10 Vampire Movie Fates Worse Than Death
3. Isle Of The Dead - Buried Alive And Driven Insane
This film isn't a vampire movie in the overt sense, there are no fanged femme fatales or blood-sucking monsters. Instead the movie uses the volvolaka, a type of energy draining vampire from Greek folklore, as a symbol to highlight our fears and paranoia.
In the movie, our main character General Pherides visits The Isle of The Dead where his wife is buried, to pay tribute to her. The Island is pretty much uninhabitable besides one house, where a group of people are seeking refuge from the war that's waging on the mainland.
Among the group are two women: a paranoid Greek housekeeper named Kyra and a young lady named Thea. When the house's inhabitants start dying of a mysterious plague, Kyra starts whispering her paranoia about young Thea being a volvolaka to the other characters.
The movie perfectly encapsulates the fears that would have ravaged the minds of people during this time, fears that included the supernatural, disease and, because of the island's various graves and tombs, the fear of being buried alive.
While the plot is generally focused on the suspicions about Thea, the most fear inducing moments come when another character, Mrs St Aubyn (who is terrified of premature burial), gets buried alive because the characters believe her to be dead after she falls into a catatonic state.
When she comes out of her state she claws her way back the the land of the living and proceeds to go crazy, having been driven to insanity by this fate.