being "like the Hammer chillers of the 1950s and 1960s, it has all the ingredients but little of the mood required. One is often repelled by the film, but rarely convinced by it." Everson felt that Laughton gave a marvelous performance but that "he rarely suggests anything much worse than a medically curious Captain Hook." Everson also commented positively on the visuals, specifically noting the crane shots and that Lugosi gave "a surprisingly good performance." A review in Phil Hardy's book Science Fiction (1984) declared the film to be "a superior adaptation" of Wells' novel, praising Laughton and the cinematography of Struss. In the book The Variety Book of Movie Lists (1994), director Joe Dante included Island of Lost Souls in his list of "Best Horror Films", while author Robert Bloch, author of Psycho (1959) included it on his list of Best Science Fiction and Fantasy films. Bloch commented earlier in the book The Horror People (1976), noting that "against the context of its time, [Island of Lost Souls] was a most unusual and daring film." In the November 1996 issue of Shivers, the magazine published their list of Best horror films. Island of Lost Souls placed at number 13 on their list. Contributor David J. Hogan found the film to be "surely the most upsetting Horror film of the 30s, and perhaps of all time." Kim Newman reviewed the film in Empire in 2007, praising Laughton performance and declaring it was "often imitated, this exercise in surreal dementia has never been matched" and "remains a neatly disturbing horror with a definitive ending." In the June 2012 issue of Sight & Sound, Michael Atkinson proclaimed the film to be "arguably the most disquieting and subtextually exploring of the 1930s Hollywood gout of horror adaptations" and that it "no bigger compliment can be made to it than to say that the thematic ickiness of the film is intensified by its early-talkie mood and aura." Atkinson concluded that the film "remains by far the best Moreau film (and maybe the best Wells adaptation ever), capturing vividly the sense of the book’s ominous denouement." Legacy In 1935, Screenland magazine interviewed H. G. Wells, who stated the film was "terrible!" and that his story was "handled miserably. With all respect to Charles Laughton, who is a splendid actor, and others concerned in the making of this moving picture, ...I must say that it was