Click here to copy URL

Island of Lost Souls

1932

Erle C. Kenton

Charles Laughton, Bela Lugosi, Richard Arlen, Leila Hyams ...

6.8

1,276

Horror. Sci-Fi. Fantasy. Adventure An obsessed scientist conducts profane experiments in evolution, eventually establishing himself as the self-styled demigod to a race of mutated, half-human abominations.

	Author	Review
United States	Michael Sragow The New Yorker	"A tight, gruesome shocker, featuring Karl Struss's spooky cinematography and Charles Laughton's creepy portrayal of the mad vivisector Dr. Moreau"	POS
United Kingdom	Ian Nathan Empire	"This may have been made (and banned) in the 1930s, but it remains a neatly disturbing horror with a definitive ending. (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	Keith Phipps AV Club	"'Island Of Lost Souls' is a horror film based on the premise that the divide between humanity and the animal world is one that should never be crossed, but also one that's impossible to determine."	POS
United States	Variety Staff Variety	"While the action is not designed to appeal to other than the credulous, there are undoubtedly some horror sequences which are unrivaled."	POS
United States	Dave Kehr Chicago Tribune	"It's a grand, hokey chiller, dripping with sex and sadism and photographed in dense, Sternbergian shadows by the great cinematographer Karl Struss."	POS
United Kingdom	Alan Jones Radio Times	"The first, and best, version of HG Wells's provocative fantasy 'The Island of Dr Moreau'"	POS
United Kingdom	Tom Milne Time Out	"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."	POS
United States	Mordaunt Hall The New York Times	"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."	POS

Return to movie

We encourage you to check the reviews' original sources. Intellectual property rights of these reviews belong to their authors and/or the correspondent media from which they have been extracted. If you'd like to help us to add more reviews to your favorite movies, just send us a message.