Island of the Doomed

Maneater of Hydra was a regular part of the Creature Double Feature program rotation, which aired in New England during the 70s-80s showing monster/sci-fi movies. I remembered this one vividly, for it features a vampiric tree killing the visitors to a mad baron's island. Z-grade movie regular Cameron Mitchell played the Baron. Memories of the film were better than the actual movie, which I managed to hunt down 20 years after last seeing it, but I still find in enjoyable and there is a great B-monster payoff in the last 15 minutes. The animated opening credits with orchestrated music is worth the price of admission alone.

Maneater is a great bit of nostalgia, bringing back childhood memories of rushing home every Saturday to catch Creature Double Feature, spending 3 hours of the afternoon watching the cheesiest movies ever made, and having a blast doing it. This film isn't as bad as people would have you believe.