I Walked with a Zombie (1943)

Boring

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Val Lewton and Jacque Tourneur are the forces behind this movie. When we think of zombies, we have a picture in our minds of the characters in "The Night of the Living Dead" and numerous movies and TV shows following it, including "The Walking Dead." This was made when the zombie was better known as a drink than as a character. This is quite different than what we are used to. A young woman gets a job as a nurse on an island where voodoo is practiced. Her job is to watch after a woman who is pretty much catatonic, who seems to sleepwalk, in a house where there are mysterious circumstances. On the island is a subculture that beats drums and holds meetings doing that voodoo stuff. The woman who is the center of all this has been affected in some way by these people and her husband is also involved in some way. Like many of the Lewton films, it's very low key with incredible atmosphere. I've been wanting to see this film for years and finally had the opportunity.

This is a clever take on Jayne Eyre by a great producer-director team Val Lewton and Jacques Tourneur who made several films for a stick of gum in the early forties and obtained 90 per cent of their effects by allowing the viewers imagination to stand in for cgi which was still decades in the future. Tom Conway may have only had a voice and suavity in common with his brother George Sanders but he makes a half-decent fist of the Rochester role and it's a great chance to catch the elusive Frances Dee as the Jane Eyre figure. She married Joel McCrea in the early thirties and didn't work nearly enough post-nuptials despite being a talented actress and a looker with it. Decent B-picture.

This is not a bad zombie film - it's actually fairly good for what it is. Nurse Betsy is from Canada and she is hired to go to the West Indies to care for Jessica, a woman who's mind seems inflicted with a type of paralysis. Jessica is the wife of Paul Holland - Betsy and Paul fall in-love and Betsy is determined to help Jessica because she believes that is what Paul is wanting.Jessica is believed to be a zombie and some believe that voodoo is the only cure for her. Is Jessica a zombie or is she simply sick as a result of a high fever? This would be a great double feature with films like White Zombie (1932), Revolt of the Zombies (1936) or the comedy-horror film King of the Zombies (1941).6.5/10

Well the original meaning of a zombie is not a dead creature that is brought back to life or became a flesh eating monster due to a virus as in today's tales, but is it is a human that has no more will of his own and is directed by witchcraft in this case voodoo. That is what we see with the blonde lady and also the black guard with his big eyes. Well the voodoo scenes are done really well and that is why I pass this movie. However it falls pretty flat in story and characters. None of them is remarkable and the dramatic story with relationship intrigues is just as uninteresting as the standard soap opera. Besides there is too many characters involved which made the whole pretty tedious to watch. The location was nice though.