I’d been following Orang Ikan for a while now, from an early Bloody Disgusting preview through to its retitling for U.S. distribution as “Monster Island.” Bleh. I’ve spent a nontrivial amount of time – washing dishes, staring into oblivion – pondering over which title to go with for the inevitable review on this site. It’s important! Reason one: this is a monster movie, and therefore a throwback. After the golden age of the 1980s, the spirit carried on in the Sci-Fi Channel Originals of my youth. These made-for-TV movies were sort of a keep-away game: “How much of this monster movie can be about anything other than the monster?” Special effects are expensive, and the movies were not. For me, they were exercises in frustration. Some off-screen kills in the beginning, a whole lot of bullshit in the middle, and the monster appears at the very end. And yet, I can’t deny how acutely interesting something called “Dinocroc” was to my 11-year-old brain. The second reason is that “Monster Island” is unspecific and vaguely patronizing, not that I can properly pronounce “Orang Ikan.” Now, this is a movie set during World War II, so the legendary fishman might not be the only monster lurking in the jungle. … More No Frills, Just Gills | Orang Ikan (2024) Review