Horror Extreme Movie Catalog

Exceeded my expectations....cheaper than had I purchased on eBay! I am delighted as I had been looking for this item for quite a long time!

[This review is part of my 31 Days of Halloween series]

I'm focusing on ISLE OF THE DEAD, but also recommend the companion DVD BEDLAM.

Producer Val Lewton got the theme & title for this little horror gem from Arnold Böcklin's (1827-1901) painting with the same name. In the painting there are two figures in a small boat just off shore from a rather dank & weedy looking island. One figure is standing, obscured head to foot by a shroud like cloak. The other figure is seated, also indiscernible and presumably rowing. The kicker is that you can't tell if the standing figure is looking toward or away from the island, just as you can't tell if the boat is moving to the island or away from it. There is an almost overwhelming sense of stagnation. The more you study the painting, the more disturbing it seems to become.

The movie takes place in Greece during a terrible war with carnage all around. Karloff (in an outstanding performance) plays a war weary General who has become desensitized to death & dying & handing out commands to kill & destroy. Cholera (well, I think it's cholera) is scourging the countryside & Karloff goes to the island to enforce quarantine on its few inhabitants residing at an inn. The people include an affable Doctor, an invalid woman & her young & beautiful attendant, an elderly housekeeper, and several others.

Apparently the invalid is suffering from catalepsy & dreads being buried alive (I've explored this condition in PREMATURE BURIAL & THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER.) The Doctor & Karloff discuss the ramifications of death being ever present & so near to them. The General reveals himself to be a hard-boiled materialist, a total nonbeliever. The Doctor on the other hand decides to make an experiment of their predicament. He will attempt to invoke the ancient gods to protect them from disease. Incidentally a triple headed dog relic suggests that the island was once the worship place of the goddess Hekate, a deity of black magic.

The other plotline involves the worsening condition of the lady & the growing suspicion of the elderly housekeeper that the beautiful attendant is a vampire, draining her mistress of the life force.

With a set-up like this frightening things are bound to happen-and they do.

ISLE OF THE DEAD is slowly paced, the intellectual issues & the elements of terror carefully presented & explored.

No sex or sleaze, just a good horror flick.