Death casts a large shadow in all of
Val Lewton's RKO horror productions, but never larger than in Isle
of the Dead. Characters drop like flies as both science and
superstition prove inept against the advances of the Grim Reaper in
this foreboding tale set amid war, disease and encroaching madness.
Perhaps the most flawed of Lewton's
chillers, this is also one of his most memorable and, in its
climactic moments, the most outright frightening. The story was
inspired by Lewton's fascination with Arnold Böcklin's painting
of the same name, which can be seen under the opening credits and
represented in the background as a Greek general (Boris Karloff) and
American war correspondent (Marc Cramer) approach a small island
where the general's wife is buried.(read more...)
