The Island of Lost Souls begins in fog and frequently obstructs viewers from clearly seeing places characters. Shadows often appear conspicuously on characters or to obscure action in darkness. Briefly describe a moment where you see one or more of these strategies in action and the impact of that moment on you as a viewer.
16 thoughts on “Island of Lost Souls”
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The first appearance of the Island creatures on the boat evoked a sense of mystery; however, no one seems to care or question their origin. I guess this is similar to wondering why the character goes to the basement in the dark after hearing a sound coming from it. The experimental activities conducted by Dr. Moreau portrays the cliché that characterize the extremely intelligent villain who creates monsters in the horror section of the film industry, perhaps the idea behind fictional characters like Dr. Frankenstein. Modern viewers would hardly apprehend Island of Lost Souls as a terror movie. Indeed, the concept of monsters is present through the bizarre creatures created on the Island; However, stress hormones that denote fear fail to emerge. This movie is a rudimentary version of modern terror, or one of the first trials to bring darkness into to elicit fear as a new form of entertainment.
Shadow is present when Parker’s wife is observed through the window by one of the Island creatures. I assume it makes sense to use that effect on the creatures to stimulate the confusion between the ambiguous understanding of the monsters and the consequence of their eventual contact with human beings.
Towards the end of the film, at around 1 hour, and 2 minutes, Doctor Moreau shows his power through shadows but also through his facial expressions. The scene is when the camera is on the natives/beasts and then all of a sudden it cuts to Dr. Moreau and his face within the shadows. This exemplifies horror through the idea of pure power. He is grinning and smirking while there is pure chaos among everyone else on the island. Additionally, viewers (including me) are feeling scared during this scene, but the main power figure is showing the opposite emotions, which is eerie. There is a sense that he knows something that no one else does. The shadows and darkness but also light drawn upon Dr. Moreau’s face during this chaos heightens the fear and the weirdness of the film. The darkness associated with the shadows additionally heightens the ambiguousness of the environment and therefore adds to the fear even more.
One scene I found particularly interesting in terms of the movie’s strategic shadowing and manipulation of lighting was when Edward Parker and the woman attempt to run away. After witnessing Dr. Moreau’s brutally inhumane experiments, Parker is desperate to flee the island. During this scene, the island itself is veiled in fog and darkness, creating an emphasized sense of eeriness and urgency. As the two of them make a run for it, traversing through the dark and dense jungle, shadowing is increasingly apparent. I think this creates an obscurity to the potential dangers lurking around them and ones they are trying to escape, making it hard for the audience to predict what will happen and therefore heightening this sense of unease, keeping us on edge. Additionally, this obscured field of vision fosters a deeper sense of fear and vulnerability, which the audience is made to feel as well.
I noticed this effect during one of the scenes nearing the end of the film, where one of the islanders enters the house, following after the main cast. As he goes through the doorway, and enters the building, his shadow grows and takes up the entire wall space. The growing shadow definitely creates tension as the action builds to its peak, foreshadowing that the threat at hand is perhaps much larger than what was anticipated. This seems to apply particularly to the doctor character who infantilizes his subjects and refuses to see them as a legitimate potential danger. He does not see the growing danger caused by the situations he has engineered, potentially because his own ego has shadowed his ability to see that he is in fact, not God, and is not immune to the consequences of his own actions.
I noticed how shadows were strategically used in the cave to enhance the mystery of the island. When Dr. Moreau and Mr. Parker first walk through the cave, Mr. Parker exclaims loudly and the camera pans to two backlit figures ahead. While their features are mostly obscured by the darkness, the audience recognizes that something is off about the figures; their stances are not quite human, and their movements are ape-like. This is meant to be alarming, as it is to Mr. Parker, with the intentional darkness adding to the unknown. The audience does not yet understand what these creatures are, and this uncertainty feeds our fear. This same scene essentially repeats itself when Ruth and Captain Donahue walk through the cave and see a disturbing silhouette standing directly in front of them. Again, the features are hidden, and it is the brutish shape alone that creates a sense of terror.
One scene in which the use of shadows stood out to me is at 34:40 when Dr. Moreau wishes Edward Parker goodnight after revealing the House of Pain. Dr. Moreau’s sinister disposition is enhanced by the shadow cast by the doorway. His face is obscured as he emerges from the doorway, only becoming visible when he delivers his unsettling line, and proceeds to back into the shadow again. This sequence of shadowing serves to increase the uneasiness the viewer feels after the previous unnerving scene in the House of Pain. It also foreshadows the possibility of more evil crimes yet to be committed by Dr. Moreau.
One scene that stood out to me where shadows were significant was when Dr. Moreau is being surrounded by those who he experimented on. His white suit stands out in a place of darkness. It reminded me of the reading by Earle Keaton where power is an important factor in evoking some type of fear. The color white in the film is seen as someone who has some type of power. The humans all wear white, including Montgomery, Parker, Ruth, and the captain. However, in this scene we see where darker shades overpower this, reversing the roles. Now Moreau is powerless, deameaning the color white. Additionally, the shadows in this scene are overtaking every bright spot. For example, when they take Moreau into the House of Pain, again the darker shadows are taking over the light. This stood out to me because we now see that Moreaus has realized that he has control and now the roles are reversed. These “creations,” as Moreaus calls them are emerging from these shadows.
One use of shadowing that I noticed throughout the film was the frequent casting of shadow over Dr. Moreau’s face. When Parker first arrives to the island, the top half of Dr. Moreau’s face is covered in shadows from the brim of his hat. This gives him an aura of mystery, especially contrasted with the direct light cast upon Parker’s face. As the film progress, shadows continue to fall upon and cover the top half of Dr. Moreau’s face, even without him wearing a hat. To me this felt like a way of highlighting that although Dr. Moreau no long remains a mystery, there is something dark about him. The shadowing in this case served to me to confirm the evil nature of Dr. Moreau long before his action were revealed and then his continued presence as a threat even once the mystery was known. This helped build suspense as to how Dr. Moreau could potential harm the protagonists.
While watching, I noticed that the central characters are consistently framed or shadowed by cage imagery. While this serves several functions, this principally reminds us of the zoo-like, prison qualities of Moreau’s island. It makes scenes feel darker, highlighting the moral ambiguity of Moreau and Montgomery. It also foreshadows that Edward is being held and controlled the same way Moreau’s mutants are—he is part of the experiment. Ultimately, by framing humans in bars or the shadows of bars, the film illustrates how we are trapped in our ways, stuck in human nature. We can try to play God, but we can’t ever escape our own mortality. In the end, Moreau surrenders, tortured to death by “nature,” or his version of it.
While watching The Island of Lost Souls, I noticed that during several higher tension scenes, the antagonists frequently appeared with substantial looming shadows behind them. Notably, this occurred in multiple scenes featuring with Dr. Moreau and Montgomery conspiring, as well as a few instances with the genetically-engineered “natives” when they were up to something nefarious. I felt that these shadows imbued these antagonistic figures with an aura of grandeur, making them seem larger than life, their sinister motives dramatized. In a film that does not rely on explicit violence to establish Dr. Moreau’s intimidating presence, these shadows served as an effective substitute.
One instance of obscurity and shadows that stuck out to me was when Edward Parker was looking over the cargo ship at Mr. Montgomery’s boat, and mist began to creep into the frame. At first, I had dismissed the clouded and dark image; however, as the caption snuck up behind Mr. Parker and knocked him overboard, I realized the fog had a deeper symbolic meaning. Not only was it used to foreshadow the unfortunate events that would befall Mr. Parker, but it also was used to build suspense and create confusion and fear about the true nature of Mr. Montgomery and his strange crew. I also noticed that the mist cleared well after they reached the island. Thus signaling that the island was concealing a dark truth that had not yet been unveiled to the audience (which ultimately heightened tensions).
The shadows that frequently obscure the doctor as he returns Edward and Lotta from the law ceremony. In my view, this hides his motives from the audiences and lets them question if he is well meaning as he poses himself to be or if he is just a whip-cracking slave master that harkens back to the old American South. This ambiguous space is what creates the audience’s fear of the doctor, as uncertainty is what brings about fear.
One instance in which shadows are strategically used in The Island of Lost Souls is when Doctor Moreau explains the island to Edwin Parker. As he presents his failed, faulty subjects, he asks Parker, “Do you know what it means to feel like God?” During this line, a light glows from below his torso causing a shadow to cover his face from the nostrils up. I took this scene as a sign that the doctor is blinded by his own power and motivations; he is unable to see the cruelty he is inflicting onto these beings. From then on, one could assume that he was at a mental point of no return.
The strategy to obscure the subject of the shot in The Island of Lost Souls was particularly apparent when the Charles Laughton begins conferencing with the doctor about Lota. They refer to her as a beast and an object of fear, which encourages a kind of preconception that changes drastically as she becomes the subject of the shot in the sexualized way that she does. This abrupt change in a viewer’s perception mirrors the two biggest tropes of native women in post-colonial literature: fearsome vicious one minute and hyper-sexualized the next. Overall, I think the isolationist fantasy of this brilliant doctor in a native, backward land is revealing of the attitudes of many white Americans/Englishmen in the 1930s, that whatever they did could remain in secrecy unless spoiled by someone on equal footing, another white Englishmen/American.
I agree with this post and I saw similar themes reflected in the lighting and shadows throughout the film. Mutants were portrayed almost exclusively in darkness, influencing the audience’s perception of them as lurking and potentially dangerous beasts. The non-mutant characters were strategically dressed in all white and often portrayed in elevated brightness, giving them a near-glowing effect, again influencing how the audience should perceive them. The film was clearly influenced by heavy racist beliefs and centered on themes of eugenics. I found it interesting that the film ended in darkness, where shadows were cast over everyone. In the last scene, the mutants fight back against their oppressor. Here we again see obvious themes of racial anxieties and the U.S. history of slavery when Dr. Moreau lashes his whip at his subjects who are violently revolting against him. Although the film perpetuates racist beliefs and anxieties throughout, I think the darkness here, as well as the mutants revolting, serves to warn the audience against more extreme versions of eugenics and racism such as slavery–although not in the interest of the oppressed themselves. While I do not by any means believe this film combats racism–it still heavily supports eugenicist sentiment–I do think it attempts to grapple with some white guilt around U.S. slavery by depicting Dr. Moreau as an evil doctor,–through shadows, obscured lighting, facial expressions, and intonation–giving him a painful and violent fate, and having a “moral” white savior protagonist who is adamantly against Dr. Moreau’s actions once he figures out the harm he is doing.