User reviews

I'd been searching for this movie for more than a year now.Hadn't seen it since the early 70's.Was just going to give in and buy a bootleg when lo and behold it aired on TCM.Taped it and settled in to give it a watch.

Critics tore this one up.Karloff was accused of "phoning in" his performance.Have to wonder what movie they were watching.The movie is low budget and the script admittedly is very weak but Boris is the saving grace for the film.He makes it worth watching.

What little plot there is involves a hotel magnate hiring Mr Knight(Karloff).Knight is a renowned hoax buster and he is to ferret out the secrets of an island that the hotel magnate wishes to build on.

The intrepid group runs into voodoo, man eating plants and nasty natives.Are they all doomed or will somebody survive to tell the tale?

Again this film was shot on the cheap (probably under $100000 with probably 25% of that going to Boris).There is a lot of talk and a little action.Just watch it for Boris, still capable at the age of 70 of carrying a film on his shoulders.

"Voodoo Island" was Boris Karloff's first American film in four years. Nearing his 70th birthday, good parts must have been hard to come by, given that the old Gothic style horror for which he became famous, was now not in vogue.

Hotel entrepreneur Howard Carlton (Owen Cunningham) is planning a new hotel/resort on a distant Pacific Island. A survey team that had been sent out earlier disappeared except for Mitchell (Glenn Dixon) who returned in a zombie like state. Carlton hires Philip Knight (Karloff) an investigative reporter to investigate the remote island where the disappearances occurred.

The expedition includes Knight, his assistant Sara Adams, Carlton's front man Barney Finch (Murvyn Vye), Claire Winter (Jean Engstrom), local resort manager Martin Schuler (Elisha Cook) and his assistant Matthew Gunn (Rhodes Reason). Knight also insists that Mitchell be brought along. Before they leave for the island, Mitchell mysteriously dies and a voodoo death warning is left.

When the expedition arrives at the "voodoo" island, strange things start to happen. First their boat breaks down and later they discover their food supply spoiled trapping them on the island all the while under the watchful eyes of mysterious natives. Then, while enjoying a swim Claire is killed by a flesh eating plant. The rest are captured by the natives. Schuler refuses to leave and later becomes a zombie as does Finch while watching two children play. Will the others escape?

Karloff is totally miscast as the fast talking "Gerardo" type investigative reporter. Although he does his best, he certainly deserved better. He would make two more films in 1958 and then disappear from the screen until 1963 when Roger Corman "rediscovered" him for "The Raven".

The cast spends most of the film trudging across the jungle island. We never see any so-called black magic and are left to wonder how the zombies are created. We do get to see some cheap looking dolls with pins in them though. This was obviously a film on a low budget. Most of it was shot outdoors and the special effects are cheaply done.

Strictly for the lower half of a double bill.

Given the fair warning so generously given me by others, I was prepared for the very worst but surprise, surprise...it wasn't all that bad, after all.

I can't say it was very compelling, true, but it wasn't "dreadfully boring" either, as it's been called. There were some cringe-inducing moments to be sure, particularly when Elisha Cook 'freaked out' towards the end - and I'm still not sure what function the older of the two ladies was supposed to be occupying within the group, but I did find the lesbian undertones (with good reason since I did find Karloff's secretary rather attractive myself) surprising for a schlocky B-movie of its era! So, no great shakes definitely but an adequate time-waster nonetheless...though the voodoo promised by the title had nothing to do with the man-eating plants we eventually ended up with!

Maybe when I get more acquainted with Karloff's other programmers, my opinion of this film will take a nose-dive but so far, it was a watchable diversion and nothing more; besides it was nice to see Karloff in a straight, i.e. non-menacing, role - though it was somewhat uncomfortable to watch him stumble about on many occasions (due to his illness and old age).

I first saw this film on T.V. when I was about six years old back in the 1960s. Years later I heard this film was pretty bad. I happened to recently find a badly transfered video copy at my local video. I took it home and watched it. I did not find it as bad as I expected. The parts I liked as a kid I still found effective. Critics slammed Boris Karloff here, but he is smooth and professional. However I don't think anyone would say this was one of his best performances. The best performance in the film is Elisha Cook. The ending sequence is quite creepy and Cook pulls it off well. The rest of the cast just goes through the motions. The script however, leaves a lot to be desired. As far as I know, nothing remotely like Voodoo is practised in Polynesia where this film takes place. I also was annoyed with the mish mash of supernatural and science fiction elements. The giant carnivorous plants are explained as relics from a prehistoric age; hence science fiction. The Voodoo stuff is purely supernatural fantasy. The giant plants are effective. In frightening scene, they swallow a little girl. However they have nothing to do with the plot. They are thrown in just to use up running time and seem almost to have dropped in from some other film. None the less, this film does have a few good shocks.

This movie was kind of sad to watch, because Karloff is a much better actor than this kind of tripe. It is always a sad commentary when the actors care more about the quality of a movie than the writers, directors and producers, who just were happy to tack Karloff's name on this turkey and run with it...

Okay, apparently, the writers didn't know anything about Voodoo, other than Voodoo dolls and Zombies. They didn't know enough to know that Voodoo happens in the Caribbean, not in the South Pacific. I think this might have been an excuse for everyone to go to Hawaii...

So the characters land on this island and encounter these man-eating plants that resemble... well, I won't tell you what they look like other than to say I am amazed they got past the censors in 1959. Apparently these plants feed by people being so dumb as to walk right into them, not only the explorers, but apparently, natives on this island as well...

Carnivorous plants and zombies supply the chief menace for the principals in Voodoo Island... There's no attempt at explaining how various mysterious things happen in the script, but the thriller gimmicks come off with Reginald LeBorg's direction. Aubrey Schenck-Howard W. Koch production was lensed on Kauai Island, Hawaii, so backgrounds have a helpful freshness as the characters are put through plot perils. Karloff doesn't have to exert himself much to handle his standard character...Elisha Cook and Beverly Tyler hold up the supporting roles. None of the performances is more than stock.

I've seen worse programmers. Boris Karloff brings class to anything he works in. It's fun just to watch him. His ill-health hadn't yet slowed him down and he was a real presence. Elisha Cook also gives an excellent performance.

I think I know how the lesbian undertones between the two women got by (though the tones weren't that "under"). If it had been a big budget picture, the censors would have been on it like white on rice. As a low-budget picture it came in under the radar.

Several of the actors do rise above the material. Actually it reminds me of some of the TV shows being churned out about the same time. They, too, didn't have much of a budget. What adds to the TV feeling are some of the actors, such as Rhodes Reason and Mervyn Vye, who were mainstays of '50s television.

The 1957 Boris Karloff film "Voodoo Island" seems to have a widespread reputation as being one of the actor's all-time worst, so it was with a feeling of resignation and borderline cinematic masochism that I popped this DVD into the player the other night. "Voodoo Island" was Karloff's first horror picture in four years, his only release for 1957; he would rebound a bit the following year, with the releases of the fun shlockfest "Frankenstein 1970" and the even better (British) film "Grip of the Strangler." Filmed on the Hawaiian island of Kauai on the cheap, the picture turns out to be a modest little B film that, despite its many flaws, still retains a certain strange charm.

In it, Boris plays a character named Phillip Knight, who seems to be a professional debunker of popular myths. Knight, when we first encounter him, has already disproved the legends of the Loch Ness monster and a Nantucket sea creature, and now, the owner of an international hotel chain wants him to hightail it to the Pacific island that the company hopes to build on. It seems that a party of men has already been lost there, the only survivor being in an unqualified zombie state. So off Knight goes, accompanied by his beautiful but prim research assistant (played by Scranton-born Beverly Tyler), a tough blonde architect/designer (Jean Engstrom), the zombie and his doctor, and a hotel chain rep (Murvyn Vye). En route, they stop over at a nearby island, where they charter a boat from its greedy owner (the great character actor Elisha Cook, Jr., always a welcome presence in any film) and his hunky-dude right-hand man (played by Rhodes Reason, who my fellow Trekkers may recall as Flavius from the episode "Bread and Circuses"). And then...it is on to the eponymous Voodoo Island....

So, you might be asking yourself at this point, just how bad IS "Voodoo Island"? Well, I'm not gonna lie to you: Objectively speaking, the film really IS pretty lame. Not the slightest bit scary and only occasionally suspenseful, the picture also suffers from a weak script and an ending that even the most forgiving viewer would categorize as a letdown...and an overly abrupt letdown, at that. Seemingly inevitable is the halfhearted romantic subplot that we must bear with, as Knight's lovely but repressed assistant and the Reason character (who I suppose suffers with what today is termed PTSD) squabble, make up and discover love. None of the characters are all that likable, and even Karloff's is something of a stuck-up know-it-all (or so he thinks). The direction by Reginald LeBorg (whose previous "psychotronic" credits include "Weird Woman," "The Mummy's Ghost" and "Dead Man's Eyes," all from 1944) is uninspired, the FX are weak, and the beautiful Hawaiian scenery...well, let's just say that it's a shame that this thing was not shot in color!

Fortunately, though, there IS some good news, especially for Karloff's fans. For that special breed (of which I count myself a member), any opportunity to watch this fascinating actor, and to hear that wonderfully mellifluous voice, is a pleasurable one. Simply stated: Boris saves this movie from being a total loss just by his mere presence. Plus, once on Voodoo Island, the picture becomes very much a "safari film," a subgenre for which I have been a sucker ever since I was a little kid. And then there are those cobra-headed, carnivorous plants, easily the most horrific aspect of the film, and they DO make for some cheezy fun. The acting by one and all is better than this material would seem to demand, and...well, that's about it. I really cannot come up with any more pluses, no matter how hard I try. Truth to tell, this film really is for Uncle Boris completists only. I'm not sure if it's his worst, as I still have never experienced such supposed late-career stinkers as "Snake People" and "Cauldron of Blood," but of the 40 Karloff films that I have seen, this one is certainly right near the bottom. On the flip side of this MGM DVD can be found the 1959 chiller "The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake," another film dealing with the subject of voodoo, and this is where the real horrors reside on this disc. "The public loves to be scared," Phillip Knight tells us at one point; too bad his picture just isn't up to the task!

Odd little movie, one of several in the cheapjack voodoo cycle of the late fifties. Boris Karloff is on hand as a professional debunker, Murvyn Vye is the Barton MacLane guy, all bluster and macho, Elisha Cook, Jr. is furtive and nervous. The jungle sets are unbelievable even by B movie standards; the plot is almost impossible to follow, as it moves from the semi-serious, early on, to the surreal, as the story progresses; and the production values are suggestive of a late entry in the Bomba series. Yet it has its charms, and I wouldn't call it unwatchable, just dumb. Everyone in the movie seems to be an inhabitant of his own special mental world, regardless of what is in fact going on in the story, and indeed the movie is a bit of a mix and match job, with voodoo set in the Pacific, rather than the Caribbean, killer plants, sinister natives, who yet have a compassionate streak, and an air of magnanimous confusion that can draw in the most critical viewer if he's in the right mood, and too lazy to change the channel.

"Zombies and chomping plants greet an expedition led by a debunker of the occult." That's the description of VOODOO ISLAND given by TCM and it hits the mark. But the only real reason for watching is the presence of BORIS KARLOFF as the debunker. Others in the cast do little to help the project, but include BEVERLY TYLER as a frigid assistant to Karloff and RHODES REASON as the stalwart leader of the group. His romance with Tyler gets off to a bad start but heats up before the final reel.

The special effects are unintentionally funny, especially a scene where one of the young ladies is attacked by a carnivorous plant. Les Baxter's score is a major asset though, accenting whatever danger is indicated by the script.

But overall, the film is a distinct letdown for anyone expecting a good zombie movie. Most of the action takes place in bright sunlight amid sets that look like leftovers from Fantasy Island.

Summing up: Karloff admirers won't mind watching him here, but no one is likely to be impressed by the lame storyline.

This odd little film is--oddly enough--good because it is so badly done. For starters, it concerns some sort of South Seas witchcraft instead of voodoo. And many viewers probably feel bewitched while trying to figure out all the confusing plot devices and glaring gaps in the storyline. One can easily get the impression that minimal direction has allowed the players to conjure their own magic in regard to their individual roles. Some ring as hollow as a dried-out gourd, like those of Boris Karloff and Elisha Cook, Jr., actors who certainly knew how to move the spirit in melodramas. Rhodes Reason, on the other hand, puts yeoman effort into his boat-captain portrayal, struggling at times to make schmaltzy lines sound serious. Beverly Tyler, as Karloff's all-business assistant, lays it on thick as a prissy prig, high-mindedly brushing off the attentions of Reason and Jean Engstrom, who, as elegant decorator Miss Winters, delivers a subtle but nonetheless obvious portrayal of a lesbian. In such a lightweight, run-of-the-mill script, Engstrom's character probably could have emerged as merely a sophisticate trying to glamorize Tyler's dowdy Sarah Adams and rebuff Reason's rough-hewn Matthew Gunn. But Engstrom intricately weaves a fascinating, on-the-QT characterization that steals every scene she is in. Both women have to contend with predatory phallic-looking plants as well as the macho ministrations of Reason. And there are threats posed by hexing island natives and their oddly Anglo chief. All in all, a fun flick to be marooned in for an hour or so!

Having previously just watched director Reginald Le Borg's The Black Sleep which featured Basil Rathbone, Akim Tamiroff, John Carradine, Lon Chaney, Jr., Tor Johnson, and in his last active film role, Bela Lugosi, I decided to watch his next movie which starred another horror movie icon: Boris Karloff. He plays Philip Knight, a television personality who regularly debunks certain myths on his show. He now is on assignment to do the same for a hotel magnate after one of four explorers of the title island-a Mitchell (Glenn Dixon)-comes back with a fixed stunned look. Coming along are Knight's secretary-Sarah Adams (Beverly Tyler), Barney Finch (Murvyn Vye), Matthew Gunn (Rhodes Reason), Claire Winter (Jean Engstrom), and Martin Schuyler (Elisha Cook, Jr.). I'll stop there and just say not much happens until the last 15 minutes. In fact, the most shocking thing that occurs involves a native pre-teen girl and one of the big plants. Of the performers, Karloff and somewhat Cook come off best though many of the others do well with the less-than-stellar material they're given. Still, like I said, the movie has its moments like this Karloff line that pretty sums up the near-universal appeal of horror films: "The public loves to be scared. Excites the imagination. Makes them believe in the existence of things unreal."

This one must have been done for the nice Hawaiian vacation the cast got on Kauai. There couldn't be any other possible reason.

After one man comes back from an expedition to a Pacific island in a cataleptic state, a whole expedition is sent to prove there ain't no voodoo being practiced on that island where some developer wants to put up a big resort.

Boris Karloff heads our intrepid expedition that consists of Rex Reason, Beverly Tyler, Jean Engstrom, Murvyn Vye and Elisha Cook, Jr. Our men and women encounter zombies, carnivorous plants, and voodoo practicing natives. All of which is supposed to scare the audience.

Since it was Hawaii, the least they could have done was spring for color. The special effects were riotously funny.

The film was selected for the gay cinema salute of TCM this month and I will say that the lascivious looks that Jean Engstrom gives Beverly Tyler plus the way she put down Rex Reason when he tried to make a pass at her was pretty good. I agree with the TCM guest programmer who said that the juveniles who saw this in the drive-ins in 1957 got their first exposure to lesbianism.

But it sure could have been in a better film. Voodoo Island has the distinct aroma of tax write-off.

Boris Karloff is the support that stands this film that was made as Ed Wood junior used to do, with low budget but with dignity. I like the easy way the plot goes by, and the funny talks of the characters. There are some sequences that change the calmness of the events as for instance when after some wise words about the nature that surrounds them pronounced by Boris, an incautious woman decides to go for a swim in a pond she find during their trip to inspect the island. Later a member of the expedition will be the witness of a dramatic fact that will happen to an inhabitant of the island that was there playing. The film ends quietly with another wise words said by the head of the inhabitants of the island that put as a condition to let go the invaders that they never reveal to anyone what they had been seen there. The music, typical sound of the fifties science fiction movies, is very funny and warn you about an imminent danger.

Writer, TV host and debunker Phillip Knight (Boris Karloff) is hired to investigate a South Pacific island where people have mysteriously disappeared. He takes along a bunch of obnoxious stereotypical characters. When he gets there he discovers zombies, man-eating trees and hostile natives.

Slow and VERY boring movie. The movie is more than half over before they even GET to the island! There's endless talking and tramping about a jungle, stupid looking "man-eating" trees and a totally unnecessary love story shoehorned in. The dialogue is terrible and the story goes nowhere. The only good parts of the movie are good acting by Karloff and Elisha Cook, hunky Rhodes Reason is good to look at, there's a good music score by Les Baxter and, in a surprise subplot, Claire (Jean Engstrom) is clearly a lesbian and hits on the one other woman in the expedition (Beverly Tyler)! Still it doesn't make this worth sitting through.

If it wasn't for Boris Karloff, I probably would not have seen Voodoo Island. After seeing it, I do think that Karloff is the best thing about Voodoo Island, he has given far better performances but he brings a lot of class and command to his role. Elisha Cook is also good, the music is haunting and adds successfully to the sense of danger and dread and the ending is kind of creepy. Very little else works however. The cinematography is not so bad, it is sharp and looks decent enough, it's just that there isn't much that is particularly memorable and little special is done with it. The plants to put it kindly do look stupid and have absolutely nothing to do with the story or title(which was quite misleading). They don't serve much of a purpose either, they don't have much personality and the deaths(quite a low body count here) are utterly forgettable. The script and story were the biggest flaws. There is far too much talk in the script and in quality it is flimsy and has little flow. I'd forgive the slow pacing if the story and atmosphere were compelling enough. Sadly though they are not, the lack of thrills, suspense or genuine horror as well as the fact that little of it makes sense made Voodoo Island a chore to sit through in all honesty. The lesbian subplot was surprising but I am not sure whether it merged with the rest of the story or whether it was out of place and stuck out like a sore thumb, by all means it holds interest value but it leans towards the latter for me. The characters are severely underdeveloped, playing second fiddle to everything else, so we have no time to care for or even like them. Apart from Karloff and Cook, the rest of the cast don't register. And I do agree about the voodoo issue, there is little of it so you do feel that the title and story bear no relevance to one another, and the fact that the film seems to think that it occurred in the Pacific rather than the Caribbean(not nit-picking at all, this is common knowledge) is rather disturbing. I've seen MST3K mentioned here and I also agree, there are worse films that have been torn to shreds on that show but I think MST3K would think of some good material talking about Voodoo Island. Overall, not as bad as its rep but despite two good performances, a good score and the ending Voodoo Island is pretty bad. 4/10 Bethany Cox

After only one member of a survey team (in a zombie-like trance) returns from an isolated island in the Pacific Ocean, the wealthy industrialist named "Howard Carlton" (Owen Cunningham) hires an investigator by the name of "Phillip Knight" (Boris Karloff) to go to the island and check it out. Phillip is accompanied by his pretty assistant "Sarah Adams" (Beverly Tyler), the owner of the boat "Martin Schuyler" (Elisha Cook Jr.), the boat captain "Matthew Gunn" (Rhodes Reason), Howard's assistant "Barney Finch" (Murvyn Vye), a woman named "Claire Winter" (Jean Engstrom) and the lone survivor named "Mitchell" (Glenn Dixon). However, before they depart they encounter strange phenomenon and things get even more bizarre when they arrive. Anyway, rather than divulge any of the mysteries of this film and possibly ruin the movie for those who haven't seen it I will just say that I was mildly surprised with it. While the special effects leave much to be desired the story itself was pretty interesting overall. Quite frankly, considering the era in which it was made and the fact that it was a low-budget film I thought it was rather entertaining. That said, I rate it as slightly above average.

I woke up early this morning with a cold and fell back to sleep with the TV on I was awoken by sound of a theremin. Oh goody Boris Karloff and a hostile looking blond. Turns out someone want wants make a resort on this South Sea type Island and Karloff is some type of debunker of all things debunkable.

This movie turned out to be a pleasant surprise because it lived up to my so bad it is good expectations, because it has a little bit of everything in it. Unrequited Lesbian attraction, romance, man or should I say women eating plants, and even voodoo, not much but a few of dolls made in the likeness of the of people in Karloffs group that are checking out this Island to make a resort area. Seeing things, being scared to death to name a few.

I will not spoil the reason behind all of this and if it is real or if Karloff debunks the existence of Voodoo. I will say amongst all of the mayhem we get a history mystery solved. Where did some of those folks who got sick of Pitcairn Island go. Toward the end of the movie the chief who is a white man dressed up in native garb explains we have been searching from island to island looking for a place that we can be happy. Well they found it and it is called Voodoo Island.

I say if you are a collector of so bad it is good type movies, collect this. If just to see a giant plant eat a little girl. You don't get to see that happening too much in movies.