Vaudou

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!

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.

Betsy Connell (Frances Dee) is a Canadian nurse hired to come to the Caribbean island of St. Sebastian, to work at Fort Holland. There she will attend to the needs of the mute, unresponsive, yet seemingly alive Jessica Holland (Christine Gordon). Jessica is wife to a plantation owner named Paul Holland (Tom Conway), with whom Betsy falls in love. Betsy becomes determined to do the right thing by Paul by trying to cure her, if she can. That includes immersing herself in the local voodoo culture.

There may be modern horror fans who bemoan the lack of what one might consider horror in "I Walked with a Zombie". It starts to go for more of a traditional creep factor in its second half, using the imposing Darby Jones as the mysterious, zombified Carrefour to great effect. Everything is handled with a great deal of sensitivity and authenticity by screenwriters Curt Siodmak & Ardel Wray, producer Val Lewton, and director Jacques Tourneur. Unlike some of the horror product of the time, it actually treats its black characters with a great deal of dignity and respect, and also gives the actors a chance to shine, such as Theresa Harris as Alma the maid.

As was always the case with these Lewton productions, the story (based to some degree on Jane Eyre, with factual articles on voodoo in the West Endies also used as a basis) is pretty tight, and the running time is typically short. (69 minutes all told.) We don't get to know the characters all that well, but we do still like them, and in a refreshing touch, there are no clear cut villains or explanations for the strange events. The actors each do a solid job: Dee as the heroine, Conway as the husband, James Ellison as his half brother, Edith Barrett (in old age make-up) as their mother, James Bell as the doctor, and Sir Lancelot as the calypso singer. As one can see, some of the cast were regulars in these Lewton films.

Overall, there's a real feeling of sadness to the atmosphere, helping to make this one of the best of Lewtons' filmography. One wouldn't know from the end result how quickly and cheaply these productions were made, as they have the power to grip their viewers 70 plus years later.

Eight out of 10.

The basic plot: A Canadian nurse arrives at the isle of St. Sebastian to take care of a plantation owners mentally entranced and disturbed wife, but once she get's there, she learns more than she should about the family secrets, voodoo , and zombie fever......

The praise: A truly poetic, hypnotizing, and creepy film experience. The poetry of the island traditions, the family mysteries and everything else about the movie is truly evocative and sensitive. There are smatterings of spooky moments throughout, all frightening suggestively, using sound , imagery and implied chills. All classically and romantically constructed and written, a flagon of longing, taste, and character in every little detail. Well-shot, especially the impressive voodoo ceremony. Very atmospheric, with black& white used to enhance the mood, as in all Lewton movies. Watch for calypso singer Sir Lancelot, who Lewton also used in " Curse of the Cat People", an equally poetic movie, which I also have reviewed. A masterpiece of the horror film, it has many scenes which take together the essential elements of suspense and atmosphere , sound and imagery , such as Dee traveling to the voodoo ceremony. A must-see. Very hard-to-find. The only way I could find it was to order a copy of an unauthorized copy of it from Canada.Truly great.

"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.