Quarantine

Isle of the Dead

(1945)

This is ridiculous: I've had this Val Lewton box set since at least 2007, yet until tonight there were still 3 features and the documentary on the producer that remained unwatched; Halloween weekend is the time to fix that.

Again, Lewton's favorite theme: sexy young woman (Ellen Drew) who isn't sure herself whether she's the evil supernatural creature the circumstantial evidence suggests she might be. Here superstition and prejudice, in the person of Madame Kyra (Helen Thimig) abetted by General Pherides (Boris Karloff)--oh, did I mention that the film is set in 1912, during the First Balkan War, for no particular reason?--conspire with medical and psychological pathology to make it seem all too plausible that Thea is a vampirish vorvolaka.

It's no Cat People, but it's not bad, with a particularly creepy live burial sequence.