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No consensus yet.
All Critics (18) | Top Critics (4) | Fresh (15) | Rotten (3) | DVD (1)
Settings are inexpensive but sufficient for the needs. Production values, in general, however, aid materially in making this picture a winner. Nov 14, 2007 | Full Review…
Settings are inexpensive but sufficient for the needs. Production values, in general, however, aid materially in making this picture a winner.
Variety Staff
The film accelerates to great effect towards the end. Jun 24, 2006 | Full Review…
The film accelerates to great effect towards the end.
Even though this film is taken from a modest stage play of a few seasons back, its humors are as stale and mechanical as those of the oldest such farce. Mar 25, 2006 | Rating: 2/5 | Full Review…
Even though this film is taken from a modest stage play of a few seasons back, its humors are as stale and mechanical as those of the oldest such farce.
Bosley Crowther
One of the lesser products of Val Lewton's years as the head of RKO's horror-film unit. Jan 1, 2000 | Full Review…
One of the lesser products of Val Lewton's years as the head of RKO's horror-film unit.
Dave Kehr
As much as it's a movie about grisly killings, The Body Snatcher is also a movie about class. Apr 17, 2019 | Full Review…
As much as it's a movie about grisly killings, The Body Snatcher is also a movie about class.
David Bax
Karloff's nothing short of commanding in an unexpectedly complex role. Mar 29, 2019 | Rating: 3.5/4 | Full Review…
Karloff's nothing short of commanding in an unexpectedly complex role.
Matt Brunson
A strong, well above-average effort in almost every way, there's no evidence at all that Lewton's first brush with money and success dulled his instincts. Oct 28, 2012 | Rating: 8/10 | Full Review…
A strong, well above-average effort in almost every way, there's no evidence at all that Lewton's first brush with money and success dulled his instincts.
Tim Brayton
Researchers and healers are closer to the subjects on the autopsy slab than to their living patients in this acerbic chimera of shadow and sacrifice May 19, 2010 | Full Review…
Researchers and healers are closer to the subjects on the autopsy slab than to their living patients in this acerbic chimera of shadow and sacrifice
Fernando F. Croce
there's a fascination with the ultimate futility of ever being something beyond opportunistic and solipsistic. Oct 22, 2009 | Rating: 3.5/4 | Full Review…
there's a fascination with the ultimate futility of ever being something beyond opportunistic and solipsistic.
Walter Chaw
Too stuck on being literate to be a great movie ... . Jul 25, 2008 | Rating: B | Full Review…
Too stuck on being literate to be a great movie ... .
Dennis Schwartz
The first and best of the three Val Lewton-Boris Karloff collaborations for RKO. Nov 14, 2007 | Rating: 3.5/4 | Full Review…
The first and best of the three Val Lewton-Boris Karloff collaborations for RKO.
This is the most elegant and leisurely of the Val Lewton horror films, up until the whopper of an ending. Sep 18, 2005 | Rating: 3/4 | Full Review…
This is the most elegant and leisurely of the Val Lewton horror films, up until the whopper of an ending.
Jeffrey M. Anderson
A pretty interesting little flick that ends extremely well. Odd seeing Bela Lugosi in such a tiny role, but also it's nice to see Boris Karloff being so evil and relishing it.
Super Reviewer
My favourite corpse snatching movie, it stars both Karloff and Lugosi, how could you not like it? It's exciting and creepy.
One of many from Val Lewton's stable of low budget horror masterpieces, a young Robert Wise masterfully directs Robert Louis Stevenson's tale of a doctor willing to cross the line in search of knowledge and the man who torments him. The Body Snatcher is proof positive that Boris Karloff was a great actor as any scene he's in legitimately has the ability to make your skin crawl. Don't get too excited about Bela Lugosi's (I'm pretty sure he's supposed to be a retarded Spaniard) role as he's got very little screen time but his final scene with Karloff is superb. Wise does so much with so little and that final carriage scene came close to freaking me out.
Sinister goings on in 19th century Edinburrow as a young medical student, presumably on exchange from America, is initiated into the art of grave robbing. Based on a short story by Robert Louis Stevenson and directed by Robert Wise, The Body Snatcher is not actually one of the better Val Lewton horror movies. The atmosphere is potent enough but the story doesn't really catch fire until the very end and, for such a short film, it tends to drag. Henry Daniell and Boris Karloff, as an anatomist and his resurrectionist respectively, are terrific; Bela Lugosi, on the other hand, is such a waste of space I'd forgotten he was even in the picture.
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