When her father is murdered and the investigation falters, police detective Darcy Walker creates alter-ego the Black Scorpion to get justice. Clad in spike-heeled thigh-high black boots, a black corset and little else, the Black Scorpion drives a kickass car and carries a high-tech whip (both courtesy of former car thief Argyle, played by Garrett Morris) with some extra supernatural zip from a scorpion ring left to her by her dad. Meanwhile, her partner on the job - unaware of Darcy's secret identify - attempts to arrest the alluring vigilante. Naturally, Darcy was already in love with him but he'd put her deep into the friend zone... however, there's no such problem with her alter ego, who has no issue tying him down and having her way with him (he is very much on board with this). This leads to some R-rated (yet oddly sweet) erotic scenes that turn this into a borderline soft porn flick. Yet for all the silliness and ridiculous choices made here, it's a strangely compelling movie, especially thanks to the beautiful, chillingly defiant score by Kevin Kiner.

Why is it that the 'nipple-showing batsuit' in Clooney's "Batman and Robin" was cringe-inducing and laughably bad, but the blatantly erotic yet equally ridiculous 'BDSM-super-heroine' dominatrix getup kinda works here? Two things, maybe: lower (or at least different) expectations, given the low budget cheesiness of this entire production; and Joan Severance simply having the panache to carry it off. Just a few years earlier, Severance had played the slightly made yet hugely seductive sister of Kevin Spacey's billionaire arms dealer in TV series "Wiseguy", showing the same total commitment to her character.  

I had loved the TV series Alien Nation which ran from 1989-1990 and starred Eric Pierpoint and Gary Graham (left) in the roles played by Mandy Patinkin and James Caan in the film version. In the TV series, Pierpoint plays the alien who escapes to Earth with his family and thousands of others after their slave ship crash-lands here, while Graham plays a far less xenophobic version of the human police detective who is partnered with him, though still gets to enjoy all the same "what the hell?" moments as Caan did as he struggles to understand alien culture. Graham's Detective Sikes was actually a terrific character: an every-man who's far from perfect (he's short-tempered, sloppy in his personal life, and has a broken marriage behind him) but finds genuine empathy for these refugees who end up as basically family to him.

ANYWAY... his name in the cast list was, I think, why I decided to watch "Danger Island" when it appeared on TV late one night in my second year of university (in around 1994 or '95). I know when it was because I still remember huddling in my chair in front of my ancient black and white portable TV set, listening to the movie through the headphones my father had rewired to share sound (output by the TV only as mono) to both ears. 

The story reads like an earlier version of "Lost": a motley group of passengers survive a plane crash and up on a mysterious island. At some point, two of them are stung by an unseen underwater creature, which a biology professor tries to neutralize; one of the two turns into a monster that night, while the other (Graham) metamorphoses more slowly and starts having flashbacks to the island's recent history, as well as developing extra-sensory perception. A scary encounter with some local people and hints of dark military experiments lead them to discover a possible antidote left by a scientist...

The DVD / video cover images for the movie focus on Kathy Ireland and Joe Lara, who both co-starred but were certainly not the main characters in the movie. Although perhaps a little repetitive, the haunting score by Peter Manning Robinson sets the scene and helps lift this from standard TV fare to something more memorable, as does the pathos of Graham's character hanging on despite the knowledge that he is slowly turning into something his fellow survivors will probably have to kill in the end.

I'm not a fan of being terrified, which I guess is why the only "horror movies" in any top ten list I might write would fall as much into the sci-fi or dark-comedy thriller genres. Buried Alive is definitely in the latter category, being the story of a successful contractor (played by Tim Matheson) whose wife conspires with her doctor lover to poison him with a tropical fish toxin. So greedy are they for his money, she even cheaps out on the funeral, burying him speedily in the flimsiest coffin and skipping the embalming process entirely. However, while the toxin slowed (and massively damaged) his heart, making him appear dead for a while, Matheson wakes up six feet under, during a violent storm that night. The water pouring through the loose soil both makes it easier to dig his way out through the sodden wood, but also threatens to drown him. I won't spoil the entire story here, but suffice it to say the newly disen??ed Matheson gets his revenge by building a (literal) trap for his wife and her lover.

It's bloodthirsty but not gory, and incredibly satisfying. While all three main actors (including Jennifer Jason Leigh and William Atherton) revel in the characters they've been assigned, and the lovers are suitably stunned and terrified by the end, Matheson's shift from oblivious happiness to wounded betrayal to coldly vicious revenge is the most enjoyable as we ride along at his side.  The scene in which he douses his torn and bloody fingers in ??white spirit before wrapping them in bandages is particularly memorable, as it demonstrates how their actions have numbed him to the point he barely seems to notice what had to be blinding agony.

Special mention of two TV movies starring Matheson and Ann Jillian - I can't remember much about them by now, but I remember both being very enjoyable at the time: Little White Lies (1989) and Fast Company (1995).