I Walked with a Zombie

First of all: PLEASE don't let the misleading, rather silly sounding title discourage you! I walked with a Zombie is another brilliant result of the collaborations between producer Val Lewton and director Jacques Tourneur. Released one year after the simply astonishing movie 'Cat People', this is yet another intelligently elaborated and genuinely original genre-masterpiece. The solid screenplay contains a rarely seen before amount of eeriness and handles about a young ambitious nurse who goes to San Antonio in order to take care of Jessica. Jessica is the wife of plantation-owner Paul Holland and she suffers from a bizarre mental paralysis, supposedly caused by a tropical fever. She is – in fact – a zombie only not the type of walking corpse you usually expect in horror movies. Betsy, the nurse, is somehow convinced that Jessica may still be cured and turns to the Voodoo-community that is living on the island as well. Just like he pulled it off in Cat People, Tourneur manages to bring suspense in a subtle way. Without bloody images but with a unique photography and efficient set pieces! I walked with a Zombie contains great dialogs, intriguing characters and mind bending plot-twists. This is an intelligent and demanding film, especially made for people who take this genre serious! It ranks slightly under 'Cat People' but light-years above most other horror films. Check it out!

Present day viewers watching this wonderful movie after reading the label "horror" and seeing the word "zombie" in the title, might be in for a shock if they think they're going to be in for a Romero/Fulci gorefest. This is a completely different kind of zombie movie! In fact, calling it horror is quite misleading, mystery is the more appropriate description. Anyone who has seen 'Cat People', the earlier collaboration between director Jacques Tourneur and producer Val Lewton, will know what to expect. A haunting and subtle yet suspenseful, and yes, at times quite scary, thriller. 'I Walked With A Zombie' (a classic title! Later lifted by Roky Erikson for a classic song) follows 'Cat People's ambiguous format quite closely with a series of events which may or may not have a supernatural explanation. Add a dash of 'Jane Eyre' to it and a West Indies setting and there you have it. Tourneur was a master of atmosphere and there are moments in this movie which are truly unforgettable. The two leads Tom Conway and Frances Dee are both very good, and Dee is cute to boot. I don't think 'I Walked With A Zombie' is quite as brilliant as 'Cat People', which I still think ties with the film noir classic 'Out Of The Past' as Tourneur's greatest film, but it comes very close, and I highly recommend it. If you've never seen this one before, turn off all the lights and watch with someone special. You are in for a real treat!

Canadian nurse Betsy Connell (Frances Dee) is employed by wealthy Paul Holland (Tom Conway) to take care of his catatonic wife Jessica in the West Indies. It is never said exactly where in the West Indies this is, but it is mentioned that there is a strong presence of voodoo on the island.

Betsy is told by Jessica's doctor that Jessica has been this way since she had a bad case of a tropical fever, and the catatonia was the aftermath. Jessica can walk and follow simple commands, but she is mute and doesn't seem to comprehend what is going on around her.

Betsy gets to know both her boss Paul, who is a joyless curmudgeon who proves to be secretly sensitive, as well as his brother Wesley, who is outwardly charming but dangerously embittered. But it's the permanently unavailable Paul whom she grows to love. When a voodoo-believing servant tells Betsy that voodoo has the power to cure Jessica, Betsy takes Jessica to the voodoo encampment to see if they can cause her to reclaim her sanity. Complications ensue.

The film is for sure atmospheric, like all of the entries from Val Lewton during this time period. That atmosphere includes lumbering women in billowing long white gowns, tall stone staircases, and high gray ceilings. A great sense of unease runs through the veins of this movie from start to finish.

What did I not like? Character development is very abbreviated. And the locals who inhabit the island seem more like they are sporting the accent of the blacks of the American south than the West Indies. Plus the explanation of events is delivered in just a couple of sentences at the end and left me very unsatisfied - Show me, don't tell me! But then this was meant to be a 70-minute RKO quickie, not a horror classic, so it is remarkable that with such a small budget it has managed to have such staying power over the years. I'd recommend it.

The Canadian nurse Betsy Connell (Frances Dee) is hired to travel to St. Sebastian, in West Indies, to work at Fort Holland nursing Jessica Holland (Christine Gordon), the wife of the sugar plantation owner Paul Holland (Tom Conway). Betsy meets Paul in the ship and is welcomed by Paul's estranged half-brother Wesley "Wes" Rand (James Ellison) in the farmhouse. During the night, she overhears a woman crying and she believes that might be Jessica and goes to her room. She finds a creepy mute woman and she learns that Jessica had a mental paralysis after a severe tropical fever and is a hopeless case, unable to speak or have power. Soon Betsy falls in love with Paul and she decides to help Jessica to be cured to make Paul happier. She suggests an experimental treatment with shock to Dr. Maxwell (James Bell) but it fails. While talking to the maid Alma (Theresa Harris), she discovers that another woman was cured in a voodoo ceremony by a voodoo priest and she decides to use witchcraft to cure Jessica. However the natives believe that Jessica is a zombie that cannot be cured. When Betsy meets Paul and Wesley's mother Mrs. Rand (Edith Barrett), she finds that Jessica was the pivot of a fight between Paul and Wes and she believes that her daughter-in-law is a zombie.

"I Walked with a Zombie" is an ambiguous zombie movie directed by Jacques Tourneur. The plot is a family drama and the zombies in this movie are not like in George Romero's trilogy or "The Walking Dead", but related to voodoo in a Caribbean Island. There is a creepy atmosphere with a beautiful cinematography, the non-stop voodoo drums and the native Carrefour, but no gore, violent death or scream. The conclusion is ambiguous after the revelation of Mrs. Rand. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "A Morta-Viva" ("The Living Dead")

"I Walked with a Zombie" is one of the most highly regarded of the handful of horror films that Val Lewton produced in the early to mid forties. The story is based partly on Charlotte Brontë's "Jane Eyre" and partly on a magazine article by Inez Wallace.

In the film, a young Canadian nurse accepts a position in the West Indies where she will care for a plantation manager's convalescent wife. She finds that the woman's mental faculties have been affected by a fever and the locals refer to her as a zombie. She determines to effect a cure, even if she has to enter into the mysterious (and potentially dangerous) world of voodoo.

The acting is decent enough but nothing to write home about. The top-billed James Ellison gives a forgettable performance but co-stars Frances Dee & Tom Conway fare better. In support, some actors seem more authentic than others but overall the cast is satisfactory.

Jacques Tourneur was handed the directorial duties and he did a fine job with the resources that were available to him. The direction, cinematography & score (by Roy Webb) create an ominous atmosphere that makes up for any inadequacies inherent in the film's low budget. The screenplay (co-written by Curt Siodmak) also deserves praise for its psychological depth and ambiguous treatment of the supernatural.

All in all, "I Walked with a Zombie" is a worthwhile horror picture and a welcome change from today's stereotypical flesh-eating zombies. While its B-movie origins are sometimes apparent, this film elevates itself above the usual expectations with intelligent screen writing and skillful technique.