The year was 1932 and Hollywoods new it was time to do something different, so Paramount embarked on movie that would use a superior blend of Sci-Fi and Horror. The project was directed by Erle Kenton from a screenplay by Waldemar Young and Phillip Wylie. The movie was named Island of Lost Souls and it was based on H. G. Wells 1896 novel, The Island of Dr Moreau, Paramount found in this horrifying tale of a mad scientist experimenting with surgical transformations of animals into men all the elements for a good batch of chills.

After waiting so long to see another of his Sci-Fi works on the screen, Wells was reportedly disappointed with this effort, perhaps because of his sympathies with the strong anti-vivisectionist movement in Britain at the time. Island of Lost Souls was a bit much for the British sensibilities, and the film was banned there, as well as in New Zealand, and some Midwestern American states. Wells's disapproval is unfortunate, because the film is a classic of Sci-Fi horror, exceptionally well made, with an air of evil and degeneracy throughout. Charles Laughton brought a new dimension to the role of the mad scientist, with his cool, suave portrayal of god-like power and flashes of brutal sadism. Kathleen Burke supplies a savage eroticism as Lota, the Panther-Girl, and Bela Lugosi as the sayer of the law is excellent in his hairy makeup.

There was a lot of work put into the special effects on this movie, and some of the newest techniques were used in the process, the monstrous "mamimals" are unbelievably horrendous, and the ghastly climax. The climatic ending was what had this movie banned, it all comes to a screaming end when the creatures gang up on the good Dr and take him to the "House of Pain", this is where they have been tortured and operated on all there lives and so its pay back time, and the creatures begin to operate and perform unthinkable surgery on him..........Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh this is almost too much to bear...!!!! But all said and done this is a great movie and if you have the chance to see this one do it. A new version of the Wells novel , under it original title The Island of Dr Moreau staring Burt Lancaster was then made but it didn't have the same horror as the Island of Lost Souls...