Island of Lost Souls (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray] Reviews

Upon its initial release, the movie was a dud, and its top-billed star was unhappy making it and uncomfortable discussing it years after the fact. Yet, Erle C. Kenton’s Island of Lost Souls continues to haunt to this day with its reputation gaining stature with each passing year. Made at a time in Hollywood when all of the major studios were experimenting with horror films in the hope of matching the success Universal was having with them, Island of Lost Souls won few fans then and was outright banned in more than a few countries. Now, the thrills that the movie offers can be better appreciated without the onslaught of the Legion of Decency or the Production Code officials sneering in disdain at its subject matter (animal vivisection), and, in its own way, it’s oddly touching and more than a little melancholy to watch the film thinking humanistically about the sad souls struggling for their own voices and feelings.

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