I Walked with a Zombie (1943) review

3. I Walked with a Zombie (1943)

Directed by: Jacques Tourneur

Produced by: Val Lewton

Screenplay by: Curt Siodmak, Ardel Wray

Starring: James Ellison, Frances Dee, Tom Conway

I’ve talked before about Val Lewton, head of RKO’s horror department who came out with some of the best genre films of the 1940s. Reportedly, his conditions were keeping them under a certain budget and within a certain run time, being given only the titles and asked to make something out of them. One of the latter exceptions was today’s film, “I Walked with a Zombie,” his first one after the masterpiece “Cat People.” It’s based on an American Weekly Magazine article by columnist Inez Wallace about her recent experience in Haiti, although it’s narratively inspired by “Jane Eyre.” It’s about a nurse named Betsy (Frances Dee) who’s asked to work on a plantation in the Caribbean, only to be disturbed by intense familial strife and bizarre rituals. This is one of those movies that’s gained a lot of retrospective praise over the years, but although it has solid performances and atmosphere, the story doesn’t really grab me.

Told in narration, we see Betsy accept a job caring for the wife of Paul (Tom Conway), the owner of a sugar plantation on the island of Saint Sebastian, despite being warned of possible witchcraft. Once on the island, Betsy meets Paul’s half-brother employee Wesley (James Ellison), who resents him, and his wife Jessica (Christine Gordon), who spends most of her time walking around in a catatonic state, an apparent effect of a tropical fever that left her mute. After Betsy’s efforts to help Jessica prove ineffective, Paul’s maid Alma (Theresa Harris) recommends alternative methods, specifically a voodoo ritual engineered by the Saint Sebastian locals. However, the true nature of Jessica’s condition complicates matters, as evidenced by further interactions between the two contentious siblings and their enigmatic mother (Edith Barrett).

The leads in this movie are quite convincing; Lewton regular Tom Conway always brings this class and sophistication to his roles, James Ellison shows impressive variety in how he can be so cheerful and easy-going one minute and coldly vindictive the next, and Frances Dee has a perfectly endearing softness and genuineness. I think she overdoes it slightly in moments she’s supposed to be frightened, but at the same time, this isn’t really a movie with much horrific stuff happening. Most of it is just characters sitting around talking about back stories, treatments, culture, etc. I wouldn’t mind if it all amounts to something or is engaging, but it just feels like a bunch of tired cliches with only a smidge of intrigue, and the pacing is too slow and melodramatic.

The good news is that visually, it gets more interesting as it goes on; actually, the image of Christine Gordon walking around draped in shadows is appealing for any retro cinema nerd, and there’s just more to look at once we start diving into the voodoo storyline. There’s plenty of foreboding imagery, perhaps none moreso than Darby Jones as the guard Carrefour, whose strange buggy eyes make him kind of the most iconic character of the movie. It was reportedly a role Jones was normally typecasted as, with black actors usually getting bit roles in horror movies of the time. But in a way, there’s sort of a purpose to this portrayal, along with the supporting servants and voodoo worshippers, as the history of both the family and the island itself is shown as racially questionable, and this builds off that. However, like most of the conversations, I wish there was some climactic payoff to it.

Overall, “I Walked with a Zombie,” though having probably the coolest-sounding title in Lewton’s filmography, might be my least favorite of his that I’ve seen. It’s not awful or even bad; I just have so little to say about it. This is a film with good concepts, but it doesn’t really build much momentum; if there were more sinister undertones like in “Island of Lost Souls” or the brotherly conflict felt even more pronounced, I could see this working just as well as better “evil island” movies. As it is, it’s okay, but not something I’d put much effort into watching again.

My rating: 6/10