Greece, 1912. It must be pretty miserable to hear that a spreading plague necessitates strict confinement to your home; when one of your house-guests is Boris Karloff, that misery takes on a new dimension.'Isle of the Dead' is an RKO horror film, one of a series produced by Val Lewton. Whereas Universal had cornered the monster market, with increasingly exploitative meet-ups between Dracula, Frankenstein's monster and The Wolfman, Lewton specialised in less obvious, more psychological dramas. The horror here is more prevalent in what you don't see. Whereas 1942's 'Cat People' may be the most successful example of this approach, Lewton produced a hugely impressive body of work, among which this production stands tall.When the shadow of Gen. Nikolas Pherides (Karloff) falls across a scene, there is an instant atmosphere of jeopardy, of cruelty, disease and fear. Pherides has a reputation for cruel efficiency, and he brings this to his authority when dealing with the house-full of potential plague carriers, himself amongst their number.The stand-out scene for me is when Katherine Emery as Mrs. Mary St. Aubyn (Katherine Emery) falls into a cataleptic trance, is subsequently buried, and wakes screaming in her casket. We hear her fear and desperate scratching as the camera lingers on her incarcerated wooden tomb, the shadow of blowing branches fallen across it, relentless drip-dripping of the damp stonework upon it. The box splinters and is pushed open as the camera maddeningly pulls away to another scene. Her friend Thea (Ellen Drew) goes in search of the escapee in a perfect studio-set nightmare, her white nightdress blowing in the wind – St. Aubyn has seemingly been driven out of her mind by the experience and parades the house and its surrounding grounds like a vengeful ghost. No-one is safe it seems, especially Pherides, who, for all his sins emerges as a kind of misunderstood anti-hero … Melodramatic it may be, there's no denying the intensity brings with it a true spirit of dread.

Mark Robson directed this Val Lewton production starring Boris Karloff as Gen. Nikolas Pherides. The time is the war of 1912, General Pherides goes to an isolated Greek isle to visit the grave of his wife. His is dismayed to find it disturbed, and discovers that because of the plague, all bodies had to be dug up and burned. In fact, the isle is in quarantine, and now the General(as well as the visiting journalist who was interviewing him) are as well. A superstitious old woman believes that a young woman staying at the Inn with them is responsible. Is she right, or is it something else? Eerie and well acted film has good atmosphere but is awfully slow and lacking in action. Karloff makes the difference though, as he is excellent as usual, and makes up for the faults of pacing and story.

If I had to review this film using just one word, I would select "tedious". Which says a lot when the whole film lasts on 71 minutes! By 1945, Karloff had left his previous studio because he felt they were milking the "Frankenstein" concept to death. I'm not sure that RKO did him any favors with this film, although at least he's a normal person in this film. The story takes place on a Greek island during a war in 1912. Karloff plays a Greek general, who -- along with a reporter and several other people -- are quarantined for the plague. Why did they go to the island? To visit the general's wife's tomb...which they find open and robbed. But, I couldn't quite figure out what that had to do with the rest of the story. Ata ny rate, one of the women in the inn may be a vampiric demon, although that too is never quite established. Perhaps the most interesting part of the plot is that one of the other, and older, women at the inn has always had a fear of being buried alive...which of course, is just what happens when they think she had succumbed to the plague. To be honest, it's all pretty murky.Not recommended, unless you just want to see Karloff in a non-monster role.

Leaving his Frankenstein monster portrayal behind, Boris Karloff shows in this film that he can act and do a good job of it. He plays a Greek General trapped on an island with others fighting the plague.A young girl, Thea (Ellen Drew) is thought to be a vrykolaka, a harmful undead creature in Greek folklore, by an old peasant woman (Helen Thimig). It has similarities to many different legendary creatures, but is generally equated with the vampire of the folklore of the neighbouring Slavic countries. While the two are very similar, blood-drinking is only marginally associated with the vrykolakas.The tale is a mixture of folktale and virus, of medicine and miracles, of superstition and madness. Karloff carried the film with marginal assistance from the others. Worth a watch to see his acting.