- Directed by Adam Werth
- Written by Michael Mahal, Sonny Mahal, Robert Thompson
- Stars Tom Sizemore, Noel Gugliemi, John Wells, Sarah French
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 25 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGSdgJiihj8
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
It’s fast moving and entertaining with a nice-looking island location. It would be a great place to vacation except for some complications that develop. The acting is all decent, the script is good, and the horror effects are well done.
Synopsis
A couple of guys want to talk to Diego about buying guns. Turns out, it’s a police sting, and there’s a shootout. A bunch of people get shot, but Diego gets caught. Credits roll.
We get news reports about a hurricane coming. There’s a “Karen” in the airport check-in line, and things are too slow for her limited patience. We get to meet various characters in the airport lobby, staff, and passengers. After weather-related delays, the people board. Diego and a whole bunch of FBI agents also board the plane. The flight is bound for Puerto Rico. Steward Jonas talks to several more people as they board the plane.
Before they get far, Diego has lifted the handcuff key from one of the agents. They hit rough weather during the flight. Diego gets loose and shoots most of the FBI agents before the air marshall shoots him. Jonas also gets shot and killed.
The tower reports no bad weather anywhere near the airplane, which is getting tossed around pretty badly by the hurricane outside. The plane is struck by lightning and goes down in the ocean.
The next morning, many of the passengers make it to an island. Midnight, the ren-fair goth-looking guy, cries that he’s got makeup in his eyes. It’s a beautiful tropical island, and the people go about exploring and figuring out where they are.
They find a crashed sailboat. They have no food, and one guy tries to drink ocean water. One group gets to work building a shelter, and the other starts looking for food. These people clearly aren’t survivalists, and most of them are actually pretty inept.
Midnight goes wandering through the woods. Something growls and kills him. Something big with green claws kills another man. It soon becomes obvious that there’s at least one monster on this island.
A new guy appears and runs the survivors back to the beach. He was hoping they were a rescue party. We soon see a bunch of creatures attack the survivors, and there aren’t nearly as many survivors before long.
Some of the folks decide to follow FBI guy Vic, while the others stick with Bruce, the new guy who’s been there longer.
Carolyn and Damon get naked and go for a swim. They’re attacked by one of the men from the flight, but that goes badly for the attacker.
We find out that a bunch of those creatures live in the caves. Bruce takes Damon and Carolyn to “his place,” and Bruce tells his story. They figure out that Bruce was in the war. That’s World War I, and he’s been marooned there since 1917. When they tell him that happened a hundred years ago, he doesn’t believe it.
The others discuss Bruce’s story and come to the conclusion that it’s due to being in the Bermuda Triangle. There are more attacks that night.
Bruce comes up with a plan to kill the monsters but warns the others that the monsters have an Alpha, the leader of the pack. The monsters attack that night, and Bruce turns against the group, killing Vic and attacking Damian. The rest of the plane people are killed and eaten. “This is my island. I’m the closest thing you will find to the devil here.” Bruce’s eyes go red– he’s the alpha he warned the others about.
Commentary
The island is a nice-looking on-location set. The creatures are well done. The characters are interesting and distinctive, and it doesn’t slow down long enough to get boring.
I love how Tom Sizemore gets top billing and he doesn’t even live long enough to see the plane crash.
The ending is a bit abrupt, and we really didn’t see it coming until the end, but overall, we liked it!