Directed by Jacques Tourneur and written by Curt Siodmak and Ardel Wray, a nurse in the Caribbean turns to voodoo in hopes of curing her patient, a mindless woman whose husband she’s fallen in love with. Starring: James Ellison, Frances Dee, Tom Conway, Edith Barrett, James Bell, Christine Gordon and Theresa Harris.
Once you dive into this story, you can tell that it’s loosely based on Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, the way that it develops both the plot and the relationships. It’s not perfectly a straight line between the two but it takes bits and pieces of it to create its own story. One with drama, mystery and a lingering doom. For a film that’s coming in at under seventy minutes, it manages to do a lot with its story, so of course, it holds your attention excellently.
There are lots of questions you could ask on I Walked with a Zombie’sdepictions of race, religion and culture, but that’s a whole debate of its own. One that’s worth having but to keep things simple, it’s surprisingly an interesting interpretation. It feels as though it’s giving the space for voodoo to actually be a part of the story rather than using it as a means to an end. Something which is fairly uncommon for 1940s cinema, so it’s a nice change of pace.
While the plot is not entirely a mystery, it’s well enough done that it doesn’t truly matter. It has a nicely creepy tone, the atmosphere is strong and Betsy (Frances Dee) is a terrific leading character. There’s a compelling foreboding that’s weaved throughout, as well as a great tension. Both qualities are enhanced further when the element of song is added to the mix, it was an excellent choice that adds an eery edge.
Yet, as is often the case with classic cinema, it has an air of being graceful and composed. It’s an interesting combination, there’s a sinister vein but it’s contained and lets everything flow smoothly rather than trying to shock you. Dee’s performance is another aspect which enhances that, she’s strong and unafraid yet cautious. She’s willing to wade into the deep end, she’s not easily spooked and is charming, she’s basically the perfect lead for the story. The rest of the ensemble are great and provide more sporadic notes and peaks to the tension. Edith Barrett in particularly creates quite a fascinating, unexpected character in Mrs. Rand.
I Walked with a Zombie is a tense, creepy and suspicious adventure, it may not be horror as we know it today but you can easily see how it ended up influencing future filmmakers. The story is surprisingly well done for how brief the runtime is. The progression is excellent, it manages its time perfectly and it’s captivating from start to finish. The restoration work is a boost to its spooky atmosphere, and Frances Dee and Edith Barrett create strong characters that you could happily have followed for a lot longer.
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