Hey guys! Horrorella here with another edition of Celluloid Nightmares.
I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE is the second of Val Lewton’s RKO horror productions, as well as his second collaboration with director Jacques Tourneur. Set on the island of San Sebastian in the Caribbean, the film opens with the arrival of Betsy Connell (Frances Dee), a young nurse journeying to the island to care for Jessica Holland (Christine Gordon), the infirmed wife of plantation owner Paul Holland (Tom Conway).
The plantation plays home to the couple, along with Paul’s mother (Edith Barrett) and his half-brother, Wesley Rand (James Ellison). The brothers could not be more different. Paul is reserved, with drawn and often morose. Wes is Paul’s polar opposite – charming, flirtatious and exceedingly outgoing. From the moment the two men cross paths onscreen, however, we understand that something dark passes between them. These two have history that goes beyond sibling rivalry, unspoken, yet barely hidden.
On Betsy’s first night in the house, she awakens to sounds of a woman crying. She leaves her room to investigate, following the sound across the plantation grounds and into a large stone tower. As she climbs the winding staircase, she is confronted by the haunting sight of a beautiful woman dressed in long, white flowing gowns. She calls out, but no answer. She approaches the woman, and comes face to face with the wide-eyed, expressionless face of Jessica Holland, herself. Emotionless, staring, Jessica takes no note of her, simply moving about as if Betsy is not there.
Betsy learns the next morning from the local doctor that Jessica’s condition is said to be the result of a strange tropical fever which left her a shadow of her former self, capable of only simple movements, with all thought, speech and recognition left behind. She has been well cared for, but the doctors say that she cannot be cured; the toll taken by the fever was far too great, and she is doomed to spend her days in a lifeless fog.
The story, however, is not as simple as it seems. Betsy soon learns the history of the family and Jessica’s illness through a rather unorthodox fashion. She visits a local cafe, and notices a Calypso singer (played by Sir Lancelot) entertaining passersby with a musical rendition of the family’s troubles, detailing how Jessica and Wesley had fallen in love, and were planning to leave the island together. Tragically, Jessica fell ill, ruining their plans, and setting the brothers forever at odds. Where the Western physicians believe Jessica's condition is simply the result of an untimely illness, the island inhabitants tell a different story. They believe Jessica to be under the power of a Voodoo curse, turned into a mindless zombie and damned to spend the rest of her days a mute and wandering shadow of her former self.
Written by Curt Siodmak and Ardel Wray, the script was based on an American Weekly article on Voodoo by Inez Wallace. RKO had originally wanted Lewton to use the article as a basis for a more shock-oriented picture. Lewton, however, wasn’t terribly impressed by the piece, and instead, used Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre as a model, overlaying the Voodoo angle with a love story that develops between Paul and Betsy, and creating the version of I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE that has become known to this day.*
And as sentimental as the story sounds, the romantic framework doesn’t prevent a fair amount of suspense to develop over the course of the film. Lewton crafts a subtle, but affecting film that equally balances elements of emotion and fear. The scene where Betsy first lays eyes on Jessica is particularly unnerving. Jessica is a “living ghost”, and she looks the part - long, flowing white gown, silent, graceful movements. Though the scene is mostly silent, the sight of Jessica’s wide-eyed, expressionless face when she finally turns toward Betsy is startling and incredibly effective.
The set design and cinematography also contribute greatly to this atmosphere. The film is absolutely gorgeous - an inversion of the dark, shadowy look that Tourneur and Lewton fashioned on their previous collaboration, CAT PEOPLE. Here, they again utilize light and shadow to a great degree, setting the tone of the scenes expertly and conveying a sense of haunted isolation. However, instead of a dark space drowning in shadows, here, they make equally impressive use of shadows by making them distinct and setting them against light backgrounds. Well-lit, presumably safe open spaces become menacing as they play host to dark shapes and silhouettes. In fact, it’s amazing just how spooky the film can feel, given the lack of visual darkness displayed. We so easily equate horror and mystery with a dimly-lit scene, but a lighter set can convey those notions just as effectively and eloquently, while also providing a distinct look and atmosphere.
Much like CAT PEOPLE, I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE revels in mystery and in the unexplained. Though it hints at several points that Voodoo is the reason for Jessica’s condition, the film never fully takes a stance one way or another. Was she stricken by a strange fever, never recover, or was she the recipient of a powerful Voodoo curse that turned her into a zombie? The film really never makes a definitive statement on the matter, and the cause of Jessica’s condition adds to the sense of mystery surrounding the story, as well as to the atmospheric tension that builds over the course of the film. Sometimes the possibility of the reality of something supernatural is much more affecting than the explicit knowledge of that reality. Keeping it vague gives it more power, and thus, a greater effect.
I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE also stands out among other zombie films in its very realistic and detailed portrayal of Voodoo practices and beliefs. Though it doesn’t go into specific detail concerning the creation of a zombie (likely to add to the mystery surrounding Jessica's condition), it still makes the effort to accurately incorporate a great deal of practices and beliefs. The dancing, the spiritual possession, many of the terms used, are all part of the practice. Lewton might not have been terribly impressed with Wallace’s original article, but he did pay the subject matter a certain amount of respect, and portrayed it as such. Though the characters often do brush off Voodoo as a strange piece of folklore, not to be taken seriously, the film also goes to the trouble of trying to display many of its practices accurately, never resorting to the go-to place of displaying it as a series of savage customs or overplaying it for shock value.
Despite Lewton's legitimate interest in and respect for the subject, RKO was determined to sell this as a shock film, regardless of nature of the completed piece. The trailer is all thrills and chills, and not remotely reflective of the subtle film that Lewton crafted. Take a look:
Initial reaction to the film was tepid, with audiences feeling it was dull and devoid of excitement. Time can be a healing influence, however, and over the course of the decades, film lovers have come to embrace I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE for the well-crafted piece that it is. It remaines a sublte, understated and beautifully haunting classic.
*So really, Lewton was an early pioneer in the concept of mashing up supernatural stories with classic fiction, beating Seth Grahame-Smith and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by a few decades.
