What We’re Watching: The Twilight People
Actor John Ashley once co-starred alongside Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello in films such as Beach Party (1964), Muscle Beach Party (1964) and Bikini Beach(1964). Later in his career he would team up with writer/producer/director Eddie Romero for a series of low-budget horror and action flicks shot in the Philippines, drive-in classics like Brides of Blood (1968), Mad Doctor of Blood Island (1968), The Beast of the Yellow Night (1971) and Savage Sisters (1974). The Twilight People (1973) is their take on The Island of Dr. Moreau with a little of Most Dangerous Game thrown in for good measure. Ashley’s character, Matt Farrell, is kidnapped while scuba-diving and taken to a remote island where an evil doctor is doing unnatural human/animal experiments. The doc has a cute daughter that Matt kinda digs, but decides to split when he learns that he will be the doctors next guinea pig. The second half of the movie details the adventures of Matt, the animal hybrid experiments, the doctor and the doctors huntsman enforcer as they stumble trough the jungle looking for a means of escape. Considering it’s low-budget limitations, The Twilight People is a fairly decent and well-paced action/adventure. The animal make-up effects are decent, but Darmo the bat-man would be ridiculous under any circumstances no matter what the films budget. It’s obvious that Ashley is in ‘cool-guy’ Steve McQueen mode here, underplaying several of his scenes so that you begin to wonder if he’s even awake. The Twilight People is available on DVD from VCI entertainment. The movie is presented full-frame and picture quality is fair. This isn’t a deluxe edition by any means. A few trailers and some actor biographies are the only extras. It should also be mentioned that The Twilight People has what may be the coolest opening title credit ever… Pam Grier as The Panther Woman. Come on, that’s seriously badass no matter how you look at it.
