Monsters, Men, and Murky Morality: Monster Island Reviewed
Monster Island (2024) is a WWII survival horror film steeped in Malay folklore, where a Japanese soldier and British POW battle inner demons and an ancient monster. Directed by Mike Wiluan and streaming via Shudder, the film is a slow-burn descent into character-driven chaos, soaked in myth and moral ambiguity.
Monster Island, aka Orang Ikan, doesn’t just drop monsters into a war movie. It dunks you into 1940s Pacific grit, adds explosive tension, then whispers creature-feature mythology with the kind of restraint that makes the horror hit harder. Directed by Mike Wiluan and based on Malay folklore, this World War II-set survival film is a slow-burn with sharp claws.
The film opens with grainy archive-style footage and hushed dread before pulling us into the bowels of a Japanese warship where Second Lieutenant Sito is shackled like cargo. The set detail is excellent: rusted metal, low beams, and narrow corridors punctuated by the kind of shadowplay that screams budget well spent. Then a fellow prisoner is dragged in. Silent. Shackled.
“God has abandoned you.”
Quote from the Japanese horror film Monster Island
Welcome to war horror.
This review discusses several plot beats, character arcs, and monster moments from the early and mid-sections of *Monster Island*, while intentionally avoiding detailed description of the final confrontation and its layered endings (we put that into a sealed section at the end). If you’re spoiler-sensitive but still curious, you’ll be safe from the film’s most climactic reveals.
Shackled Souls and Sunken Ships
What follows is a brutal, claustrophobic mutiny sequence lit by fire and torpedoes. As bombs rain down, prisoners fight guards in an explosive ballet of close-quarter combat. Outside, the ship is reduced to rubble. Inside, chaos. You can smell the grease.
Survival’s Language is Universal
Stranded. Still chained. Still enemies. Sito (Dean Fujioka) and Bronsen (Callum Woodhouse) wake on a beach strewn with corpses and cargo. They brawl. They bond. They boil seafood. The dynamic between these two, Japanese soldier and British POW, is the film’s heart. Their dialogue is sparse, but their eyes and body language do the lifting.
There’s something unexpectedly cozy about these war-bound enemies cooking seafood on the beach, if you ignore the grief, PTSD, and the fact they’re still literally shackled. This segment leans heavily into character-driven tension and ends up making you care about both, even when you’re waiting for limbs to fly.
When they’re not fighting each other, they’re dodging something primal. A figure watching from the sea. A sound beneath the sand. A shape on the horizon. The pacing in this section is patient but deliberate, and honestly, if you listen with headphones, the deep monster grumbles might just make your stomach twitch.
The Mythical Orang Ikan and the Art of Suggestion – Bromantic Tension
The titular monster is teased early, but Wiluan shows rare restraint. We glimpse its silhouette through foliage, reflections in blood, claws from behind trees. When it kills, it kills with flourish, decapitations, blood drinking, organ tossing. But it’s always framed just enough to let your imagination finish the job.
Inspired by Creature from the Black Lagoon with a bit of The Descent and Apocalypto, the monster design is practical-heavy but tactically obscured. By the time we get full-body shots, we’re so deep in the lore (and body count), the rubbery finish doesn’t matter. The monster acts like a character, not a gimmick.
Bromance, Betrayal, and a Baby Monster Egg
The emotional gravity sneaks up. Flashbacks hint at Sito’s guilt. A “mermaid egg” is revealed. Is it maternal? Magical? It doesn’t matter, what matters is Sito sees life, while Bronsen sees a tactical problem.
There’s an awkwardly comic bit involving a plane wing, a cigarette, and crocodiles that feels like a studio note made it in, but tonal quirks aside, the narrative stays tight. Sito is the heart, Bronsen the hands. And they are constantly in peril.
Not every beat lands. There’s a mid-film drag where we wander the jungle a little too long with not enough payoff, but the cinematography keeps it engaging. Wide pans over cliffs and ravines, underwater shots through kelp fronds, and grainy flashback layers elevate the visual palette beyond most creature features. Every frame is doing double duty.
Final Fights and Flashback Framing
The final act plays with scale, silence, and surprise. It doesn’t deliver a monster army (though it teases one), but it does leave enough unsaid for a possible prequel/sequel. Cinematography and sound design pull double duty, elevating the battle choreography and delivering eerie underwater acoustics.
Final Verdict
Monster Island is a war movie with monsters, or a monster movie with war. Either way, it excels when it leans into atmosphere, character-driven tension, and folklore-fueled terror. A few pacing dips can’t drown its thematic depth or technical quality.
Rating: 4 Blood-drinking mermaids with daddy issues out of 5
How Monster Island Ends For Those That Love Spoilers
A triple ending wraps it all up. First, the end of the battle. Second, a post-war debrief where Saito calls Bronsen his “friend.” Third, a monster head silhouetted in the jungle. Yes, it’s over. But is it?
