***SPOILERS*** Owing much to Edgar Allan Poe (as do several of his "budget" pictures), Val Lewton's production of ISLE OF THE DEAD has it all: the fear of premature burial, the fear of contagion, the fear of the undead; the fear of madness... Center stage (which is exactly where he belonged all along) is Boris Karloff. Not for the final time does he steal the show in a Lewton production. Hardened by the horrors of war (including the plague that follows close on its heels), his character is driven to the brink of... Well, see for yourself. Suffice it to say that the "Lewton unit" strikes gold again. As absorbing (and as unique) as its predecessors, ISLE OF THE DEAD belongs among the first rank of fright films.