During the Balkan Wars of 1912, a sadistic general is quarantined along with several others on a small Grecian mortuary island due to an outbreak of plague. However, thanks to the whisperings of a superstitious native, he begins to believe that it is not the illness which is decimating the members of his party, but a vampiric demon known as the vorvolaka.

“A little less conversation, a little more action please.”
~ Elvis

I’ve never understood the total abject worship of Val Lewton’s films. While I can see how some people could consider the work he produced to be subtle and dignified, they always struck me as listless, stodgy things that just lie on the screen, not doing anything, just being there. I realize that talk is cheap, and Lewton wasn’t working with blockbuster size budgets, but jeeze! The guy seemed to adore gray talky scenes were no one moved!

The setup here is excellent. Karloff as a cruel and arrogant General is picture perfect. (Well of course he is, he’s Boris Karloff. Frankly I’ve never seen him give a bad performance). The other actors are a mixed bag, some are well-cast, others are terribly corny. (Don’t get me started on the “English” scrap metal dealer) Just a side note, it puzzled me why they kept referring to a lady who looked to be about 43 as “the old woman”.

The opening scene, involving a lovely scrolling view of the pestilence, misery and death brought by war, is nicely done, and a subplot involving the desecration of the tomb of Karloff’s wife gets you ready for some major goose-bumps.

And then, it never delivers.

How the hell you can make a film about a small group of isolated people who may or may not be at the mercy of a demonic creature so interminably dull is beyond me! It’s as if John Carpenter’s ‘The Thing’ had consisted of endless tepid conversations held on one of four dreary sets.

But I don’t want to beat up on this movie all that much. Aside from the fact that snooty horror fans will probably try to have me killed, this really isn’t a bad movie per se, it’s just that nothing ever seems to happen. Until the finale, that is. Yes, even I’ll admit, the ending is terribly effective and eerie, even if it is just an Edgar Allen Poe rip-off.

In fact, every scene in this film that works, works really well. Too bad they add up to about 5 net minutes of creeps in a 71 minute movie.