Title: I Walked With a Zombie (1943)
Director: Jacques Tourneur
Cast: Frances Dee, Edith Barrett, Tom Conway, James
Ellison
Review:
As I work my way through all these old zombie movies I
realize just how similar they all are. In my review for King of the Zombies (1941)
I mentioned how similar it was to White Zombie (1931), but here I am again to
tell you that I Walked With a Zombie is yet another film that shares an
alarming amount of similarities with Bela Lugosi’s film. They all share similar
scenes, situations, premises and characters. Again, we have a Voodoo Island, we
get to hear drums in the jungle, we get the black slaves, the zombie bride, the
sugar mill…but I will say this, I Walked With A Zombie is superior to all of
these movies I’ve mentioned because it benefits from something that none of the
others films had: producer Val Lewton and director Jacques Tourneur. The
involvement of these two talented individuals is what makes I Walked With A
Zombie one of the classiest zombie movies ever made, I know that sounds like a
contradiction of sorts because who’d think a zombie movie could be classy
right?
In I Walked With A Zombie we meet a nurse named Betsy who
has just accepted a job in the West Indies as a nurse taking care of the sick wife
of a rich land owner named Paul Holland. What ailment has stricken Mr. Holland’s
wife? No one really knows, some think she’s affected by some sort of fever,
others think she has a mental disorder, but if you ask the slaves they’ll tell
you she’s been zombified! Who knows the truth of what really happened to Mrs.
Holland?
Director Jacques Tourneur was a master in creating
atmosphere in his films, I remember noting this when I first saw Night of theDemon (1957). There’s moments on that one that are genuinely creep where the
supernatural seems almost like a real thing. Tourneur was a director that knew
how important shadows are, the importance of having the wind blow against the
leaves of a tree, the sound the wind makes and the importance of those eerie
moments of silence. I Walked With a Zombie has many moments such as these and
though the film plays with themes and premises I’d seen before in similar
films, what set this one apart is the quality of the production, the
performances, the cinematography; all these elements where top notch on I
Walked With A Zombie in contrast to films like King of the Zombies and White
Zombie, which can sometimes seem cheap and show their budgetary limitations. I
Walked With A Zombie does not suffer from these problems, this is a top notch
production, or at least it felt that way!
A thing or two can be said about the titular zombie on
this film, which is without a doubt in my mind the most beautiful zombie in all
of zombie zinema. I mean I’ve seen sexy zombies, I’ve seen gross out zombies, I’ve
seen many a walking bag of puss, but I’d never seen me a more beautiful zombie
then the one depicted on this film. Edith Barret played the zombified bride,
she doesn’t speak a word throughout the entire film, but she looks hauntingly
beautiful. I love the way she looked as she walked in her white dress, the wind
blowing on it…she has a haunting almost ghost-like quality to her. Tourneur
really made an effort to make her feel as if she was a shell of a human being,
an empty vessel.
Same as with Night of the Demon and Cat People (1942) (another
awesome Jacques Tourneur film) for a huge chunk of the film, we are never
really sure if the supernatural elements are real or not. I’ve always enjoyed
that about Tourneur’s films; he always questions religion and the supernatural.
Even if in the film eventually the supernatural ends up being real, for most of
the film the existence of the supernatural and its validity in the real world
is always put in question and explored. In Night of the Demon the main
character is an incurable skeptic, a guy who only believes in reason and
reality, the same happens in I Walked With A Zombie. Characters are always
questioning Voodoo. Is it real? Should we be afraid of it? Is it real only in
the mind of the people who believe in it? I love the fact that a film from the
40’s explored these themes with such honesty, this is a recurring thing in
Tourneur’s films.
But in the end, even though this is a film that puts
belief systems in question, the film doesn’t forget that what we want is to be
spooked, and that it does well. There’s this amazing sequence where Betsy goes
walking with the zombie girl and she immerses herself, slowly but surely, in
the world of Voodoo. Great sequence, the imagery there is unforgettable for me,
the mood, the ambiance, undisputed; Tourneur really was a master creating truly
eerie moments. So in conclusion, this one is a real find. I Walked With A
Zombie is one of the best of its kind. Out of all these zombies in a voodoo
island films, I’d say it can only be challenged by White Zombie which is still
my favorite because it’s more of a horror film. Even though this Jacques
Tourneur zombie film has its spooky moments and memorable imagery, I’d see it
as more of a tragic love story then a horror film. Still, this is without a
doubt, a gem of Zombie Zinema, not to be missed!
Rating: 5 out of 5
5 comments:
Its interesting of course that we still had to wait another 25 years before George A. Romero brought the 'modern zombie film' into existence. I agree about the atmosphere in IWWAZ it is truly astonishing, but i think most people now prefer to see guts being ripped out.
I really love this movie, it's really creepy and atmospheric. That goes the same for most of the Val Lewton productions.
Jimmie: true, the modern zombie film is a completely different thing right now, but this Tourneur film has an aesthetic that makes it very unique, definetly a film of its time, todays films are faster, more violent, and gory, but then again, I think Tourneur was going for a quieter type of film, something that would creep up under your sking slowly but surely. Its a moody, dark, atmospheric piece.
Jorge: Totally agree man, up next for me is The Body Snatchers.
I am SO PUMPED to watch this one. I had already read great things about it, but now your review has me even more psyched... we seem to watch a lot of the same movies :)
A classic zombie flick, very eerie, I think you'll love it man. It's a zombie film from another time, its emphasis is not on the gore, but on the mood and atmosphere....great for Halloween Night!
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