'Blood
Tide' (1982) – Richard Jeffries.
The eerily atmospheric horror 'Blood Tide is
set within the isolated, faintly macabre-looking medieval town of
Monemvasia. This unfairly neglected 80s creature feature begins
with Greek Island hopping newly-weds, Neil (Martin Kove) and Sherry
Grice (Mary Louise Weller) somewhat unwelcome arrival on the island. The eccentric, amusingly bizarre locals appear reluctant to grant Neil's earnest request for any assistance that might help locate
his missing sister Madeline, compelling played by spaced-out glamourpuss Deborah
'Nemesis' Shelton. during the Grice's first actively unsettling night they meet bodacious bikini blond
bombshell, Barbara (Lydia Cornell), a heroically hot beach bunny
caught up in a delightfully ditsy world of her own, and bubble-headed Barbara's charismatically bluff, illegally treasure hunting boyfriend, Frye (James Earl Jones) A rabidly scene-stealing, fascinatingly ambivalent character, Frye guilelessly is the
catalyst that evilly ushers forth the monstrous Blood
Tide which grimly gushes forth grimly from the barnacled bowels of hell, threatening to engulf them all!
Boldly contradicting the enticingly sanguineous title, this almost creature-less feature proves itself to be a weirdly entertaining, outlandishly off-beat, sun-baked B-horror mélange of mythically macabre, Mediterranean-set Lovecraftian wyrd! 'Blood Tide' remains much more than a creepy, esoteric
sun-baked 80s folk horror curiosity. This sinisterly subaquatic, cod-Peter Benchley
'what-done-it' has its skewed dynamics increased by the engaging performances of a fine cast of gifted Thespians. The naive presence
of
dreamily
beautiful, Deborah Shelton not only manifests a distractingly
strange aura, she also provides the sympathetic voice and
lyrics to the jaunty, if singularly unmenacing title music! The
bulk of the spooky score composed by Jerry Mosely, who also did equally fine work on cult classic 'Frightmare' (1983). Writer/director,
Richard Jefferies fear-frothed Lovecraftian eccentricity 'Blood Tide' remains a strangely exotic, rewardingly unconventional 80s folk horror that eerily beguiles due to its moodily malign maritime atmosphere, and
an abundant eccentricity rather than a default reliance on explicit
gore.