Matthew B
Isle of the Dead is a vampire movie which possibly does not contain a vampire in it. I say ‘possibly' because the story is ambiguous and perhaps a little muddled, leaving room for doubt at the end.
The horror movies produced by Val Lewton traded in this uncertainty and ambiguity. Very little was shown on screen; the scripts were underwritten; the running time of the movies was short. These methods kept the budget down on the movies, whilst leaving much to the audience's imagination. We are invited to consider for ourselves what is really going on, and whether events have a rational or a supernatural explanation.
Sadly this was the penultimate movie that Lewton made for RKO, and the strain was already showing. Lewton was obliged to resist attempts to go for outright scares in the movie, a sign that the age of suggestive horror movies was drawing to a close.
The action follows General Pherides (Boris Karloff). Pherides is a ruthless old soldier and a fanatical patriot. Against the protests of a humane American reporter, Oliver Davis (Marc Cramer), he forces a soldier to commit suicide for the failure of his own men, even though the officer was his friend.
While his men clear away bodies to prevent an outbreak of the plague that is following the soldiers, Pherides and Davis decide to visit the Isle of the Dead, which contains the resting place of Pherides' wife. The two men decide to stay there overnight, but this proves to be an unfortunate choice.
By morning one of the guests has died from the plague, and the General realises that neither he nor the other guests can be allowed to leave the isle for fear of spreading infection. The remainder of the movie is spent watching as more of the trapped people succumb to plague, and supernatural explanations are offered for its cause.
long the way, the script mixes in a whole variety of ideas and influences in an almost unconscious manner. The film takes in the famous Arnold Böcklin picture called Isle of the Dead glimpsed during the opening credits, and the music owes a debt to Rachmaninov's symphonic poem of the same name.
Throw in elements from Sheridan le Fanu's Gothic novel, Carmilla, Greek mythology, and Edgar Allan Poe's short story, The Premature Burial, and the film offers us a rich mix of ideas that are left teasingly underdeveloped in a way that is somehow more satisfying than if they had been fully explored.
My only wish is that the movie had been made by a more talented director such as Jacques Tourneur, who might have been able to impose a better pace and more coherence on the story than Mark Robson. However, even as it stands, Isle of the Dead is a fascinating late Lewton work.
I wrote a longer appreciation of Isle of the Dead on my blog page if you would like to read more: https://themoviescreenscene.wordpress.com/2018/03/08/isle-of-the-dead-1945/
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
08/25/23
Full Review
Deke P
Karloff as I've never seen him before. Looking like a regular human, a General. Warnig others about vampires. And a black plague pandemic.
Never heardo til on TV 2-25-2023
Givin it a 3 1/2 RT stars, good - rec
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
03/01/23
Full Review
Audience Member
LOL, the funniest Ellen Drew movie ever made!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
01/28/23
Full Review
Audience Member
The 1945 horror film Isle of the Dead, from director Mark Robson and auteur producer Val Lewton, makes for a peculiar viewing experience in era of the COVID-19 pandemic. The story concerns a group of people quarantined on a small island after one of them dies suddenly of the plague. Making their situation even more tense, is the growing suspicion that one of them may be a vorvolaka, a mythic vampire-like creature that feeds on the living.
The story takes place in Greece during the war of 1912. Boris Karloff stars as General Pherides, a stern, cold, even tyrannical general referred to as the "Watchdog" of his country. In the opening scene we see him sentence a subordinate to death by suicide for letting his troops lag behind. An American reporter, Davis (Marc Cramer), accompanies Pherides to an island cemetery to visit the tomb of his long dead wife. Mysterious singing leads them to the house of an archeologist, Dr. Aubrecht (Jason Robards, Sr.), and his guests, including the ailing Mrs. St. Aubyn (Katherine Emery) and her young travelling companion, Thea (Ellen Drew). Kyra, the superstitious housekeeper, believes they are the victims not of a plague but of a vorvolaka and that Thea is the mythic, life draining creature. One of the guests dies suddenly that night. Dr. Drossos diagnosis the cause as septicemic plague (the most lethal form of the plague/Black Death) and General Pherides orders a quarantine.
Almost everyone in the group thinks that the General's quarantine order (which includes forbidding gatherings of more than two people) is an overreaction. They challenge him, claiming they do not have to follow his orders since they are civilians. Dr. Drossos says when the warm south winds come, the fleas carrying the plague will die and they will be safe to leave the island. The archeologist is overly skeptical, saying that the doctor's claims sound as ridiculous as old superstitions. He even lights a fire to the old gods he says will be as effective as the quarantine. General Pherides believes in the law, science, and medicine but as the plague spreads and people die, including Dr. Drossos, he begins to believe science has failed. The persistent claims from Kyra about a vorvolaka consume his mind until he too targets Thea as the cause of the plague.
From 1945 until the COVID-19 pandemic, Isle of the Dead surely played differently. The film's sympathy is on the side of the characters who think the General's quarantine and ban on gatherings are an overreaction and unnecessary. When the General stops Thea from escaping the island, it is meant to show his cruelty. Watching this film now, the most tense and anxious moments came from characters ignoring the General's orders, which he made according to medical advice. In 1945, Isle of the Dead was a film about how the right situation can lead to a single person seizing control and becoming mad with power. It is still about that, to be sure, but in 2021 it is also about how an event like an epidemic spurs different reactions, including dangerous ones. In both views of the film, General Pherides is an unsympathetic man who loses his mind and goes from trying to protect people to trying to kill the same people. He is also a man that becomes dangerous as he loses confidence in science and medicine and gives into superstition.
Isle of the Dead falls into the second tier of the series of low budget horror films Val Lewton produced for RKO in the 1940's. The horror classics Cat People (1942) and I Walked With a Zombie (1943) are firmly in the top tier. Those films partnered Lewton with director Jacques Tourneur, who made use of eerie imagery to emphasize the fear felt by the characters. Director Mark Robson does a fine job at the helm of Isle of the Dead but lacks the stylistic touches and eye for eerie imagery that made the previous Tourneur/Lewton films great. For a film set on an island cemetery there is a disappointing lack of creepy or eerie imagery depriving the film of a richer atmosphere. Despite these flaws Isle of the Dead is still an intriguing, low key horror movie and an interesting one to watch during a pandemic.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/27/23
Full Review
dave s
Anybody who sits down to watch Isle of the Dead expecting it to be a horror movie is going to be sorely disappointed. Despite being marketed as a horror film and despite the fact that the tagline is "Isle of the Dead will keep you screaming" and despite the fact that it features horror star Boris Karloff and despite the creepy title, it's not really a horror film. Thanks to some nice black and white cinematography, effective mood lighting, and decent sound effects, the story of a small group of people trapped on a plague-ravaged remote island establishes a genuinely creepy atmosphere of dread and impending doom. And could it be any more timely considering the current state of affairs around the world?
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
03/30/23
Full Review
Audience Member
So, we have a movie with a fear of spreading a plague, lots of hand washing, and a prohibition against skin to skin contact which is not adhered to. 2020? No, 1945. Amazing film, and not just for the echoes into our day.
ISLE OF THE DEAD is a horror movie, but not of the likes of modern gorefests. Slow impending doom, atmospheric sets, cinematography, and a stellar performance from Boris Karloff makes this a very fine movie.
1912. A hardass Greek general (Karloff) finds himself on a cemetery island with the requisite assortment of odd characters, the plague, maybe a vorvolaka (Greek evil undead creature, a vampire for the purposes of the movie) and definitely the fears that all humans are prey to.
There is a plot hole, but in terms of the narrative, that's what gets the real horror going.
Produced by the great Val Newton, directed by Mark Robson, released by RKO, it is a very good movie and well worth your time.
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
01/31/23
Full Review
Read all reviews
>
