Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Boris Karloff Double Feature

I watched a Boris Karloff double feature over the weekend. Isle of the Dead (1945) is a tale of a modern man struggling against the ancient superstitions that were ingrained in him during his childhood. Tension runs high on the plague-infested island of his nightmares.



Bedlam (1946) is a combination of horror movie and morality play. It seems ripe for a remake as the story of a young woman who leaves the life of privilege she struggled so hard to attain to fight for better treatment of the mentally ill in the 18th Century. They could skip the horror-style poetic justice, but then it would just be a thriller or maybe a gritty version of the feel-good movie.

Both films deal with the classic horror theme of live internment. To better understand this fear, especially in the time when these films were set, and possible enrich your viewing, read Buried Alive by Jan Bondeson.

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