Shadows in the Dark: The Val Lewton Legacy

Shadows in the Dark (2005)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Another wonderful documentary from Warner, this time covering the career of Val Lewton and the nine horror films he made for RKO. The documentary does a great job at showing how Orson Welles pretty much destroyed RKO and how Lewton's horror films saved the studio from going out of business. As usual there's a lot of historians and fans talking about the films, which is always fun to see. It's also nice to see these horror films get their due on DVD. The one downfall with the film is that there's really not too much known about Lewton so this leads to a lot of questions not getting answered.

Legendary producer Val Lewton who made some of the scariest horror films of all time finally gets a documentary about his life and the movies. It quickly (but fully) covers his early life and explains how he got to work for RKO Pictures and produce "The Cat People", "I Walked With a Zombie", "Bedlam", "The Body Snatcher", "The Leopard Man", "Isle of the Dead", the long unseen "Ghost Ship" and "The Seventh Victim". "Curse of the Cat People" is pretty much ignored but that's understandable--it's not really a horror film despite the title. They talk to coworkers, relatives, friends, other horror directors and film historians who get into how he made the films and why they're so important. What I find most interesting is that the studios GAVE him the titles and told him to make a story out of the title! It's incredible what classics he made with no money and just a title to work on. If you're a fan of his horror films (like me) you'll find this absolutely riveting. At 53 minutes it also doesn't wear out its welcome. Just fascinating. A 10 all the way.

Documentary about the great 1940s horror movie producer Val Lewton, featured on the 2005 DVD release "The Val Lewton Horror Collection."

You will learn how Lewton saved RKO by making successful B-movies between 1942 and 1946. How he opposed the idea of "Gone With the Wind", which was a mistake on Lewton's part. How he inspired Richard Matheson to write Lewton a letter, and thus change the history of horror cinema... no Matheson, no great horror of the 1960s!

John Landis calls Cat People's ethics "demented" and sees a lot of sexuality in the plot. Was it there? Maybe. Others have commented on the sexuality and homosexuality of Lewton's films, including "Cat People" and "The Seventh Victim". Was he a more clever script writer than already given credit for?

A great overview of Lewton's career. Especially good because it ties the mid-century and modern creators of horror cinema back to Lewton as an influence. I could have listened to some of them talk for another half-hour. Harlan Ellison is especially insightful and generous with his praise of Lewton's style of filmmaking.

I think it could have gone a bit deeper into Lewton's psyche and how that played into the subtext of his films, but that's also been covered extensively elsewhere, so maybe this was better off with the approach it took.

I do wish that my favorite Lewton film, Curse of the Cat People, had gotten more than a cursory mention at the end. The films that seemed to get the most time spent of them were Cat People, I Walked with a Zombie, The Leopard Man, The Seventh Victim and The Body Snatcher -- the last of which this documentary definitely convinced me that I need to see soon. It's a glaring hole in my movie watching.

When there's something I enjoy as much as the Val Lewton movies, I simply cannot get enough information. Shadows in the Dark: The Val Lewton Legacy is a fascinating look at the man and his work. The documentary covers everything from Lewton's arrival in America as a child to his early work for David O. Selznick to the nine horror films he made for RKO. The stories and details of Lewton's life and films are presented through a series of interviews with experts on cinema, directors and screenwriters working today, and Lewton's son. The documentary obviously focuses and spends most of its runtime on the RKO period. The film makes it clear that what I've come to know as the "Lewton Look" was as much a budgetary issue as a conscious decision on his part. The only complaint I have is that it wasn't longer.