashy b-film horror actress.

Irini Tripkou takes off her top in a water cave bare breasted.
Lydia Cornel takes the top of her bikini off before swimming into the water and is briefly exposed with her breasts as well.

There's some blood splurting out in the water as well as chewed up body parts in different scene's caused by this monster.

The music was very cheesy and trashy sounding but some of it was quite good listening to some high pitched woodwind music along with some gloomy sounds when the monster is about to attack along with the odd drum thumping too. The composer was Jerry Mosley.