This little-seen early-'80s slasher is fully deserving of its obscurity: the unimaginative by-the-numbers plot sees a group of young film-makers gather on an island where they are bumped off one-by-one by an unseen maniac who likes to play a really bad new wave/punk song on his tape player while he is at work. The acting is basic (one of the actresses can't even blow out a candle convincingly),the direction and editing are clumsy, the characters are all unlikeable, and the dialogue is absolutely terrible (my favourite line: a guy hands a girl a nail gun "Take this - it fires nails like a gun." Talk about stating the obvious!).

To be fair, the deaths are quite nasty in concept, however the majority of the movie takes place in the dark, and many potentially disturbing scenes are hard to make out. A bloke is boiled to death in a swimming pool (the only death that takes place during the day),someone is speared, another guy is attacked with a chainsaw, a man is stabbed by a machete, and a girl taking a (nudity-free) shower is burned by battery acid, but the effects aren't great and gore-hounds will be left disappointed, at least until the final act in which we get to see a couple of the victims a little clearer (a guy's severed head with nails in his face and a girl with nails in her forehead).

In an attempt to differentiate his film from countless other slashers of the time, writer/director Bill Naud chucks in a twist ending that is totally implausible. And if you haven't already had a gutful of that terrible new-wave song (Face to Face by Factor Four),it plays in full over the end credits. Aaarrrgh!

Another worthy entry in the seemingly endless list of horrible 80's slashers, "Scared Alive" (a.k.a. "Island of Blood" and a.k.a. "Whodunit") is a wondrously inept and totally redundant low-budget flick with all the right ingredients: a senseless basic premise, unmemorable characters, a complete absence of logic, laughable dialogs, various but totally non-shocking killing methods and one remotely ingenious little gimmick (a constantly repeated rock song of which the lyrics reveal how the next victim will die a gruesome death). The movie starts with a bunch of idiots (= aspiring actors/actresses) gathering on an island, allegedly to start shooting a movie after the weekend when the rest of the technical crew arrives. None of them has a clue what the movie will be about, why they were selected or what they will do on this geographically isolated island location for the rest of the weekend, but hey, that's totally normal right? Then, and luckily quite fast and at a regular pace, they're being picked off one by one by an unseen killer. His/her curious modus operandi involves hanging a walkman somewhere near to the next victim that is repeatedly playing the same song entitled "Face to Face". The singer states with what weapon the character is going to get killed, resulting in a boy drowning in a pool filled with boiling water ("Boil me! Boil me!),a poor girl showering in battery acid ("Burn me! Burn me!),another poor chick getting her face nail-gunned to the wall ("Nail me! Nail me!) etc … Some of the murder sequences are wickedly entertaining, but overall seen is "Scared Alive" just another very dumb and forgettable slasher. The attempts to mislead the viewer and throw in red herrings fail miserably and literally none of the characters deserves a bit of sympathy. The idea behind the unforeseeable "twist-at-the-end" is rather admirable, but still very implausible and badly processed. I also think the make-up artists were all schizophrenic, as some murders are illustrated quite sick and explicitly, whereas certain others are lame and occurring off-screen. Let's just conclude it's a really bizarre and amateurish slasher movie only intended for avid genre fanatics. Oh, and the complete lack of nudity – especially with one shower sequence and one alleged sex sequence - is unforgivable!

Vinegar Syndrome has been assaulting my budget this year, what with box sets of the Amityville direct-to-video films, forgotten Spanish giallo, Mexican horror reissues and, of course, Spookies.

They've rescued hundreds of movies from their namesake, the chemical reaction that deteriorates motion picture film over time. Chances are, if it was a movie that played a drive-in, grindhouse or was in the horror section of your mom and pop video store in the 1980's - or the back room, where you had to sneak in - then they have it.

Imagine, if you will, that someone made Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, but made it about actors on a deserted island and started with one of them being boiled alive. Yes, that's the movie we're speaking of right now, 1982's many titles Island of Blood AKA Whodunit? AKA Scared Alive).

Oh yeah - every murder in this is based on a punk song! That said, the lyrics to the song are mostly "stab me, boil me, burn me, face to face." Therefore, it really isn't a large stretch for the murderer to use the ways to kill in the song to, you know, kill.

The very same song features the lyrics, "Lonely as a child- you were wet, you were wild. You were... selfish. Crying out late at night with your covers pulled up tight- you were... helpless. Fear me! Fear me!"

All manner of murders follow, as simple as an exploding boat and as complex as a shower that sprays out battery acid. That takes some planning.

I wouldn't say this is the finest slasher you've never seen. Nor would I claim that it's even really all the good. But hey - if you've made it through everything and you're hunting down slashers that no one else has watched - I'm speaking to myself - then this will do.

Writer/director William T. Naud also made Hot Rod Hullabaloo, Thunder In Dixie, Black Jack and Ricky 1, a movie where a male gigolo becomes a boxer.