Deserted Island Horror Films
by Harry-Hood | created - 21 Jul 2011 | updated - 07 Aug 2012 | PublicHorror films set in the tropics. Some good, many bad... Only criterium: set on a remote island, beach, or desert.
My favorites are near the top, except #1. It's there for the picture.
Any missing, please let me know. Thanks.
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1. Uninhabited (2010)
TV-14 | 93 min | Horror, Thriller
A young couple go to a remote and deserted coral island for a camping holiday, only to find that the island is inhabited by a ghost seeking retribution for a past outrage.
Director: Bill Bennett | Stars: Geraldine Hakewill, Henry James, Bob Baines, Billy Milionis
Votes: 2,998
Not bad for a low budget island film. Very, very low budget. Beautiful island.
2. Hour of the Wolf (1968)
Not Rated | 88 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
While vacationing on a remote German island with his younger pregnant wife, an artist has an emotional breakdown while confronting his repressed desires.
Director: Ingmar Bergman | Stars: Max von Sydow, Liv Ullmann, Gertrud Fridh, Georg Rydeberg
Votes: 22,564
3. Island of Lost Souls (1932)
Passed | 70 min | Film-Noir, Horror, Sci-Fi
A mad doctor conducts ghastly genetic experiments on a remote island in the South Seas, much to the fear and disgust of the shipwrecked sailor who finds himself trapped there.
Director: Erle C. Kenton | Stars: Charles Laughton, Bela Lugosi, Richard Arlen, Leila Hyams
Votes: 10,900
4. Isle of the Dead (1945)
Not Rated | 71 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
On a Greek island during the 1912 war, several people are trapped by quarantine for the plague. If that isn't enough worry, one of the people, a superstitious old peasant woman, suspects ... See full summary »
Director: Mark Robson | Stars: Boris Karloff, Ellen Drew, Marc Cramer, Katherine Emery
Votes: 5,261
5. The Wicker Man (1973)
R | 88 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A puritan police sergeant arrives in a Scottish island village in search of a missing girl, who the pagan locals claim never existed.
Director: Robin Hardy | Stars: Edward Woodward, Christopher Lee, Diane Cilento, Britt Ekland
Votes: 92,192 | Gross: $0.06M
6. Long Weekend (1978)
Not Rated | 97 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
When a suburban couple go camping for the weekend at a remote beach, they discover that nature isn't in an accommodating mood.
Director: Colin Eggleston | Stars: John Hargreaves, Briony Behets, Mike McEwen, Roy Day
Votes: 6,116
7. Shutter Island (2010)
R | 138 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Teddy Daniels and Chuck Aule, two US marshals, are sent to an asylum on a remote island in order to investigate the disappearance of a patient, where Teddy uncovers a shocking truth about the place.
Director: Martin Scorsese | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Emily Mortimer, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley
Votes: 1,455,264 | Gross: $128.01M
8. Zombie (1979)
R | 91 min | Horror
Strangers searching for a young woman's missing father arrive at a tropical island where a doctor desperately seeks the cause and cure of a recent epidemic of the undead.
Director: Lucio Fulci | Stars: Tisa Farrow, Ian McCulloch, Richard Johnson, Al Cliver
Votes: 30,698
9. The Most Dangerous Game (1932)
PG-13 | 63 min | Action, Adventure, Horror
A psychotic big game hunter deliberately strands a luxury yacht on a remote island, where he begins to hunt its passengers for sport.
Directors: Irving Pichel, Ernest B. Schoedsack | Stars: Joel McCrea, Fay Wray, Leslie Banks, Robert Armstrong
Votes: 14,004 | Gross: $0.97M
10. Battle Royale (2000)
Not Rated | 114 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
In the future, the Japanese government captures a class of ninth-grade students and forces them to kill one another under the revolutionary "Battle Royale" act.
Director: Kinji Fukasaku | Stars: Tatsuya Fujiwara, Aki Maeda, Tarô Yamamoto, Chiaki Kuriyama
Votes: 194,349
11. Five Dolls for an August Moon (1970)
Not Rated | 82 min | Crime, Horror, Mystery
An industrialist invites his colleagues to his private island so they can exploit a resin formula invented by one of the guests, but a killer within the group disrupts the proceedings.
Director: Mario Bava | Stars: William Berger, Ira von Fürstenberg, Edwige Fenech, Howard Ross
Votes: 3,452
aka "5 Dolls For An August Moon"
12. The Island of Dr. Moreau (1977)
PG | 99 min | Adventure, Fantasy, Horror
A shipwrecked survivor discovers a remote island owned by a crazed scientist who is carrying out sinister experiments on the island's inhabitants.
Director: Don Taylor | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Michael York, Nigel Davenport, Barbara Carrera
Votes: 7,147 | Gross: $8.72M
13. King Kong (2005)
PG-13 | 187 min | Action, Adventure, Romance
A greedy film producer assembles a team of moviemakers and sets out for the infamous Skull Island, where they find more than just cannibalistic natives.
Director: Peter Jackson | Stars: Naomi Watts, Jack Black, Adrien Brody, Thomas Kretschmann
Votes: 446,636 | Gross: $218.08M
14. The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
PG-13 | 129 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
A research team is sent to the Jurassic Park Site B island to study the dinosaurs there, while an InGen team approaches with another agenda.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Jeff Goldblum, Julianne Moore, Pete Postlethwaite, Vince Vaughn
Votes: 443,783 | Gross: $229.09M
The most "horror"-centered in the trilogy. Good, fun monsters-on-an-island classic. With a great opening.
15. Gothic (1986)
R | 87 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
The Shelleys visit Lord Byron and compete to write a horror story.
Director: Ken Russell | Stars: Gabriel Byrne, Julian Sands, Natasha Richardson, Myriam Cyr
Votes: 8,859 | Gross: $0.92M
16. The Woman in Black (2012)
PG-13 | 95 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
A young solicitor travels to a remote village where he discovers that the vengeful ghost of a scorned woman is terrorizing the locals.
Director: James Watkins | Stars: Daniel Radcliffe, Janet McTeer, Ciarán Hinds, Emma Shorey
Votes: 192,575 | Gross: $54.33M
OK, it's only a temporary island. Still, this film captures the terror of isolation from people and the mainland. And a darn good ghost story.
17. The Ghost Writer (2010)
PG-13 | 128 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A ghost writer, hired to complete the memoirs of a former British Prime Minister, uncovers secrets that put his own life in jeopardy.
Director: Roman Polanski | Stars: Ewan McGregor, Pierce Brosnan, Olivia Williams, Jon Bernthal
Votes: 170,785 | Gross: $15.54M
18. Dagon (2001)
R | 98 min | Fantasy, Horror, Mystery
A boating accident runs a young man and woman ashore in a decrepit Spanish fishing town which they discover is in the grips of an ancient sea god and its monstrous half human offspring.
Director: Stuart Gordon | Stars: Ezra Godden, Francisco Rabal, Raquel Meroño, Macarena Gómez
Votes: 21,023
19. Incubus (1966)
Unrated | 78 min | Horror
On a strange island inhabited by demons and spirits, a man battles the forces of evil.
Director: Leslie Stevens | Stars: William Shatner, Allyson Ames, Eloise Hardt, Robert Fortier
Votes: 2,100
20. The Flesh Eaters (1964)
Unrated | 87 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
A group of young adults trapped on a desert island find the water inhabited by a violent form of flesh-eating organisms.
Director: Jack Curtis | Stars: Martin Kosleck, Byron Sanders, Barbara Wilkin, Rita Morley
Votes: 1,413
21. We're Going to Eat You (1980)
Unrated | 90 min | Action, Comedy, Horror
A secret agent investigates a village that is populated by crazed, inbred cannibals.
Director: Hark Tsui | Stars: Norman Chu, Eddy Ko, Melvin Wong, Michelle Yim
Votes: 1,021
22. Paradise Murdered (2007)
Not Rated | 112 min | Comedy, Mystery, Thriller
Off the southern coast of the Korean Peninsula, an island of 17 inhabitants exists. The so-called Paradise Island holds up to its name with its breath-taking mountains and sea coupled with ... See full summary »
Director: Han-min Kim | Stars: Park Hae-il, Park Sol-mi, Sung Ji-ru, Ju-bong Choi
Votes: 427
23. I Walked with a Zombie (1943)
Passed | 69 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
A nurse is hired to care for the wife of a sugar plantation owner, who has been acting strangely, on a Caribbean island.
Director: Jacques Tourneur | Stars: Frances Dee, Tom Conway, James Ellison, Edith Barrett
Votes: 13,663
24. After Death (1989)
Unrated | 84 min | Action, Horror
A woman goes back to the island where her parents were killed. They had been working on a cure for cancer and accidentally raised the dead by angering a voodoo priest. With the woman is a ... See full summary »
Director: Claudio Fragasso | Stars: Jeff Stryker, Candice Daly, Massimo Vanni, Jim Gaines
Votes: 2,889
25. Bloodlust! (1961)
Approved | 68 min | Horror, Thriller
A crazed hunter kidnaps people and turns them loose on his private estate, where he hunts them for sport.
Director: Ralph Brooke | Stars: Wilton Graff, June Kenney, Walter Brooke, Robert Reed
Votes: 2,584
26. King Kong (1933)
Passed | 100 min | Adventure, Horror
A film crew goes to a tropical island for a location shoot, where they capture a colossal ape who takes a shine to their blonde starlet, and bring him back to New York City.
Directors: Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Schoedsack | Stars: Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong, Bruce Cabot, Frank Reicher
Votes: 90,925 | Gross: $10.00M
27. Frankenstein Island (1981)
PG | 97 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
When a hot-air balloon crashes on a remote island, the crew discovers Dr. Frankenstein's ancestor carrying on the family work, along with a race of mutants and a population of Amazons.
Director: Jerry Warren | Stars: Robert Clarke, Steve Brodie, Cameron Mitchell, Robert Christopher
Votes: 1,301
28. King of the Zombies (1941)
Passed | 67 min | Adventure, Comedy, Horror
On a spooky island, three stranded travelers find an evil doctor working with foreign spies and in control of zombies.
Director: Jean Yarbrough | Stars: Dick Purcell, Joan Woodbury, Mantan Moreland, Henry Victor
Votes: 2,505
29. And Then There Were None (1945)
Approved | 97 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Seven guests, a newly hired secretary and two staff are gathered at a manor house on an isolated island by an unknown absentee host and are killed off one-by-one. They work together to determine who the killer is before it's too late.
Director: René Clair | Stars: Barry Fitzgerald, Walter Huston, Louis Hayward, Roland Young
Votes: 16,633
30. The Birds (1963)
PG-13 | 119 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
A wealthy San Francisco socialite pursues a potential boyfriend to a small Northern California town that slowly takes a turn for the bizarre when birds of all kinds suddenly begin to attack people.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Rod Taylor, Tippi Hedren, Jessica Tandy, Suzanne Pleshette
Votes: 204,393 | Gross: $11.40M
31. Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things (1972)
PG | 87 min | Comedy, Horror
Six friends in a theatrical troupe dig up a corpse on an abandoned island to use in a mock Satanic rite. It backfires with deadly consequences.
Director: Bob Clark | Stars: Alan Ormsby, Valerie Mamches, Jeff Gillen, Anya Ormsby
Votes: 5,016
32. ZMD: Zombies of Mass Destruction (2009)
R | 89 min | Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi
Life is wonderful for the people in the quiet, island town of Port Gamble....until a zombie virus outbreak.
Director: Kevin Hamedani | Stars: Janette Armand, Doug Fahl, Cooper Hopkins, Russell Hodgkinson
Votes: 4,281
33. Jurassic Park (1993)
PG-13 | 127 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
A pragmatic paleontologist touring an almost complete theme park on an island in Central America is tasked with protecting a couple of kids after a power failure causes the park's cloned dinosaurs to run loose.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough
Votes: 1,066,416 | Gross: $402.45M
34. The Lost Continent (1968)
G | 97 min | Adventure
The captain, crew, and passengers of an old freighter-all of them with dark secrets to keep-find themselves adrift in a mysterious land full of monsters, conquistadors, and killer seaweed.
Directors: Michael Carreras, Leslie Norman | Stars: Eric Porter, Hildegard Knef, Suzanna Leigh, Tony Beckley
Votes: 2,251
A sort-of "lost" Hammer classic. Begins like a 1950s sci-fi "B" movie, but doesn't end without some classic Hammer moments.
35. The Reef (2010)
R | 94 min | Adventure, Horror, Thriller
A great white shark hunts the crew of a capsized sailboat along the Great Barrier Reef.
Director: Andrew Traucki | Stars: Damian Walshe-Howling, Gyton Grantley, Adrienne Pickering, Zoe Naylor
Votes: 20,928
36. Bloodtide (1982)
R | 82 min | Adventure, Horror
An adventurer hunting for treasure in Greece accidentally frees a monster that forces local villagers to sacrifice virgins.
Director: Richard Jefferies | Stars: James Earl Jones, José Ferrer, Lila Kedrova, Mary Louise Weller
Votes: 2,596
37. Horror Island (1941)
Passed | 60 min | Comedy, Crime, Horror
A down-on-his-luck businessman organizes an excursion to Sir Henry Morgan's Island for a treasure hunt only to encounter a mysterious phantom and murder.
Director: George Waggner | Stars: Dick Foran, Leo Carrillo, Peggy Moran, Fuzzy Knight
Votes: 988
38. Zombie Holocaust (1980)
Unrated | 84 min | Adventure, Horror, Mystery
An expedition in the East Indies, encounters not only the cannibals they were looking for, but also an evil scientist and his zombie army.
Director: Marino Girolami | Stars: Ian McCulloch, Alexandra Delli Colli, Sherry Buchanan, Peter O'Neal
Votes: 5,887
39. American Gothic (1987)
R | 90 min | Horror
A group of travellers make emergency landing on an island in the Pacific Northwest after their seaplane malfunctioned, and stumble across an isolated and psychopathic family.
Director: John Hough | Stars: Sarah Torgov, Terence Kelly, Mark Erickson, Caroline Barclay
Votes: 4,536
40. Murder Island (2006 Video)
46 min | Comedy, Horror
It's summer. A group of teenagers decide to go on a camping trip. They drive far up in the country until they find a small place were they rent canoe's for a cheap price. The group paddle ... See full summary »
Director: Joakim S. Hammond | Stars: Marie Nilsson, Magnus Delborg, Marie Magnusson, Rita S. Hammond
Votes: 68
41. The Grim Reaper (1980)
R | 92 min | Horror
A group of friends and a hitchhiker become stranded on a tourist island where they are stalked by a disfigured cannibalistic killer who is prowling the island after killing its residents.
Director: Joe D'Amato | Stars: Tisa Farrow, Saverio Vallone, Serena Grandi, Margaret Mazzantini
Votes: 6,964
42. The Killer Shrews (1959)
Approved | 69 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
On an isolated island, a small group of people are terrorized by giant voracious shrews in the midst of a hurricane.
Director: Ray Kellogg | Stars: James Best, Ingrid Goude, Ken Curtis, Gordon McLendon
Votes: 5,653 | Gross: $1.00M
43. Survival of the Dead (2009)
R | 90 min | Comedy, Drama, Horror
On an island off the coast of North America, local residents simultaneously fight a zombie epidemic while hoping for a cure to return their un-dead relatives back to their human state.
Director: George A. Romero | Stars: Alan Van Sprang, Kenneth Welsh, Kathleen Munroe, Joshua Peace
Votes: 22,515 | Gross: $0.10M
44. Tower of Evil (1972)
R | 89 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller