FUNGUS ISLE (1923) – Written by Philip M Fisher. Fungus Isle has the same proto-Creature Feature feel to it that The True Inheritors (qv) had. In the case of the previously reviewed story it was a forerunner of various giant spider flicks. In the case of Fungus Isle it seems like the inspiration for Attack of the Mushroom People, aka Matango, the Fungus of Terror.
A handful of friends find themselves shipwrecked on an uncharted island near New Guinea. The island is crawling with various types of fungus and our protagonists eventually encounter some fungi that are nearly humanoid and can walk.
The spores shot out by the fungi cling to human flesh, eventually accumulating to the point where they completely cover the body. Salt water serves as an effective remedy to clean off the spores but there is no food on the island except mushrooms.
No fresh water is available, or at least no water that is not polluted and undrinkable. The castaways eventually give in to their hunger and eat the mushrooms, which are highly addictive and induce feelings of euphoria.
As the main characters eat more and more of the mushrooms they begin to go insane. Just in time they realize that the human-shaped fungi are all that remains of previous visitors to the island. Our heroes manage to find the ship that carried those human visitors and repair it.
The main characters head out to sea, just barely escaping the horrific fate that befell the earlier expedition. +++
FOR TEN MORE EXAMPLES OF ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION CLICK HERE: https://glitternight.com/2014/03/03/ten-neglected-examples-of-ancient-science-fiction/
FOR WASHINGTON IRVING’S 1809 depiction of an invasion from the moon click here: https://glitternight.com/2014/05/05/ancient-science-fiction-the-men-of-the-moon-1809-by-washington-irving/
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Thanks for a review of this strange story. It does sound like that movie if you look at Imdb.
No problem! I agree, it sounds like it!
It’s gotta be the inspiration. Too many similarities.
I know what you mean.
HO-Leeeee CRAP! They certainly are similar!
You said it!
Have you ever read The Voice In The Night by William Hope Hodgson?..it predates both of these (written in 1907) and again tells a story of a shipwrecked couple who end up on a island where they find an abandoned vessel covered in a fungus. The fungus is also taking over most of the island..they soon realize the crew of the abandoned vessel have been absorbed by the fungus…they eventually give into their hunger and eat it, and suffer the expected effects.
A teleplay version was made in the 1950s.
Thank you for the heads-up! I never read that story but I love Hodgson’s Carnacki stories and The House on the Borderland. I will check out this story.