Beyond Atlantis (1973)

What can I say about this one? I missed "Wonder Women" a few weeks prior, another Philippines production that I heard was pretty good. I don't really know what that one was like, but this one felt like a throw back to kinds of films that Weird Wednesdays used to play more often, not really exploitation, pretty competently made, just really low budget and serious. Really, there's no humor in the movie at all.

Sid Haig steals pretty much every scene he's in, starring as East Eddie, a pimp who has organized an excursion to an island off the grid, in hopes of coming home rich with rare pearls. His rag-tag crew is met by the island's natives, a race of people whose eyes are more buggy than Louis Armstrong's


They are willing to part with the pearls if it means keeping the outsiders on the island long enough for one of their own to mate. Apparently, it's necessary for the tribe's survival for one of them to mate with an outsider. The tribe's leader, Neraus, forces his daughter to "do it" against her will, in what I considered to be one of the film's highlights, an underwater ravaging that was entirely too unsexy, but whatever, it had a nice score and some great underwater cinematography. Apparently, a lot of people in the audience fell asleep during that scene.


This movie also had the great Vic Diaz in it, (of "Vampire Hookers,” The Losers," Raw Force," etc.) as Manuel the Barracuda. John Wayne's son, Patrick Wayne, was in this as well. He's okay, he kind of reminded my of the kind of really stupid character that John C. Reilly occasionally plays, put done completely straight-faced, like in "Hard Eight," or something.

I think the only humor in the film is derived from the scene where Neraus slaps his daughter around while commanding her, "YOU WILL MATE!! YOU WILL MATE!!" Classic. Again though, this one was pretty solid as a movie, but not entirely notable for anything more than the Sid Haig performance. Though, I liked the score a lot, and the pretty fish, especially the creepy, tiny starfish.

All in all, a nice detour from the usual Weird Wednesday path-of-goodness.

"Beyond Atlantis" screened at midnight on 9/3/08 at the Alamo Ritz and was presented by Weird Wednesday.

Tomorrow night: "Kidnapped Coed!!!" This will be my second time seeing this one. If I remember correctly, Jack Cannon gives a hell of a performance in an exploitation movie with a little more going on than usual. I remember it being pretty brutal at times, and for some reason I think a pitchfork plays some sort of role in the film. My friend Austin owns this on VHS under the title "House of Terror," which is strange, since I remember it being more of a road movie. Either way, I tell you what I think of round 2.

"Kidnapped Coed" screens at midnight Wednesday 9/10/08 at the Alamo Ritz