I Eat Your Skin

At an opulent hotel in Miami Beach, Florida, mystery writer Tom Harris is flirting with an admiring group of bathing beauties when Duncan Fairchild, a wealthy dilettante who dabbles in publishing, comes to propose a topic for Tom's next novel. Duncan explains that while gambling at a Monte Carlo casino, he met Lord Carrington, the owner of a remote island in the Caribbean known as Voodoo Island, which Duncan insists would provide the perfect setting for a mystery novel. Duncan continues that among the island's colorful population are voodoo-worshipping natives, an army of "the walking dead" zombies, beautiful virgins and a scientist, Dr. Augustus Biladeau, who is experimenting with poisonous snake venom as a cure for cancer. In his enthusiasm, Duncan has chartered a private plane to fly himself, his brassy wife Coral and Tom to the island. Their pilot Enrico lands on a deserted beach on Voodoo Island just as their craft runs out of gas. Leaving the others behind, Tom goes to look for help and comes upon a fisherman who begins to lead him through the jungle. Just as the fisherman is explaining that the sound of voodoo drums in the distance are heralding a human sacrifice, a horribly disfigured zombie attacks and beheads the fisherman with a machete. Tom is defending himself when a jeep owned by Charles Bentley, Lord Carrington's overseer on the island, arrives and sends the zombie fleeing. Bentley reassures Tom that the zombie was simply a native who has gone berserk, then drives to the plane to meet the others. Carrying her mink coat and poodle, Coral climbs into the jeep alongside Duncan and Tom. At dinner that night, Tom meets Dr. Biladeau and his blonde daughter Jeanine. When Tom asks about the "walking dead" on the island, the doctor explains that some of the natives have become disfigured by ingesting a toxic plant found on the island. After dinner, Tom asks Jeanine to take a walk, and as they stroll across the plantation, a zombie jumps out of the jungle and snatches Jeanine. Attacking the zombie with a burning torch, Tom rescues Jeanine and the two run back to the house. Bentley is shocked by the attack, and when Tom asks him what the zombie wanted, Bentley explains that because local lore affirms that the sacrifice of a young blonde girl can save lives, the zombies are intent on offering Jeanine as a sacrifice. Later that night, Tom sneaks into Jeanine's bedroom to warn her that she is in danger and must immediately leave the island. Although Jeanine refuses to leave the island without her father, she changes her mind after making love to Tom. The next morning, after Jeanine promises to ask her father to leave the island with them, Tom informs Duncan that he has arranged with Enrico to have the plane ready for take-off that afternoon. While wending their way through the jungle to her father's laboratory, Tom and Jeanine come upon an altar festooned with voodoo symbols. As they approach Biladeau's laboratory, which is built in a gun encasement overlooking the bay, Fernando, one of the plantation workers, comes forward to warn Jeanine to leave the island because Papa Nero, the voodoo chief, wants to turn her into a sacrificial "goat without horns." After Fernando runs back into the jungle, Tom and Jeanine descend into a labyrinthine tunnel leading to the lab. Meanwhile, Bentley's housekeeper, who is one of Papa Nero's followers, has overheard Tom's plans and so frees the imprisoned zombie army to stop Jeanine from leaving the island. In a back room in the lab, meanwhile, Biladeau injects a subject with snake venom, turning him into a zombie. When Biladeau spots Jeanine and Tom waiting for him in the lab's main room, the doctor orders them to leave at once. Cryptically remarking that it is too late, Biladeau asks Tom to remove Jeanine from the island. Upon climbing out of the labyrinth, Jeanine and Tom head for the plane on the beach where Enrico, Duncan and Coral are waiting for them. As Enrico struggles to get the plane airborne, the zombies attack, kidnapping Coral and Jeanine while a lone zombie, carrying a box of explosives, walks into the plane's propellers, setting off an explosion in which Enrico is killed. The other zombies chase Duncan and Tom, who are forced to dive off a cliff into the water to save themselves. Coming upon a boat guarded by a man with a rifle, Duncan and Tom disarm the guard and seize a flare gun, then stumble upon the voodoo ceremony. Slipping into Papa Nero's private chambers, Duncan and Tom disguise themselves with robes and masks, then join the frenzied worshippers as they dance around the altar on which Jeanine is splayed. As Papa Nero, his face obscured by sunglasses and a veil of beads, poises with a machete over Jeanine, Tom throws a handful of flares into the fire. Biladeau then emerges from the shadows and hurls a knife into the voodoo leader as the flares explode. The impact unmasks Papa Nero, who is revealed to be Bentley. Duncan, Tom, Coral, Jeanine and Biladeau then flee down the labyrinth into the lab, where Biladeau sets his controls to blow up the island. As they race toward the boat, Biladeau explains that Bentley had dreams of conquering the world with an army of zombies. The boat at first refuses to start, allowing two zombies to climb onboard. After one stabs Biladeau, Tom kills the other with his flare gun, then manages to start up the boat's engine. As they speed off, the island explodes. With his dying words, Biladeau explains that he had tried to use natives as human guinea pigs to test his venom cancer formula. When Bentley discovered that the venom turned the natives into zombies, he threatened to expose Biladeau's experiments unless he agreed to continue them for him. Some time later at the hotel poolside, Duncan and Coral are engrossed in Tom's new book titled Voodoo Island while Tom regales an admiring group of beauties with his adventures. Just then, Jeanine steps out of a cabana and pushes him into the pool, and after she jumps into the water, they kiss.