Good movie but grossly overrated

Expected more

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Val Lewton produced horror films that were as different from the "Universal" ones as could be.His brand of horror film relied more upon mood, atmosphere and suggestion. Most of the time, there wasn't much in the way of monsters."Isle of the Dead" is a case in point. The plot centres on Greece, pre First World War. The country is gripped by a plague that is gripping the entire country. A remote island is reputed to contain a vampire and a group of people are stranded on this island Gripping stuff, albeit at a more leisurely pace.

It has often been said in Film Analysis that during WWII Hollywood mostly Stayed Away from "Death" or Morbidity in Movies because "Real" Death by the Multitudes was Occurring in such Frequency that Audiences wanted to Escape the Dread and be Entertained Away from the Overwhelming Occurrences that Resulted from the War. In Short Horror Movies were "Out of favor" because of the Real Life Horror of Global War.But Val Lewton's Movies made During the War were Certainly an Exception to that bit of Philosophical Observation. Death, Dread, and Gloom were Key to the Melodramatic Movies Spun out of the Lewton Loom Regularly and Routinely. Perhaps None so Much as this One.From the First Scene (actually set during a War), the Movie Introduces Death in the form of a Disgraced Military Officer and His Suicidal Surrender to His Superiors and that's just the First Scene.Almost Every Character Dies and the Fear of Death Never Leaves the Frame. Boris Karloff Playing "The Watchdog" General and a War Correspondent Traverse the Battlefield early on in a Surreal Scene of piled up Bodies amidst the literal Fog of the War. This Sets the Terrifying Tone and the Film Never Abandons the Death Linger for One Frame.There is Plague ("Following War") and Immunity is Absent. Add to that bit of Reality, Superstition, Myth, and Folklore and You have a Creepy, Suspenseful Scenario that is Haunting, Frightening, and Forever Foreboding. In this very Powerful Picture it is Relentless in its Eerie Situation of Trapped People with Different Beliefs that Fight off the Resulting Reclamation of Bodies and Souls.Overall, an almost Unbearable and Downbeat affair. Even more so than Usual for Lewton and Team. Certain Folks can Appreciate the Atrophied Atmosphere of Constant, Claustrophobic Calamity but other more Sensitive Types might Find this Fine Film just too Demanding and Dreadful. Recommended for those That Can Take It.

I am a big fan of classic horror cinema and I've been working through the entries in the magnificent book HIDDEN HORROR which spotlights "underappreciated" horror films from every era. This movie was one of those recommended in that book. I will admit, right off the bat, that I'm not as big a fan of Val Lewton's movies as other classic horror junkies. I would say my favorite of his work is I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE, but in general I prefer just a little more action in my movies. I can enjoy a slow burn, or a movie built on atmosphere, certainly, but I prefer the action of a Universal monster movie over the understated chills of Lewton's work at RKO.I say all of that to confirm that this movie had much the same effect on me as many of the other Lewton works that I've seen, namely, it was okay. Nothing special and nothing that I would go out of my way to view again. It's relentlessly bleak. Almost like Lewton making a film version of a Camus novel. While many of Lewton's movies revolved around the specter of death, this one just brings death forth and makes it a central character. Death is everywhere in this movie as the plague invades a small Greek island.The real main character is Karloff as a brutal Greek general. The story revolves around him, mainly, and the war between science and superstition, created at a time when many of the old world superstitions still lingered around some.The movie definitely gets more chilling towards the end and utilizes some film techniques and camera angles that were well-done for the time the movie was created. They bring things to a satisfying conclusion, but by that point in the movie, I had already lost a good deal of my interest.The question you should ask yourself is how deep into classic horror cinema are you? If you've seen all of the most famous ones and you're looking for something new, this is worth the shot, but there are many classic films that would rank higher than this for the new initiate to classic horror or the Karloff filmography.

The history of the American horror film in the 1940s can practically be summarized with two words: "Universal" and "Lewton." Throughout that decade, megastudio Universal pleased audiences with a steady stream of films dealing with Frankenstein, the Invisible Man, the Mummy and the Wolfman, culminating with the finest horror comedy ever made, 1948's "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein." Meanwhile, over at RKO, producer Val Lewton was taking a wholly different tack, and between the years 1942 and '46, brought to the screen no less than nine wonderful, literate, intelligent and highly atmospheric horror outings. Those films--"Cat People," "I Walked With a Zombie," "The Leopard Man," "The Seventh Victim," "The Ghost Ship," "The Curse of the Cat People" (hardly a sequel!), "The Body Snatcher," "Isle of the Dead" and "Bedlam"--all depended more on mood, striking photography, sound effects and the power of suggestion, rather than monsters, to work their magic, and, needless to say, all hold up wonderfully well today. Perhaps not as popular as some of the others, "Isle of the Dead" has long been a favorite of this viewer. I have seen it more, certainly, than any of the other Lewton pictures, and indeed have been captivated by this little chiller ever since I was 11 (a loooooooong time ago!).In the film, the great Boris Karloff plays Gen. Pherides, a Greek (!) soldier during the First Balkan War in 1912. (Not that it matters for an enjoyment of the film, but this was the war in which Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia and Montenegro bested the Ottoman Empire, leading to the birth of Albania.) Pherides travels to a desolate island off the Greek coast, accompanied by an American reporter, to visit his wife's grave, and is self-quarantined when septicemic plague attacks the small group that has gathered there: a Swiss archaeologist, a British consul ("Batman"'s Alan Napier) and his invalid wife (Katherine Emery), their gypsy servant Thea (pretty Ellen Drew), a British salesman and an "old woman" (played by the attractive, middle-aged Helene Thimig, who was only 56 years old when she essayed this role). Things grow desperate as the island inmates start to die off, one by one, "Ten Little Indians" style, and become positively macabre when the old woman, Madame Kyra, gets it into her head that Thea is no less a legendary figure than the "vorvolaka," a kind of soul-sucking demon. And when the consul's wife, only seemingly dead with catalepsy, is entombed and later reawakens, now a homicidal madwoman, things go from very bad to even worse....Anyway, when my cousin Richie and I first saw this film after day camp decades ago, on TV's 4:30 movie at age 11, we were blown away by it, and no wonder! The film features very fine acting by all, including yet another splendid performance from Karloff (who would also appear in "The Body Snatcher" and "Bedlam"); expert direction from Mark Robson (who had previously helmed "The Seventh Victim" and "The Ghost Ship" and who would go on to direct Karloff in "Bedlam"); a memorable island that seems to be half cemetery (inspired by Swiss artist Arnold Bocklin's 1886 painting "Isle of the Dead"); a sombre and morose score by Leigh Harline; and no less than three absolutely stunning sequences. (Strangely enough, Karloff does not figure in any of these three scenes!) In the first, Thea sits with her seemingly dying mistress, while Madame Kyra taunts her with hissing words from outside a locked door: "I have twisted rose briar before your door. The thorns that pierced His brow will tear your flesh, evil one. I have put salt in the fire and a cross of ashes on the door. Vorvolaka, vorvolaka! Vorvolaka, born of evil, sinful and corrupt, your hands are bloody with violence, your mouth bitter with the taste of sin and corruption. You are guilty and abhorred, vorvolaka...." Trust me, it is one chilling sequence, indeed! In the second, the camera slowly zooms in on the coffin of the consul's wife, until suddenly...one truly horrible scream erupts from within! And in the third, that same woman, now driven insane by her premature burial, flits through the night in her flowing, white burial garments, wraithlike, while the wind whispers, a bird screeches, and Thea searches for her through the gloom. Offhand, I cannot recall a more chillingly atmospheric sequence in any 1940s horror film, unless it is perhaps Jane Randolph's midnight swimming pool experience in "Cat People," or perhaps the remarkable nighttime stroll that Frances Dee and Christine Gordon take through the soughing cane fields in "I Walked With a Zombie." Clocking in at a mere 72 minutes, "Isle of the Dead" is a remarkably compact affair, with nary a wasted word or scene. As a little kid, I appreciated its ghoulish atmosphere, and for years afterward would taunt my buddy Rich with cries of "Vorvolaka!" As an adult, I can still appreciate the film's wonderfully creepy miasma, but have come to the realization that the picture is a genuine work of cinematic art. While "Isle of the Dead"'s original poster hyperbolically proclaimed that it "Will Keep You Screaming," it is no exaggeration to say, I feel, that the film will surely keep you stunned....