If nothing else, the title of 1969’s Mad Doctor of Blood Island seems pretty descriptive. There seems to be little chance viewers will stumble into this horror tale without an understanding of what the film will deliver.

When a ship arrives on a remote Pacific island, it brings a few visitors. Pathologist Bill Foster (John Ashley) arrives to investigate a mysterious disease that afflicts the locals, Sheila Willard (Angelique Pettyjohn) wants to reunite with her estranged father (Tony Edmunds), and Carlos Lopez (Ronaldo Valdez) seeks to convince his mother (Tita Muñoz) to leave this location.

They encounter a more dire situation than anticipated. Regarded as cursed, the island boasts a green-skinned monster who terrorizes the residents, and this means the new arrivals must fight for their lives along with the mysterious Dr. Lorca (Ronald Remy).

Doctor acts as the third of four films in the loose “Blood Island” series. It follows 1959’s Terror Is a Man and 1968’s Brides of Blood.

Though Terror offered a surprising subtle and moody tale, Brides brought the sort of cheap schlock I expected from all these films. Would Doctor break from the Brides mold and return to the superior quality of Terror.

Heck no. If anything, Doctor seems even cheesier than its immediate predecessor.

Viewers get a hint of the silliness soon to come immediately, as the film opens with an odd sequence in which “the Mad Doctor of Blood Island invites you to join him in taking the Oath of Green Blood”. The movie then urges those in the audience to sip “green blood” while they recite a promise displayed on screen for them.

Did exhibitors provide emerald liquid to attendees as they entered? I guess, as this sequence makes no sense otherwise.

It also feels like the kind of goofy tactic the legendary showman William Castle would’ve employed. Whatever the case, the brief segment has nothing to do with the rest of the flick, but it does set the tone for silliness yet to come.

As does the first scene of the film proper. Rather than make audiences wait for the green monster alluded to in the prologue, Doctor immediately shows this beast’s attack on a naked native hottie who runs through the forest to avoid him – and fails.

Why does she flee nude through the woods? Probably for no reason other than exploitation and titillation, I suspect.

Whatever the case, this sequence acts as the movie’s pinnacle, solely due to the unclothed charms of the uncredited Filipina. After this, Doctor goes firmly downhill.

Okay, maybe not entirely, given the film throws out a few more shots of naked women down the road, albeit none as good as what we see in the opening. Otherwise, Doctor becomes a waste of time.

Basically, the movie’s “plot” just acts as an excuse for random monster attacks. Though the characters come with their own narratives as well as stabs at intrigue, all of this feels like filler to take up space between violent moments.

At no point do we care about any of the participants or invest in their stories. They just exist as monster fodder while we wait to see who gets attacked.

This makes Doctor awfully tedious. The movie plods along as we get one monotonous assault after another.

Perhaps as recognition that the tale lacks juice, the filmmakers make relentless use of zooms. In particular, shots of the plant critter come with rapid in/out elements.

I guess those involved hoped the camerawork would make the monster segments seem urgent. Instead, they just create literal headaches.

Mad Doctor also loses points due to its inclusion of some graphic and real animal slaughter. The movie doesn’t “need” these scenes and they become a tasteless and disturbing distraction.

No one expects greatness from a low-budget horror flick like Mad Doctor. Even by those low standards, however, this one becomes a dud.

Mad Doctor of Blood Island appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.33:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Despite a few anomalies, this became a largely positive presentation.

Overall sharpness worked fine. Occasional wider shots seemed a bit tentative, but the majority of the movie felt accurate.

The image lacked jaggies or moiré effects, and it came without edge haloes. Grain seemed light and outside of a few gate hairs and a couple thin lines, I saw no print defects.

Much of Doctor opted for a fairly bright and natural palette, albeit with a somewhat green tint at times. The disc replicated the tones well.

Blacks seemed pretty deep, and shadows looked fine outside of some unavoidably dense “day for night” shots. Ultimately, the film delivered good visuals given its age and origins.

Unfortunately, the flick’s DTS-HD MA monaural soundtrack held up less well over the years. Dialogue suffered from poor looping and tended to seem flat and unnatural.

Music and effects lacked range and usually seemed somewhat rough and shrill. A bit of background noise crept into the mix at times. While not terrible for a low-budget flick from 1969, the audio nonetheless seemed problematic.

When we move to extras, we get two separate audio commentaries. The first comes from film historians Nathaniel Thompson and Howard S. Berger, both of whom sit together for a running, screen-specific discussion of cast and crew, some production details, genre domains, and their view of the film.

Both veterans of this format, Thompson and Berger create a decent but not great track. While they give us a reasonably good overview of the various topics, the discussion never quite turns into anything better than average.

For the second commentary, we hear from Hemisphere Films Marketing Consultant Samuel M. Sherman. He brings a running, screen-specific look at cast/crew, some aspects of the shoot, and Hemisphere’s promotional efforts.

Sherman starts a bit slowly here, as roughly the first half of the track just offers general annotation of what he watches. However, he picks up a head of steam as he goes and gets into the behind the scenes aspects of the production, so the chat ends up as worthwhile.

Note that Sherman’s commentary ends at the 50-minute, 20-second point in the film. He then tells us he’ll pick up his discussion with his track for 1970’s Beast of Blood.

Three subsequent segments come from materials shot in 2010. Tombs of the Living Dead goes for eight minutes, 40 seconds and involves film historian Pete Tombs.

Via “Dead”, we get notes about productions shot in the Philippines, with a few notes related to Mad Doctor and its crew. Tombs brings a decent collection of details.

A Taste of Blood spans 12 minutes, 11 seconds. It provides info from critic Mark Holcomb.

“Taste” tells us a bit more about the cast/crew of Mad Doctor and their careers/efforts as well as his view of the flick. Some of this becomes redundant after other programs, but Holcomb still gives us a positive summary.

With The Mad Director of Blood Island, we get a six-minute, 38-second reel. Here we find notes from director Eddie Romero.

In this piece, the filmmaker covers elements of his career. We don’t get much about Mad Doctor but Romero delivers a good chat nonetheless.

In addition to the film’s trailer, we conclude with a Poster and Still Gallery that presents 67 frames of material. It mixes ads and promotional elements with photos and background pieces to become a satisfying compilation.

A film as schlocky as its title implies, Mad Doctor of Blood Island offers pure cheese. Unfortunately, it lacks the desired ‘so bad it’s good’ camp value and just becomes a dull dud. The Blu-ray boasts solid visuals and a mix of bonus materials but audio seems weak. As does the film itself, as Mad Doctor flops.

Note that this version of Mad Doctor of Blood Island appears solely as part of a four-movie set entitled “Fear in the Philippines: The Complete Blood Island Films”. This package also includes 1959’s Terror Is a Man, 19698’s Brides of Blood and 1970’s Beast of Blood.