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Critics Consensus: Led by a note-perfect performance from Charles Laughton, Island of Lost Souls remains the definitive film adaptation of its classic source material.
Critic Consensus: Led by a note-perfect performance from Charles Laughton, Island of Lost Souls remains the definitive film adaptation of its classic source material.
All Critics (27) | Top Critics (6) | Fresh (26) | Rotten (1) | DVD (2)
A tight, gruesome shocker, featuring Karl Struss's spooky cinematography and Charles Laughton's creepy portrayal of the mad vivisector Dr. Moreau ...
Laughton, as he managed to do in Devil and the Deep and The Sign of the Cross, gives the role of the villain a peculiarly horrifying quality by humanizing it far beyond the demands of the script.
While the action is not designed to appeal to other than the credulous, there are undoubtedly some horror sequences which are unrivaled.
It's a grand, hokey chiller, dripping with sex and sadism and photographed in dense, Sternbergian shadows by the great cinematographer Karl Struss.
Not a great success at the time, probably because its horror is more intellectual than graphic, this adaptation of HG Wells' The Island of Dr Moreau is nevertheless a remarkably powerful film.
Although the attempt to horrify is not accomplished with any marked degree of subtlety, there is no denying that some of the scenes are ingenously fashioned and are, therefore, interesting.
The lead character is sadly generic as hell, but thankfully everything that goes on around him is interesting and well shot. Highly recommended.
H.G. Wells' overstepping biologist Moreau pokes and prods at a very modernist anxiety: in the wake of Darwinism, has science opened the conventionally closed borders between the bestial, the human and the divine?
All in all, Island of Lost Souls works on every level; it rattles your nerves while you're watching it, and it haunts your dreams after it's over.
There's something legitimately sick and cold about it, a chill sweat of jungle malaria.
Wells' beastly allegorical satire, mounted by Erle C. Kenton as a pre-Code scald of the lunacy of colonial dominion
Kenton's best horror film.
The first and most fortunate adaptation of H.G. Wells' literary work. Released in the same year of Tod Browning's cult film "Freaks", also it does not shy away by showing very realistic and frightening make up effects, even if the former had real actors portraying the creatures, this picture is more elegant and elaborate. A brilliant Charles Laughton not only embodies the blindness and evil caused by hubris, but also humanizes his character.
Super Reviewer
love laughton and he is dead creepy here but the bad makeup effects really put me off. the movie was banned for years for it's suggestion of bestiality and it is indeed very strange. kind of like 'the most dangerous game' only with mutants
In the world of 1930s films, the pre-code era is looked upon as one of the greatest times for filmmaking. Hollywood hadn't cracked down on immoral thins being filmed. If anything was edited, it was usually sound clips that referenced God (the worst offending example was a horrific edit on the 1931 "Frankenstein" and the "IT'S ALIVE" speech) and other little things. But most scenes with disturbing themes and deaths made their way to theaters unscathed. "Island of Lost Souls" is one of those films that Hollywood left relatively untouched. "Lost Souls" is not really scary, not in the sense that when you watch it you'll leap out of your seat in terror. Instead, it is relentlessly creepy with some weird themes that haven't even been thoroughly examined in desensitized times (mainly the ethics of bestiality). The only moment that might be regarded as scary happens almost right at the end of the movie, and let me say, I did leap off of my couch and shriek "OH MY GOD." In total, this is an underrated gem from the pre-code era, and now Criterion has finally released it on DVD and Blu-Ray (prior to last year, the only way to watch the film was on LaserDisc or VHS), so check it out.
Hands down the best adaptation of the Island of Dr. Moreau. Now that's not saying a lot as the other adaptations are REALLY weak, but seeing Laughton and Lugosi work together is well worth the watch.
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