Director – Harry Hook (Sins of the Fathers)
Starring – Balthazar Getty (Feast, The Tripper), Chris Furrh (Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color), and Danuel Pipoly (3 Ninjas Knuckle Up)
Release Date – 1990
Rating – 3.5/5
Tagline – “We did everything the way grown-ups would have…what went wrong?”
When I was little, I’m talking 5 or under, I was a movie hound. I loved watching movies and anything on t.v. I would often rent videos on the weekend when my brother was in from Virginia or watch movies when I had to stay with my grandmother and uncle while my Dad was out of state for work. Me and my grandmother had the same taste in films while my uncle (who was just 5 years older than me) had similar taste in films as my baby sister.
Me and my grandmother would often watch sci-fi, horror, and whatever was popular for kids at the time. One summer my grandmother picked up a VHS copy of the 1990 film adaption Lord of the Flies from the novel written by William Golding. I thought the movie was a horror flick and so did she since neither of use had seen the film before. However, once she tossed it in we quickly knew it was not and that resulted in the film absolutely scaring the shit out me to the point I could not sleep that night. I watched it a few more times over the years and each viewing resulted in the same anxiety.
Recently, the folks over at Olive Films released the film on blu and I figured it was the perfect time to revisit the film that had a huge impact on my childhood.
**Spoiler Alert**The film follows a group of military students who find themselves stranded on an uncharted island where they are forced to stick together in order to survive with little to no supplies. They elect the oldest, Ralph (Getty), to be their leader and he believes that the only way to get rescued is to keep a fire going at the highest point of the island so it can be seen by those that pass by.
Things go smoothly at first but soon tensions come to a boil when another boy starts to convince some of the others that they will never be rescued so they will need to start hunting in order to survive. At first he is able to convince just a few survivors but over time he is able to convince them all except Ralph’s best friend Piggy. However, during an altercation between the two, the hunters accidentally kill Piggy leaving Ralph all alone. They then start hunting him down but he is rescued by the military right in the nick of time.**Spoiler Alert**
By the time I was 5 I had seen Evil Dead, Evil Dead II, Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, and Day of the Dead numerous times and none of these films scared me the way Lord of the Flies did and the fact that it was not a horror film made it even worse. The thought of kids fighting like this on an island all alone and then turning on each other like they did just really unnerved me. It took me years to actually get over this film and I am not ashamed to admit that. Now, after watching this one again after all these years, I have to say that is still holds up well after all these years.
The acting in this one is superb especially if you consider the age of most of these cast members. Most of the cast is 12 or so and younger which is impressive when you consider how demanding their roles were. What makes their performances even more impressive is how very few cast members had other roles before this one.
The story for this one is based on the novel as I mentioned before. To this day I have never read and this review will not mention the similarities and differences. Instead, the review will talk about just how powerful and primitive it really is. From a modern standpoint, the story may seem jumbled and poorly constructed. However, if you take it for what it is then it is truly one piece of power cinema. Also, those of you looking for blood and gore will not find it here. This film was meant to tell a story and it is not one filled with blood. Instead, the film tells a story about how deep down we are all savages.
Finally, this release from Olive Films is great for fans looking for this film on blu but collectors will not be satisfied with this release. The film is boasting a 1080p transfer that looks great but nowhere near as great as some of the other Olive Films releases that I have previously encountered. This release, also, does not have any special features which will piss most collectors off. Overall, the Olive Films release of Lord of the Flies is another solid release from Olive. Sadly, this film lacks the special features to appeal to collectors but the film transfer is decent.
