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Now Playing: ‘Castaway Cinema’ – three daring desert island movies
By: Gordon Briggs
Posted on:
Sunday, February 15, 2026
I enjoyed Sam Raimi’s new film Send Help. The movie is the latest example of what I call ‘Castaway Cinema’, a small sub-genre of films that explore what happens when, after being stranded on a deserted island, characters struggle to survive when the thin veil of ‘civilization’ is lifted. Here are three strong examples of Castaway Cinema.
When adapting a popular book, you always run the risk of being so shackled to the source material that the film becomes too literal. Thankfully, this take on Lord of the Flies absolutely works as a movie. You know the basics of the story: a deserted island, a group of school children washed ashore, and a slow descent into ‘primitivism. Peter Brook’s spin on the tale has some heartbreaking moments (the final scenes when salvation arrives still get to me). However, I think the filmmakers made choices early on that drew me into this world. Right from the opening, we get a stylized prologue presented as a sequence of still photographs. There, over the opening credits, we see a privileged English prep school, including boys at their desks, a choir, and a cricket match. Those images suddenly become pictures of rockets, warplanes, and destruction. Visual choices like this emphasize the “civilized” world the boys are leaving behind. It may be 60 years old, but its message feels all too timely ★★★1/2
The next one is a movie with a little Marxism, a little sadomasochism, and some beautiful beachside lovemaking that turns the original Swept Away into one bizarre island-survival story. I enjoyed it, even while parts made me uncomfortable. Playing like a rom-com crossed with Lord of the Flies, we meet a spoiled rich woman whose wealthy life is capsized when she is shipwrecked on a deserted island with the long-suffering communist chef who works on her yacht. However, just as we start to take pleasure in the class-conscious role reversal, the chef starts to become a sadistic island dictator whose abuse of this woman borders on assault. What’s strange is that out of that brutality comes something romantic. The decision to make the central romance toxic is deliberate on the filmmakers’ part and may turn off some viewers. I wouldn’t dare call it a love story, but it’s a beautiful and engaging story of codependency in a tropical paradise. ★ ★ ★1/2
I love this one. One of the best films of 2017 is also a powerful island survival story that captures the power of silent cinema. Combining the resources of both French and Japanese studios, Red Turtle crafts a Robinson Crusoe-style story of a man stranded on a deserted island by a magic turtle. There isn’t a word of dialogue spoken here, but the images lend the story a surreal, dreamlike quality. (I enjoy how the animators made the ocean waters a screen on which our castaway projects his inner thoughts. ) While watching it, you not only become hypnotized by its clarity, but you may start to ponder your own isolation and what you may want from this life. It’s an excellent film waiting for
you to discover it.★★★★
