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''Maneater of Hydra'' is a Spanish–German co-production released in 1967 directed by American expatriate
Mel Welles Mel Welles (February 17, 1924 – August 19, 2005) was an American film actor and director. His best-remembered role may be that of hapless flower shop owner Gravis Mushnick in the 1960 low-budget Roger Corman dark comedy, ''The Little Shop of ...
. The alternate titles include ''La isla de la muerte'', ''Island of the Doomed'' and ''The Blood Suckers'' (U.K. title). The
horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoca ...
is set on a remote island off the shore of an unidentified European country, in which the central character is a mad scientist ( Cameron Mitchell) who creates hybrid trees that feed on human blood.


Plot

Synopsis from ''Doomed Marathon'': "A group of tourists travel to an island to see its exotic botanicals. There they meet Baron von Weser (played by Cameron Mitchell), a reclusive scientist studying esoteric horticulture and experimenting with crossbreeding dangerous varieties of plants. One of the Baron’s creations is draining the blood of human beings (through a small hole in their cheek) and the tourists are dying one by one."


Critical reception

According to one reviewer, "This Spanish/German co-production...is pretty bloody for its time (especially the finale) but, unfortunately, the print used for the DVD from Shout! Factory (as part of their "Elvira Movie Macabre" series) is a terribly soft fullframe speckled mess that's full of drop-outs, emulsion scratches and jitter. It's also obvious that it's a TV print (although it appears to be uncut), as every ten minutes the film fades to black. If you've never seen this film before, it's a pretty decent mystery/horror film with some fluid camerawork, atmosphere and a few good scares." DVD Verdict reported ''Maneater of Hydra'' is "...a badly acted and dubbed Eurohorror that gives us carnivorous trees feasting on unsuspecting tourists. Unfortunately, these tourists are so whiny and clueless that they come off as idiots, so you end up rooting for the trees."DVD Verdict review
(archived on March 4, 2016)


References


External links

*{{IMDb title, 0059215 1967 films 1967 horror films German monster movies Spanish horror films West German films Mad scientist films 1960s monster movies Films about trees Films set on islands Films scored by Antón García Abril English-language German films 1960s German-language films 1960s Spanish-language films 1960s German films