Six young and wealthy friends from Seattle decide to go on a camping trip but they get stranded on a remote American island after having trouble with their hydroplane's engine. They spend the night in the woods and next day they find a Victorian-like house occupied by a strange family. Initially they are hosted by Ma, Pa only but soon they get to know their three middle-aged children and it becomes clear that they are among very demented people. The family are self-righteous, God-fearing American Puritans who lead their lives as if their still were in the 1920s'. (The dvd frontispiece is a parody)They are skeptical of science and averse to mundane vices, such as smoking or having sex outside marriage. One by one the visitors start to get viciously murdered by the psychotic family members eventually only Cynthia (Sarah Torgov) alive. The fragile girl has a past trauma (she feels guilty of letting her own baby drown) and her experiences on the island are enough to snap her already fragile hold on reality. As she he is then incorporated by the family a reverse of fortune takes place and the victim becomes a monster.
The film addresses themes like: madness, incest, secrets from the past, rape, basically those features established by 18th century Gothic literature. A warning for the blood-thirst seekers: there is actually very little blood and gore. If I was to drawn on a general theme for this film it would have to be the fear of arbitrary forces from the past, the play of modern values against old brutal ones.
Although the production is fairly good (opening sequence with the plane, the woods scenes on the island) the film is really campy. The title was what attracted me the most but the film is a bit disappointing. As much as "everything has been done before" some horror films are actually capable of innovating those well-known aspects of terror. Enormously overacted the horror flick becomes increasingly risible towards the end. The presence Rod Steiger and Yvonne DeCarlo, as Pa and Ma, is enough to make this a good film. Though I think Fanny (Janet Wright) delivers a creepy performance which kind of saves the show.
