Jen (Chelan Simmons) entered her brother Josh (Daniel Letterle) in MTV’s Tropical Weekend Getaway contest with special guest star Carmen Electra. Everything is to be filmed for a special MTV show. To his horror, Josh ends up winning the contest. The prize is a party on an island in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle for Josh and his entire high school class. Among his classmates are his best friends, Andy (Cascy Beddow) and Stack (Joe MacLeod). Also in the mix are Josh’s ex-girlfriend, Maddy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), and her new boyfriend, Chase (Chris Harrison).
The partiers arrive on the island and begin having fun. During Carmen’s first song, a giant flying ant swoops in and grabs Carmen and her bodyguard, Eightball (C. Ernst Harth). The insect drops Eightball in the jungle and takes Carmen off to a mountain in the distance. At the same time, an electrical storm interferes with cell phone reception, and the guidance system on the boats. Everyone is stranded.
As the partygoers head back to the boats to wait, Josh decides to find Carmen. With him are Andy and Stack as well as his sister Jen. Maddy wants to help as well so she and Chase go too. The director of the contest, Bob Staton (Bruce James), thinks this may be a good opportunity to salvage the production. He sends camera man G.T. (Jeff Geddis), and reporter Lili Mindi (Alana Husband) with the gang to record the rescue.
They wander around in the jungle for a while. Stack climbs a tree to get their bearings and finds Eightball, alive but confused. He joins them in the search. They continue on until they run into a giant praying mantis and a fish monster named Bruce. They then meet Dr. Harryhausen (Adam West), from the Department of Atomic Energy, but not before G.T. is killed by the fish monster. Harryhausen tells them that the island once was an Army base and that the monster size insects are due to radioactive bombing and using the island as a toxic waste dump. He also tells them that the island is sinking. They have little time to make it to the mountain to try to find Carmen. But the mountain isn’t exactly what they think it is.
“Monster Island” was released in 2004 and was directed by Jack Perez. It is a made for television horror comedy produced by MTV, and a big bug movie. MTV started making movies in 1996 when they released “Joe’s Apartment” 1996. Since then, they have done some seventy plus films.
A lot of the movie is lame teenage stuff, but there are some funny spots and some decent looking giant insects. In addition, Adam West’s wonderful camp fits right in. Included are as many big bug movie tropes as possible from the fifties that they could squeeze in. There were a few spots that were a little silly but, for the most part, it ended up being a lot of fun.
Featured creatures are: The Queen (Ant), Ms. Mantis, Mr. Mantis, Piranha Man AKA Bruce, The Soldier (Ant), The Spider, and Rudy the Horseshoe Crab Fungus. Included in the special effects are forced perspective, miniatures, stop motion and giant live action puppets.