All Movie Guide: Whodunit
Whodunit? (aka Island of Blood) is a lousy but creative body count picture that occasionally transcends generic shortcomings thanks to an always-entertaining level of absurdity. A movie producer assembles a cast of cliché twentysomethings (soulful folkie, African-American dancer, talentless rich girl, sullen punk, etc.) and brings them to an isolated island to make an upbeat, inspirational youth film. Before shooting can commence, an unknown maniac starts picking them off one by one, using the lyrics of a violent rock song for inspiration. The noisy, repetitious New Wave number encourages the listener to "Burn me, burn me, burn me/Face to face" or "Chop me, chop me, chop me/Face to face," with enough verses to ensure unique demises for at least seven victims. When a slasher film opens the festivities with a a young man being boiled alive in a swimming pool, it's a good sign that the proceedings will continue on an offbeat path, and Whodunit? delivers an exploding boat, a battery acid shower, a graphic chainsaw dismemberment and the old stand-by mid-coitus machete stabbing. Like most of its brethren, Whodunit? suffers from redundancy and too many scenes in dark, shadowy spaces, and the eventual revelation of the killer's identity is particularly stupid. Still, slumming horror mavens will have a good time if this obscurity crosses their path. - Fred Beldin
Of course, the last word should always go to an expert, in this case the exhaustive slasher film database Hysteria Lives!
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