I’m a big fan of Val Lewton’s atmospheric chillers. Of course, he did his best work with the great Jacques Tourneur, but there’s still some gems to found outside of that collaboration. Robert Wise\/Boris Karloff film ‘The Body Snatcher’ is a good example of that; but unfortunately, this collaboration with Boris Karloff isn’t an entry in Lewton’s filmography that he can be proud of. Isle of the Dead suffers, basically, because for the most part it’s boring. Unlike earlier and later efforts from Val Lewton, this one doesn’t do a very good job in setting itself up; the characters are introduced and some ideas are put forward, but it’s not done with any conviction and so the result is dull and dreary. Take ‘Cat People’, for example. That film gave it’s premise and the rest of the film drew you into it until the climax. Isle of the Dead doesn’t do that, and instead we’re basically given a premise and the rest of the movie features the characters festering in it. It really doesn’t make for very compelling viewing.<\/p>\n
This movie is of note for featuring a great performance from the legendary Boris Karloff. As usual, Karloff is creepy and malevolent, and yet very real at the same time. Even in a rather dull movie, Karloff can deliver a great performance; and that’s what he does here. Director Mark Robson doesn’t live up to the high standard set by the likes of Robert Wise and indeed Jacques Tourneur and the film never breathes that foreboding atmosphere that you could cut with a knife that Val Lewton’s chillers are famous for capturing. The fact that nearly the entire piece is set on a Greek island, cut off from civilisation gives a stark impression of claustrophobia, but anyone that compares this film to the likes of ‘I Walked With a Zombie’ and ‘The Body Snatcher’ will find that it hardly does as good a job as the exhibition of atmosphere that is those films. The film never truly manages to get inside it’s characters heads either, and this holds it back greatly as that’s what psychological thrillers are meant to do.<\/p>\n
At least the film ends on a high, but the ending is really my only reason to recommend the film. I would suggest seeing some other films that Val Lewton produced before seeing this one, and giving this a go if you enjoy those films.