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Poster for Island of Lost Souls

Island of Lost Souls

TERROR! Stalked the Brush-Choked Island...Where Men Who Were Animals Sought the Girl Who Was All-Human!

1932 · 1h 11m · Passed Horror, Science Fiction
Directed by Erle C. Kenton

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Overview

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

Director and cast

Critics on Rotten Tomatoes

Top critics, in their words

All reviews
88%
Tomatometer
Fresh

While the action is not designed to appeal to other than the credulous, there are undoubtedly some horror sequences which are unrivaled.

Variety Staff, Variety
Fresh

It's a grand, hokey chiller, dripping with sex and sadism and photographed in dense, Sternbergian shadows by the great cinematographer Karl Struss.

Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader
Fresh

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.

Geoff Andrew, Time Out
Fresh

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.

Mordaunt Hall, New York Times
Fresh

Laughton, as he managed to do in Devil and the Deep and The Sign of the Cross, gives the role of the villain a peculiarly horrifying quality by humanizing it far beyond the demands of the script.

TIME Magazine

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