9 Nightmarish Island-Set Horror Movies

We pick our 9 favorite freaky island-set horror movies

Horror movies about human beings removed from society and left stranded in the middle of nowhere are a dime a dozen. Throw in some livid local yokels with power tools et voila, you have the recipe for more movies than I dare tally.  But today, on this fine, weird Wednesday, we’re going to riff not on shockers about people lost in the woods at the mercy of inbred killers, but about movies with people whisked away to uncharted land masses in the middle of the ocean.

Yes, today it’s our favorite island-set horror movies, where bad things happen to folks who have either been in some sort of shipwreck or plane crash and ended up in some kind of Green Hell or have visited some sort of island on vacation, only to find themselves trapped and stranded, unable to scream for help when killers and creepy critters come to call. In some cases, there is no external threat, rather when society is removed from the rules of engagement, these people end up simply turning on themselves.

Note that island horror movies are a sub-genre unto themselves, and these 9 nightmarish films are not the best necessarily, but rather our favorites. We encourage you to reveal your own picks in the comments section below. And no, Castaway is not a horror movie and doesn’t count, neither does that episode of Gilligan’s Island with the spider in the cave. Enjoy!

Island of Lost Souls (1932)

The best adaptation of H.G. Wells' The Island of Dr. Moreau, this shuddery, haunting film still packs a wallop with Charles Laughton owning the screen as the mad doctor who has attempted to duplicate evolution on a remote isle. "Are we not men?" Bela Lugosi also stars.

Horrors of Spider Island (1960)

A Something Weird favorite, this German skin flick (called Body in the Web) was re-cut as a horror movie and this is the result, a wigged-out, surreal and cheap trash gem about dancing girls stranded on an island, shaking their asses while their manager gets turned into a dopey spider monster. A perfect party flick.

Lord of the Flies (1963)

Stark, brutal and terrifying adaptation of the essential William Golding novel that so many of us read in school. Do they still teach it? They should. The book and this first film are potent portals into just how savagely things can fall apart in polite society when the thin veneer that seperates people from animals is removed. A group of British schoolboys end up stranded on an island and splinter off into tribes, devolving into maniacal, terrified savages. So many films - Battle Royal, The Belko Experiment - owe so much to this film and its literary source.

The Savage is Loose (1974)

Not a traditional horror film, this George C. Scott-directed melodrama stars Scott himself as a man stranded on a deserted island with his wife (real life wife Trish Van Devere) and young son. As the boy grows, he develops sexual feelings for his mother, causing the boy to turn savage and try to murder his dad and claim his mom as his mate. Lurid Oedipal shocker bombed upon release but is ripe for re-discovery.

Island of Death (1976)

Niko Mastorakis' legendary video nasty sickie is still one of the ugliest - and yet, because of the scenery, beautiful - horror movies ever made. Incest and murder rule when a seemingly nice couple invade a Greek island and kill everyone. And have lots of sex. With each other. And goats. Good lord, this is one vulgar little picture...

Night Creature (1978)

One of the weirdest horror movies I've ever seen and a film that needs a proper release, considering every DVD release I've seen is culled from a VHS transfer which was duped from an ancient 16mm print. Also known as Out of the Darkness, the great Donald Pleasence stars as a macho hunter who is obsessed with a leopard that prowls his tropical island. Weird slow-mo, blaring music, primitive tone and a wild-eyed turn by Pleasence makes this a cult classic that's still waiting to find its cult. 

Zombie (1979)

Lucio Fulci's unnoficial Dawn of the Dead prequel is one of the greatest - and most famous - zombie movies of all time, with startling gore, ridiculous sequences (a shark fights a zombie while a topless scuba swimmer looks on) and oodles of thick, creepy atmosphere and evil Fabio Frizzi electro music. Zombies shamble around the Caribbean island of Matool whil Ian McCulloch (Zombie Holocaust) fights back. A messy masterpiece!

Anthropophagus (1980)

Truly revolting and weird and awesome Joe D'Amato Italian horror classic that features a stark raving mad cannibal monster (George Eastman) running around a beautiful Greek island eating fetuses and full sized people. And he even eats himself. Gross! Amazing!

Lord of the Flies (1990)

Undervalued full color, Americanized version of Golding's masterwork sacrifices the harsh, expressionist palette of its black and white predecessor and instead re-imagines the tale as a sort of Terrence Malick-steeped fever dream. Graphic and often beautiful, with atmospheric sequences, meandering narrative and eerie dream sequences. Gorgeously photographed.

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