#dr.moreau

Moreau. This person who doesn’t feel like a person. Who has this burning desire to change and believes to do so he must rip himself and others to shreds, only making everyone miserable in process. All in order to serve his goal to become someone he actually likes, someone he feels he can actually be. Someone who purposefully erodes away his own humanity through his cruel acts. One of our few views into humanity and one of the even fewer who don’t hate vampires. Actually, he’s on the opposing end and absolutely worships them. He doesn’t see vampires and humans as a separate species but one of the same where humans are the lesser party. Not to mention his focus on the Blue Moon Vampire who most vampires hate. A human who is the reflection of us, the audience. Yes, the typical vampire perceptions of how alluring the idea of  being bitten, turned, and taken control of by a vampire in addition to just general interest in vampiric mythos and development. But also fans of Vanitas No Carte’s version of vampires specifically, who’s interest to learn and experience the story’s world is likely to primarily come from the vampires in the series. Us fans would likely be less invested in the story if it held a primarily human perspective and us fans are especially invested in the Blue Moon Mysteries. He was associated with the church at some point though the details are unclear but   considering how most prominent Church members are on the younger side and joined as little traumatized kids, it doesn’t bode well for anything. Especially with how childish he acts; jumping, stomping, twirling, whining, laugh crying,  clapping, and clinging onto others.  He wears a scarf that looks like someone tied it onto him. If he was in any other anime he wouldn’t be so out of place. Even in this anime with all its eccentricities and dramaturgy, he still sticks so out of place.  The Church only looked down upon what he was doing because he was trying to making more vampires. He portrays himself like a lone flyer but he has a team we never even get to properly see, never mind get any motivations or personality from them. He somehow got access to books of impossible power and instead of trying them out on his own to see if he could learn to rewrite himself with them he went “ yo, let’s hook these up to some kids”.  He’s holds no suspicions over Vanitas returning after all that time and is simply happy to see him. He’s gotten busted multiple times and he still hasn’t moved.  And he looks like this the entire time.  

A little Abby doodle, just her longing to go outside. She probably sits up on really high perches and windows and scares poor Papa half to death. 

I can’t truly recommend 1977's The Island of Dr. Moreau but it is an interesting movie to discuss. It starts well. There are a few changes from the source material that will make you wonder and at first, it seems like they’re going somewhere. Then the movie goes completely cuckoo before ending on a note that will have you wondering “what were they thinking?!”

After seventeen days adrift at sea, the survivors of the Lady Vain shipwreck happen upon an island governed by Dr. Moreau (Burt Lancaster). Exhausted, crewman Andrew Braddock (Michael York) passes out. Once he wakes, he learns that his companion has died and that the island is purposely isolated from the rest of the world. Moreau, his strange, misshapen servants, a cynical mercenary named Montgomery (Nigel Davenport), and a beautiful woman named Maria are the island’s only inhabitants. Why the need for such privacy, and what is Moreau doing in his laboratory?

Several elements are introduced, never to pay off. If you look at certain shots, you add them up with the death of Andrew’s fellow survivor, and some of the more unsettling scenes in the film… this feels like it was meant to be a horror movie, but some last-minute editing and focus group testing made them change it into a weird romance/thriller. You can tell big scenes were shot and then cut out. I'm not saying there's necessarily a "better version" of this film out there, but I’m very curious.

It's ok to make changes when adapting a book. In fact, you need to. The key is knowing what to change and when to keep it feeling the same. This movie goes about it all wrong. If you don’t know, Dr. Moreau is transforming animals into humans through surgical means and then training them to act human. When the film began, I thought it was an interesting choice to have two survivors land on Moreau's island. Would we learn they had to commit cannibalism to survive? Men reducing themselves to acting like wild beasts in order to survive at sea, while animals are being transformed into men on the island. That could even come back towards the end of the film as a way to have our hero discover more about the essence of man/animal than Moreau because he’s been there himself. It would be an even greater revelation after seeing Moreau go full-on mad scientist (even more so than before) and begin experimenting on Andrew! But…. it just doesn’t amount to anything. It’s just weird and horror-y for no reason. I’m certain this film was supposed to be a horror movie by the way. Throughout you keep looking at Maria and thinking “there’s no way that’s a woman”. You know Moreau has been turning animals into people. The woman acts strangely and her backstory is suspicious. She even has a pet ocelot who wears a red scarf, the kind of creature that in a horror movie would get a) killed for dramatic purposes or b) transformed into a human-like creature that would clue our hero into what is actually going on (not that he should have any difficulty figuring this out because it’s really obvious this place is crawling with shady business). There’s even a shot at the end of the movie where and Andrew turns to Maria and asks her if she’s ok. She's looking away from the camera. Her face is hidden by her hair and she’s not saying anything. Oh no, please don’t let it be so! Will she turn around with her face reverted to some grotesque animal visage?! No actually, it’s just a weird shot that means nothing, like so many throughout.

The Island of Dr. Moreau would almost be better if it were worse. Then, you'd give up on the idea that it would shed its flaws. Instead, it always skirts the line, making you think it will be worth recommending. It's not terrible, but the final act is such a mess it killed all of my enthusiasm. (On VHS, January 24, 2016)