**SPOILERS** Drawn to the Greek island of Synanon in the Aegean Sea young and pretty, as well as virgin, Madeline,Deborah Shelton, inadvertently with the help of Frye, James Earl Jones,and his girlfriend Barbara, Lydia Cornell, releases from a hidden underwater cave an ancient monster who goes on a bloody rampage. Killing islanders on the Island as well as those swimming off shore. Were told by the wise old men of the Island, from it's mayor on down, that the only way to stop the monster from it's deadly rounds is to offer up a young girl or woman virgin as a sacrifice to it.
Arriving on Synanon earlier in the movie is Nell,Martin Kove, Madeline's brother and Sherry,Mary Louise Weller, his wife who are going both on their honeymoon and looking for the elusive Madeline who hasn't been seen or heard from for almost four months. Thinking at first that the story of the Sea Monster is a lot of hogwash Nell Shelly and especially Fray become believers when a number of women end up missing,including Barbara, and later are found washed up on shore dead, and in pieces, as a result of the monster's actions.
Fray who was both cool and collective and very sure of himself flipped out when he later saw the monster devourer an Island woman who was trying to save her daughter, who fell into the water, and becomes a hopeless drunk. Seeing her call in life, by uncovering a hidden ancient painting, Madeline prepares to offer herself up to be killed and eaten by the Sea Monster in order to stop the slaughter. The monster went as far as attacking a church killing all the nuns except the Mother Superior Sister Anna, Llia Kedrova, who was badly injured. In the end Frye who released the ancient monster for it's cave destroyed it, as well as himself,by blowing it to shreds with modern explosives.
The acting in "Blood Tide"is far better then the story itself with top-notch actors James Earl Jones as the self-centered adventurer Frye. Jose Ferrer was very good as the Islands mayor Nerevs who knew more about what was going on then you at first would have thought. Besides the very good acting the scenic and breath-taking photography of the Greek Island and the surrounding Aegean Sea kept you awake and observant of what was happening on screen even though the very flimsy and mediocre story didn't.
