User reviews

I must say, this movie is a joke. From a distance, the plot sounds like a funny comedy from the 80's like "Weekend at Bernie's" or something. But as soon as you find out that this film is meant to be a serious horror flick, it officially becomes your first step towards the cliff dive that is "Demon Island" (or as some know it as, "Pinata: Survival Island"). A demonic piñata? Really? That's the best you could come up with? The "Wizard of Oz" has a more frightening plot (and at least that had attacking, flying monkeys. Now THAT will scare you).

What really put the icing on the cake for me, though, is the "special effects" that were used. Now, don't get me wrong, there were a few (and I use the term lightly) shots that I thought made the "monster" look kinda cool, but everything else just made it look like it came straight out of a Power Rangers movie. Seeing what the "monster's" vision looked like just made it worse. I was like watching a frame-by-frame video of a photo-negative kaleidoscope. About 3/4 of the time I couldn't even tell what was going on, making it look like just a giant mess of colors on the screen. I do have to applaud the effects artists for making things like the explosions look just like those from the terrorist shooting games in the arcade. Bravo.

Overall, I have to say this looks more like an attempt at a more grown-up version of the "Scooby-Doo" movie (especially the scene where they are being chased on the 4-wheelers, and if you've seen both movies, you'll know exactly what I mean). The only people I would recommend this film to are ones that are either really high or want a bad movie to laugh at.

Thankfully, I didn't waste my money renting this movie, I watched it on cable instead, where it was part of the AMC Friday night "Frightfest" line-up. The only thing I seem to have wasted was my time and my last remaining brain cell.

However, I think the cable channel mistook this movie for a "horror" film where it should have been more appropriately slotted between an airing of "AIRPLANE II" and "STEWARDESS SCHOOL".

My curiosity to see this movie spiked when I discovered that Xander from "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" was starring in it. The first chuckles came when the credits list him as a "Producer", followed by the blatant rip off of the opening credits from the movie "THE THIRTEENTH WARRIOR".

But never mind that, after you get past the hilarious introduction which shows how the evil piñata is created, the movie kicks into overdrive as we flash forward to the present day where a group of frat kids are heading to an island for an underwear scavenger hunt! I kid you not, some people actually spent a lot of time and effort to think up this highly original plot.

I for one was expecting something similar to Nicholas Brendon's last beach horror movie, "PSYCHO BEACH PARTY" which turned out to be a rather amusing camp trash mini-classic. Apparently, Brendon was looking to steer himself in a more "serious" direction and decided to leave the laugh track behind.

Unfortunately, the laugh track follows him to this particular movie as well, but for all the wrong reasons. All of the characters are incredibly annoying, so you're just praying that this piñata thing shows up really fast so it can start the bloodshed. And when it finally does show up, that is when the real laughter begins!

I haven't laughed this hard since, well, "PSYCHO BEACH PARTY"! The piñata looks like it was created on someone's home computer, a Commodore 64 perhaps. You can't help but laugh when you see it's eyes glow orange and you suddenly get to see through "Pinata vision" which is apparently a poor attempt at copying "PREDATOR", but this time, we get to see its victims as orange triangles stacked on top of each other (LOL).

I agree with another user's comment here, before seeing this movie, I was picturing some sort of papier-mache donkey that is brought to life and goes on some sort of a killing rampage. Watching this particular "piñata" running around clubbing people to death with a yard stick was too hilarious for words.

There is one scene that involves a dirt buggy crashing into a log and "blowing up". The 'explosion' graphics look like they were spliced right out of a video game. In fact, I don't even think they used a "green screen" when filming this particular scene as it looks like they transferred a CGI "fireball" from the early-90's computer game "DOOM" directly onto the film - the graphics don't even match the surrounding scenery and the flames overlap the trees! They must have had a lot of good times while filming this. I could picture the director shouting to the girl, "Now fly through the air like you're dodging a fireball!", the girl trying to keep a straight face while improvising at the same time.

The acting is also in a field of its own. If you want to call what these actors are doing, "acting" - there is a scene where one girl is picking underwear off a roped line and decides to skip a few for no reason. The whole point of them being there is to COLLECT AS MANY PAIRS OF UNDERWEAR AS YOU CAN - which would probably also explain why one of the guys also decides to leave several boxers pinned to a bush. Priceless!

The worst actor out of all of them was the one handcuffed to Nicholas Brendon - Jaime Presley. I had to click on her name to see what else she had been in and was not surprised at all to see that most of it had either gone straight-to-video or was a small cameo in a two-bit television show on UPN.

The dialog was downright embarrassing. When Nicholas Brendon tries to impress Jaime Presley at the beginning of the movie by explaining the history of "Cinco de Mayo" after everyone else at the table had passed for stupidity, I just burst out laughing. This movie was simply awful!

Also, when did they change the name of this movie to "DEMON ISLAND"? Is this a laughable attempt at trying to rename the film to trick people into seeing it after the bad word of mouth gets around?

After watching this trash, one can only hope that someone would fill a real piñata with copies of this movie so we can all have a go at it with a wooden bat.

My Rating - 0 out of 10

I think the introduction was the best part of the movie. Yes, that part where you have to be spoon fed an explanation about you are seeing (because the director thinks it's a novel idea!) Plainly, no one actually needs this explanation. I think it makes good decoration.

One thing surprised me. The visuals of the "natives" and their relationship to the piñata were interesting to watch, "most" of the time. The quality of the whole thing had that professionally rehearsed quality that you beg for in a cartoon.

If it weren't for that introduction, I may have not stayed over the 15 minute mark to see what this movie was all about.

The transition from the actually better-than-it-deserved intro-music to the MINDLESS GRUNGE sound of those inane rock guitars was my first indication that I was about to turn this movie off in a few minutes.

Then, the water gun games between the rafts. Wow, that was so compelling. The minutes were ticking. My palms were getting wet and sticky. But I forged on!

Then came the earth-shattering character development scene about a Port-O-Potty! I was breathless with anticipation. What could they think of next?

Then, believe it or not! That grungy music again! Oh, I was captivated!

After this, I had to make a life-changing decision. Would I stay or go?

OK...I stayed. Then, more character development about young people smoking pot. Folks, this was deep! You gotta believe me, here!

Then, of course comes the discovery of the awe-inspiring Piñata from hell! What does our hero do? He hits it with a stick, of course! What else would any self-respecting dude-about-town do in a situation like this?

And then.......

YOU GUESSED IT! YES!

IT came to LIFE!

And then why NOT spoil it? The rest of the plot resembles the Friday the 13th genre, of course. Pick them off, one by one...oh the TENSION, the DRAMA...the utter "grippingness" of it all!

The unanswered questions, the doubts, the comic relief...oh, the sheer artistry...

The UTTER, UTTER, uselessness of it all!

(CLICK)

Poor Nicholas Brendon. While his other Buffy castmates get to do theatrical films he is stuck in this straight to video abomination so awful everyone involved should actually be ashamed. The monster is particularly embarrassing--a computer generated thing that looks like it stepped out of a video game and almost never interacts with the live actors, making it seem even more fake. The idea of a killer Pinata might have offered some campy fun if the thing actually looked like a Pinata. The only film I've seen recently that was comparably dreadful was House of the Dead, which I actually walked out of when I was foolish enough to pay and see it in a theater. Movies like this really make you long for the return of Mystery Science Theater 3000.

College co-eds are stalked by an evil pinata in a tropical paradise! A premise like that could be the makings of a cult classic.

Alas, "Pinata: Survival Island" seems neither inspired nor clumsy enough to reach that status. The film DOES qualify as an obscure horror hoot, especially in the early scenes of the wicked pinata's reign of terror.

"Buffy"'s Nicholas Brendon is always a welcome presence, but there's little to his role here, compared with your average BtVS rerun.

I don't understand why this movie isn't on the Worst 100 list. I've seen 7 movies on that list, and this one is worse than any of those. If I gave a 10th grade class an assignment to create special effects and they turned in the ones in this movie, I might feel sorry enough for them to give them a D. I hope they didn't pay the special effects team more than $500. Not only are they embarrassing poor, the animated figure doesn't look like the costumed figured used in the close ups.

Meanwhile the acting is so stiff that one is left wondering if the final footage came from the 2nd or 3rd reading of the script. Or if the script was simply being written an hour before the filming.

If you are looking for a silly horror movie to watch with a group of friends for laughs, this is a very good candidate. On that scale, I would give it an 8.

I had a chance to see a private screening of this movie. DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT, waste your money to go see this movie in a theater or to even rent it. Pinata is hands-down the worst movie I've ever seen. The dialogue is horrible; in one scene, one of the characters describes that the sound the pinata makes is like the pain and suffering of a village of people, which incidentally matches the exact myth of the pinata. The biggest problem I had with this movie is that it is neither horror or a satire on horror; rather it is stuck somewhere in between. At least with the "Scream" trilogy and "Scary Movie" you get a decent attempt to ridicule the horror genre. Pinata seems uncertain of whether to ridicule the genre or be one of its movies. Please don't see this movie.

The Hillenbrands have done it again!!! I can't say enough good things about this movie. Although, if it weren't for the pinata (played by your boy Ed Gale, of "Cycle Sluts" fame) I wouldn't have nearly as many good things to say, because most of them concern the pinata. I saw the toned-down version on AMC; I can only imagine what it must be like with swear words (hint:awesome). I started watching it as a joke, but by the end the pinata actually became quite scary. He's only 4 feet tall, but I think it's his unrelenting tenacity that does it. Laugh now, but try going to sleep after watching it. If you only see one film about Pinata demons this year, make it this one, without a doubt. Pinatas!

Odd why the copy of this 2002 horror movie that I found was titled "Demon Island" when the movie's actual title is "Survival Island". Oh well.

When I sat down to watch "Survival Island" here in 2023, I remember having watched "Survival Island" once before, though I have to admit that I had entirely forgotten about the movie. So it was actually nice to sit down and watch it once again. Especially since it actually is an okay movie. Sure, this is not a milestone in horror cinema, not even remotely close. But "Survival Island" actually makes for a good, old fashioned stalked-by-a-demonic-entity movie.

The acting performances in "Survival Island" were fair enough. And they actually had a handful of familiar talents on the cast list, with the likes of Nicholas Brendon, Jaime Pressly and Garrett Wang. And it was a nice thing with the voice of Joaquim de Almeida as the narrator.

Visually then I have to say that "Survival Island" was actually good. I liked the design of the demon clay idol, or pinata if you will. The design was interesting and it was a nicely articulate, which helped bring the entity to life on the screen. The constant screaming and loud unearthly noises that assaulted the audience whenever you saw the demon clay idol on the screen grew very annoying, very fast, trust me on that one.

Sure, "Survival Island" is not an outstanding horror experience, but it actually is a watchable enough movie for what it turns out to be. Take it for what it is and just lean back, munch on the snacks and watch the movie.

My rating of "Survival Island" lands on a six out of ten stars.

How bad is this movie? It's so bad that it doesn't even have any decent gratuitous nudity. They have a hot babe in Jaime Pressley running around an island in a midriff baring shirt, but no skinny dipping scene? Blasphemy! Worst, the movie is pitifully stupid and amateurish.

I saw this movie last night on AMC, and it might have been the worst movie I have ever seen. Why was it bad? 1. Script: seems as if it might have been written by 3rd graders 2. Acting: hmmmm.....a burger king commercial is more believable 3. Special Effects: the "demon" looks like it was done as a Jr. high computer graphics project 4. Set: I think they used the set from Gilligans island 5. Minority characters killed off: oh of course they don't make it (has a black man ever made it through a horror film when surrounded by white people?). OK -that's really not a problem with the movie, but still...you just knew he would be killed off quickly.

I guess the question is why did I watch it....well it was so amazingly bad I just could not turn it off. All I could think is who let this thing be made.

This was the worst movie I have seen in years. Only a complete stone fool could have written and directed this picture. The opening narrative of people in some Central American tribe casting all there troubles in a clay figure and setting it adrift might have worked had it not been for some obvious inconsistencies. First, the last time I looked at a global topographic map or read "National Geographic" Central America was flat and covered with dense jungle. This sequence looked like the Sierra Madre of Northern Mexico. Second, just about all of the supposedly starving villagers who were facing famine were as fat as jelly doughnuts. Hello?

I will not even comment on the dopey Young Adults that arrive on the Island. IF they are our future please find me a "Wayback Machine".

This movie was excellent. If you like B movies, this is the one for you. It's about this pinita that kills a bunch of college students one by one on an island while they are having a scavanger hunt for the most panties. Each kill is very unique i.e. a guy gets his gonads ripped off, it was great. The directors Scott and David Hillenbrand really know what their doing. They make great B movies, who else would think of a killer piniata at a pantie scavanger hunt. I give it 9/10 stars.

This movie was a lot of fun to watch, I liked it, my wife said it was one of the worst movies she has ever sat through.

Two of the cast could actually act quite well, not that something like that effects a B movie like this very much.This one is about the gore/very light entertainment.

This is a silly story about a walking Pinata Demon instilled with the evil of a sinful village.Many moons later a bunch of teens run into this CGI monster, with very gory results.

I liked the actors,mostly poor and mostly sightly hammy.I liked the production values, for what budget they had the money was well spent.

I really liked the gore, that Pinata Demon is one twisted bugger.

The ending was weak and the blowing up ATV was ridiculously bad,(you'll see what I mean when you watch this.) ***spoiler*** there are no boobs in this movie ;> All in all a fun waste of time.

Worst movie of all-time. You see bad movies, and it's almost as if you get the feeling they try to make it bad. This movie is so bad that you know full well no one did it intentionally. It is horrible in every aspect. I usually don't care about graphics and special effects, but this Killer Pinata looks like its straight out of a video game running around in reality. I've seen Killer Pinatas, and that is not what they look like! The acting is equally atrocious, and if there was a plot, it sucked, too. The characters are so shallow and useless, you'll be rooting for their deaths, but the movie is so predictable, you know who will die and when they will die. The movie peaks at its utter stupidity when one of the characters tells them to not wait up for him while he tries to get pebbles out of his shoes because they are bothering him!!! There's a killer piñata running around and he's worried about pebbles in his shoes. Not only that, he tells them don't wait up, and it takes him a good ten minutes to get those damn pebbles out. Do yourself a favor and run from this movie like it was an unrealistic, cartoonish killer piñata.