Ian Bannen stars in the big screen version of the British TV show concerning a British government organization that keeps an eye on the effects of pollution. After an oil spill Bannen is sent to check out a small island where an isolated fishing community lives. Once he arrives he finds he's not welcome and that something weird is going on. Is it related to the spill or the near by naval dumping site ("Its just low level radiation, nothing to worry about")? Will Bannen get out of there alive? I've wanted to see this film for decades thanks to pictures of the deformities that appeared in horror film books. Now that I've seen the film I'm not sure why its classified as a horror film. Mostly this is a slow plodding procedural and by the numbers thriller as Bannen tries to figure out what is going on and the taking steps to help the people. There is in actuality only about an hours worth of plot which they stretch to 90 minutes. Other than the location filming this is pretty much the classic example of a TV episode blown up for the big screen with too little plot stretched to fill too much time. The result is a rather dull film. Perhaps watching this with commercials it might have been better but curled up with the lights off I found my attention wandering.
Disappointing. (and the low level radiation remark was made by Bannen who knew that couldn't possibly be the problem- so much for 1972 science)
Disappointing. (and the low level radiation remark was made by Bannen who knew that couldn't possibly be the problem- so much for 1972 science)