I recently came across two items that made me give new attention to Island of Lost Souls (1932). The first was a commentary on the film that involved John Landis, Rick Baker, and Bob Burns. Their discussion makes for an interesting take on a neglected classic horror film. The second was a series of news items that circulated and reported on current scientific experiments where animal-human hybrid embryos have been created in the search for the cure of disease. See NPR’s reporting on this here. UPDATE: The Huffington Post has an interesting podcast discussing this in “The Island of Dr. Moreau for Real.” The idea of these hybrid experiments immediately brought to mind a line from Island of Lost Souls uttered by one of Dr. Moreau’s creatures played by Bela Lugosi:
Dr. Moreau:
Have you forgotten the house of pain?
Sayer of the Law:
You! You made us in the house of pain! You made us… things! Not men! Not beasts! Part man… part beast! Things!
It is frightening when life imitates art in this fashion. But it provides interested readers with an opportunity to watch Island of Lost Souls, available for free on YouTube.
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