Blood Tide

Blood Tide

Year: 1982

Runtime: 82 mins

Language: English

Director: Richard Jefferies

ActionHorrorAdventureHorror

Evil lurks in the Ocean Depths An adventurer hunting for treasure in Greece accidentally frees a monster that forces local villagers to sacrifice virgins.

Warning: spoilers below!

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Timeline & Setting – Blood Tide (1982)

Explore the full timeline and setting of Blood Tide (1982). Follow every major event in chronological order and see how the environment shapes the story, characters, and dramatic tension.

Time period

Location

Remote island off the coast of Greece

A remote Greek island serves as the primary setting, featuring a rocky coastline and a small village. Inland sits a convent, while offshore lies a hidden underwater cavern accessed by a sealed tunnel marked by a sigil. The island's isolation and ritual atmosphere drive the tension as locals and visitors uncover ancient secrets.

🏝️ Greek island 🌊 Secluded coast 🕯️ Convent on island

Last Updated: October 04, 2025 at 13:56

Main Characters – Blood Tide (1982)

Meet the key characters of Blood Tide (1982), with detailed profiles, motivations, and roles in the plot. Understand their emotional journeys and what they reveal about the film’s deeper themes.

Frye — James Earl Jones

A middle-aged treasure hunter who arrives with hostility toward Neil. He is willing to take dangerous risks, best demonstrated when he uses a homemade bomb to unseal a hidden tunnel. In the end, he sacrifices himself by detonating the cavern to destroy the serpent.

🧭 Treasure hunter ⚔️ Conflict 🕯️ Sacrifice

Madeline Grice — Deborah Shelton

Neil's missing sister and an artist who traveled to the island. On the island, her personality begins to change, and she becomes trance-like as she uncovers disturbing paintings in the monastery. Her altered state drives much of the mystery and leads to her entry into the underwater cavern.

🎨 Artist 🌀 Transformation 🔎 Mystery

Neil Grice — Martin Kove

A determined American husband searching for his missing sister. He follows Frye into the underwater cave to uncover the truth, showing resourcefulness and a protective instinct toward Madeline. He helps pull Madeline from the cavern as Frye detonates the tunnel.

🧭 Investigator 💪 Determination 🔎 Mystery

Sherry Grice — Mary Louise Weller

Neil's wife who accompanies him on the search. She notices Madeline's strange behavior and cares for those around her, including gifting a perfume to Madeline. She remains steadfast beside Neil as they confront the island's secrets.

💐 Support 👀 Observant 🤝 Partnership

Barbara — Lydia Cornell

Madeline's friend who joins them on their boat in a remote part of the island. She is attacked while swimming and killed, with her dismembered body later found by local children, underscoring the island's danger.

🌊 Danger ⚰️ Death 🚶‍♀️ Friend

Lethe — Rania Photiou

A young village girl who plays with the local boys and falls off a cliff into the water. Frye saves her from the sea, but her mother is later eaten by the serpent, highlighting the island's deadly mythology.

👶 Child 🌊 Water danger 🪸 Island life

Lethe's Mother — Despina Tomazani

Lethe's mother who tries to save her daughter but is claimed by the serpent, illustrating the personal cost of the island's dangers.

👩 Mother 🌊 Tragedy ⚠️ Fatality

Sister Anna — Lila Kedrova

The elderly mother superior of the convent. She appears in the island's religious setting and is found at the festival in a bloodied, shocked state after the convent is left in disarray with the nuns dead.

🕊️ Nun 🏛️ Church 💔 Tragedy

Sister Elena — Sofia Seirli

A nun at the convent who speaks with Madeline and witnesses troubling paintings uncovered in the walls. She embodies the island's religious atmosphere and mystery surrounding the paintings of saints and serpents.

🕊️ Nun 🎨 Art 🔮 Mystery

Nereus — José Ferrer

The elderly mayor of the island who greets Neil and Sherry and represents the local authority and tradition. His presence anchors the community amid the unfolding investigation.

🏛️ Mayor 🧭 Authority 🤝 Community

Last Updated: October 04, 2025 at 13:56

Major Themes – Blood Tide (1982)

Explore the central themes of Blood Tide (1982), from psychological, social, and emotional dimensions to philosophical messages. Understand what the film is really saying beneath the surface.

🐍 Myth & Monster

The island harbors an ancient serpentine creature and a sigil-marked tunnel that hint at a myth older than Christianity. Madeline's escalating trance and the paintings in the convent suggest a supernatural influence at work. Frye's pursuit of treasure becomes entwined with the island's dark legends.

⚓ Isolation

The remote setting heightens paranoia and fear as outsiders are cut off from the outside world. The festival, convent rituals, and insular village life intensify the sense that danger lurks just beyond sight. Characters must navigate danger with limited help from beyond the island.

🔥 Sacrifice

Frye sacrifices himself by detonating the cavern to destroy the serpent, choosing the safety of others over his own life. The rescue attempts by Neil and Sherry underscore the moral costs of uncovering the island's mysteries. The dawn departure marks a costly but necessary end to the island's immediate threat.

Last Updated: October 04, 2025 at 13:56

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Movies about unleashed ancient evils like Blood Tide

Stories where primal horrors are disturbed, forcing desperate survival against ritualistic forces.If you liked the ritualistic terror of Blood Tide, explore more movies where ancient monsters or curses are unleashed upon the modern world. These similar horror and adventure stories often feature desperate survival, folk horror elements, and a dark, oppressive tone.

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Narrative Summary

These narratives typically follow a discovery-to-confrontation arc. Outsiders or protagonists inadvertently disturb a long-dormant evil—a monster, curse, or deity—which then imposes its ancient, brutal rules upon a community or location. The story becomes a race against time to understand and defeat the primordial force, often at a great personal cost.

Why These Movies?

Movies are grouped here for their shared foundation of a primal threat disrupting contemporary life. They share a dark, ritualistic mood, a steady build of dread, and themes of survival against an incomprehensible, ancient power, creating a cohesive experience of folkloric horror.

Movies with bittersweet monster victories like Blood Tide

Tales where surviving a grotesque threat comes with profound trauma and loss.For viewers who appreciated the heavy cost of survival in Blood Tide, this list features similar movies where defeating a monster or creature leads to a bittersweet ending. These films share high-intensity horror, graphic violence, and an emotionally heavy conclusion that lingers after the credits.

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Narrative Summary

The narrative journey in these films is defined by a high-stakes battle against a physical monstrosity. The conflict is intense and visceral, often involving body horror and graphic violence. While the protagonists may succeed in destroying the threat, they do so at the cost of allies, their own peace of mind, or both, resulting in an ending that acknowledges the win but emphasizes the devastating price paid.

Why These Movies?

These films are united by their specific emotional cadence: a blend of intense horror action and a concluding tone of somber reflection. The shared experience is one of surviving a visceral nightmare but being permanently marked by it, creating a coherent vibe of triumphant yet traumatic resolution.

Unlock the Full Story of Blood Tide

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Blood Tide Summary

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Blood Tide Summary

Blood Tide Timeline

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Blood Tide Timeline

Blood Tide Spoiler-Free Summary

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Blood Tide Spoiler-Free Summary

More About Blood Tide

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