The official DVD for Hydra: The Lost Island (© Andrew Prendergast/CineTel Films/Syfy Universal/First Look International/Sunfilm Entertainment – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)
In 2009, CineTel Films released a made-for-cable-television movie entitled Hydra: The Lost Island, directed by Andrew Prendergast. It was subsequently made available internationally on DVD, which is what I watched on 21 June 2020.
A slick blend of thriller, horror, action, and mythology, Hydra tells the tale of how the legendary many-headed Lernaean hydra is reawakened from countless centuries of dormancy by a major seaquake near its previously-uncharted, undiscovered volcanic Mediterranean island domain. (The minor detail that it had already been slain long ago by Hercules aka Heracles in the classical Greek myth of his twelve great labours seems to have been overlooked here!)
No doubt hungry after its prolonged fasting, the bloodthirsty mega-beast proceeds to chomp up everyone who sets foot on its island. These include a party of vicious man-hunters, some of their ex-convict targets (one of whom, Tim Nolan, is played by Hollywood/TV actor George Stults), and even one of the film's two leading protagonists – female archaeologist Dr Valerie Cammon (Polly Shannon) seeking the fabled sword of Hercules.
If wielded against the hydra, this mighty blade can not only successfully decapitate the monster's heads without enabling them to regrow and duplicate but also kill it, the only weapon with the power to do so. Despite Hydra being a low-budget movie, its special effects breathing life into the polycephalic predator – whose heads, incidentally, are startlingly reminiscent of gargantuan Venus flytraps – are in my opinion every bit as impressive as its rapacity for its human prey is unrelenting.
For multi-headed monster movie buffs everywhere (the monster being multi-headed, that is, not the movie buffs!), Hydra: The Lost Island is well worth a watch. So here to whet your appetite is a trailer for it, which, aptly enough, shows the horrifying hydra very much on the trail of its hitherto-secluded realm's human interlopers. And for more information concerning the classical Lernaean hydra, please click here to read all about it on ShukerNature.
And to view a complete listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE!
No comments:
Post a Comment