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What makes this one very interesting to me is that it's hard to categorize. In fact most of Lewton's films are (it's a shame he died so young). Even though Lewton was a mere producer he co-wrote this one along with the two other Karloff film. The writing is where these Lewton films excel. This one starts off as a war movie, then moves to what appears as a horror film when they land on the island (an island cemetery - not too hard to imagine for Greece). Then it becomes a psychological mystery followed closely by what seems to be a vampire movie - but then it changes to what appears to be a faith vs science story. Finally, it becomes full fledged horror but surprisingly it's non-fantastical. The movie is firmly based on the real world. It keeps changing gears so that you never know what to expect - some viewers will be put off by this since it doesn't follow the rules of the majority of films. The drama is not overly exciting until we approach the end - everything is very low key, again some viewers may not appreciate this. Karloff gives a good performance - no one else stands out really but the writing is excellent and the actors are propped up by it. Finally, I have to say that some of the scenes in the vault were very creepy even by modern standards - reminded me of some of David Lynch's films.
score 8/10
Yxklyx 3 October 2006
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1488995/ |
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29-3-2021 04:51:06