One of Val Lewton's best horror movie
Scary, fascinating tale set in 1912 Greece. A bunch of people are quarantined on an island (which contains a graveyard) by the plague. A general (Boris Karloff) is in charge, but people dying from the plague, the isolation and close quarters begin to eat away at him. He starts to believe a young, healthy woman among them is a vorvolaka (a vampire). And there's the woman who has an extreme fear of being buried alive...Quick paced and very literate horror film. There's lots of dialogue about faith, wars, superstition--all of it interesting. The settings are very dark, eerie with a spooky wind always blowing. There are scary moments throughout but they really shift into high gear during the final 15 minutes.
This movie gave me nightmares when I was little! The cast is adequate (except for Jason Robards Sr.--boy, was he annoying!) but Karloff and Katherine Emery were excellent.
Truly frightening old horror film. A definite must-see.
score 10/10
preppy-3 12 November 2002
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw0032566/35445
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