IMDb plot summary: A mad doctor conducts ghastly genetic experiments on a remote island in the South Seas, much to the fear and disgust of the shipwrecked sailor who finds himself trapped there.
Directed by Erle C. Kenton. Starring Charles Laughton, Bela Lugosi, Richard Arlen, and Leila Hyams.
While there are certainly dated elements to this film, I was pleased with how well it held up for me overall. Laughton does a lot of the heavy lifting here, coming across as the perfect mad scientist, so convinced in his own rightness that it’s hard to imagine anyone moving him out of the way. I find it very satisfying that the titular “lost souls,” the animals that have been speed-evolved into something more human, gain their moments of agency at the end, even if the film is still a little wobbly on whether or not they should TRULY count as human. This is a movie of its time but an intriguing one.
How it entered my Flickchart:
Island of Lost Souls > Monsters
Island of Lost Souls < Jack Goes Boating
Island of Lost Souls < Fantasia 2000
Island of Lost Souls > Real Life
Island of Lost Souls > Ant-Man
Island of Lost Souls > Ben-Hur (1959)
Island of Lost Souls < Moonlight
Island of Lost Souls > Hugo
Island of Lost Souls < I, Tonya
Island of Lost Souls < Sleeping Beauty
Island of Lost Souls < Velvet Buzzsaw
Island of Lost Souls < Spanglish
Final spot: #1336 out of 3457, or 61%.
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