I Walked with a Zombie

I Walked with a Zombie
theatrical poster
Directed by	Jacques Tourneur
Produced by	Val Lewton
Written by	Inez Wallace (story) Curt Siodmak Ardel Wray
Narrated by	Frances Dee
Starring	James Ellison Frances Dee Tom Conway
Music by	Roy Webb
Cinematography	J. Roy Hunt
Editing by	Mark Robson
Distributed by	RKO Radio Pictures
Release date(s)	March 17, 1943
Running time	69 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

I Walked with a Zombie is a 1943 horror film directed by Jacques Tourneur. It was the second horror film from producer Val Lewton for RKO Pictures; the first was the very successful Cat People, also directed by Tourneur.

Plot

Betsy Connell (Frances Dee), a Canadian nurse, relates in a voiceover narration how she once "walked with a zombie."

Betsy is hired to care for the wife of Paul Holland (Tom Conway), a sugar plantation owner on the Caribbean island of Saint Sebastian. Saint Sebastian is inhabited by a small white community and descendants of African slaves. Betsy is brought to Fort Holland, where she is told the story of how the Hollands brought the slaves to the island, and that the statue of "Ti-Misery" (Saint Sebastian pierced by arrows) in the courtyard is the figurehead from a slave ship.

That night at dinner, Betsy meets Paul's half-brother Wesley Rand (James Ellison), who works for him. While getting ready for bed, Betsy hears a woman crying. When she investigates, she is cornered by her patient, Jessica Holland, whom she had not yet met. Jessica walks towards her in a white robe, her eyes staring. Betsy screams, waking the rest of the household. Paul takes charge of Jessica.

The next morning, Betsy meets Jessica's physician, Dr. Maxwell, who explains that his patient's strange condition was caused by a severe tropical fever. It irreparably damaged Jessica's spinal cord, leaving her totally without the willpower to do anything for herself.

On her day off, Betsy encounters Wesley in town. While he drinks himself into a stupor, a calypso singer (Sir Lancelot) sings about how Jessica was going to run away with Wesley, but Paul would not let them go. Then she was struck down by the fever. Betsy meets Mrs Rand (Edith Barrett), Paul and Wesley's doctor mother.

That night, Paul and Wesley argue during dinner. Paul tries to cut down on Wesley's drinking (at Betsy's suggestion), but his half-brother accuses him of trying to impress Betsy and of driving Jessica insane in the first place.

Later, Betsy is drawn to the sound of Paul playing the piano. Paul apologizes for bringing her to the island and admits that he may have been the cause of his wife's condition. Over time, Betsy has been falling in love with her moody employer. She determines to make him happy by curing Jessica.

Betsy gets Paul to agree to try a potentially fatal treatment of insulin shock on Jessica, but it has no effect. Alma (Theresa Harris), a housemaid, then tells her of how a Voodoo priest cured a woman of a similar condition. Betsy takes her patient without permission to the houmfort (a place where voodoo worshipers gather). The two women set off through billowing cane fields to a crossroads guarded by the towering figure of the eerie Carre-Four (a reference to the loa Maitre Carrefours^{[citation needed]}). At the Houmfort, they watch a man (the Sabreur) wield a saber during a ritual. People are given advice through a shack door by another Voodoo priest. Betsy however is summoned inside, where she is shocked to find that the priest is none other than Mrs Rand.

Mrs Rand explains that she uses Voodoo to convince the natives to accept conventional medical practices and tells Betsy that Jessica can never be cured. Outside, the locals stab Jessica in the arm with the sword as a test. When she does not bleed, they are convinced she is a zombie. Betsy takes her back to the house.

The natives demand that Jessica be returned to them for "ritual tests". Later, Carre-Four approaches the residence, but Mrs Rand orders him to leave.

Paul suggests that Betsy return to Canada, as he is fearful of demeaning and abusing her as he did Jessica. She is convinced that he is not really like that.

The next day, Doctor Maxwell reports that the unrest has sparked an official inquiry into Jessica's illness. Mrs Rand shocks everyone by claiming that Jessica is a zombie, one of the living dead. Although she had never taken Voodoo seriously, Mrs Rand reveals that when she discovered that Jessica was planning to run away with Wesley and break up her family, she felt herself possessed by a Voodoo god. She then put a curse on Jessica.

Paul, Maxwell and Betsy are disbelieving, pointing out that Jessica's heart is still beating — which would rule out her being a zombie. Wesley, on the other hand, becomes obsessed with freeing Jessica from her zombie state. He asks Betsy if she would consider euthanasia, but she refuses.

Paul and Betsy prevent Jessica from answering the Sabreur's call. From left to right: Christine Gordon, Frances Dee, James Ellison and Tom Conway.

Using a doll made to look like Jessica, the Sabreur takes control of her and tries to draw her to him. Paul and Betsy stop her the first time, but they are not around when he tries again. Wesley opens the gate, letting Jessica out. Then he pulls an arrow out of the statue of Ti-Misery and follows. As the Sabreur stabs the doll with a pin, Wesley thrusts the arrow into Jessica. He then carries her body into the sea, pursued slowly by Carre-Four. Later, the natives discover the bodies of Jessica and Wesley floating in the surf and carry them back to Fort Holland, where Paul comforts Betsy.

Cast

• Tom Conway as Paul Holland. Conway also appeared in two other Lewton films, Cat People and The Seventh Victim, both times playing a character named Dr. Louis Judd (without any further connection between the two).

• Frances Dee as Betsy Connell. Anna Lee was originally stated for the role. Lee appeared in the later Lewton production Bedlam.

• James Ellison as Wesley Rand

• Edith Barrett as Mrs. Rand. Barrett went on to play Ms. Fairfax in Jane Eyre (1944) — the book of which was a major influence on I Walked With a Zombie. Barrett also appeared in another Val Lewton production, The Ghost Ship (1943).

• Christine Gordon as Jessica Holland

Production

Producer Val Lewton was forced to use the film's title by RKO executives. Officially, the film was based on an article written by Inez Wallace for American Weekly Magazine. Lewton asked his writers to use Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre for giving the story a narrative structure and to do research on Haitian voodoo practices.

Reception

While I Walked with a Zombie was declared to be "a dull, disgusting exaggeration of an unhealthy, abnormal concept of life" by The New York Times in 1943, critics later called it "intelligent" (William K. Everson), "exceptional" (Leonard Maltin) and "the most elegant" in Lewton's RKO horror series (Tom Milne).

The film's treatment of the supernatural element repeatedly attracted interest among reviewers:

• "As with all of Val Lewton’s films, I Walked with a Zombie hovers on the deliberate edge of ambiguity between whether the explanation for events is mundane or supernatural. [...] The central belief/doubt ambiguity of the film hovers around the question of whether Jessica is suffering from tropical fever or has been affected by voodoo. The film sits just between rationalism and superstition – its’ duality plays on the conflict between Western Christendom and Caribbean culture, and between medicine and magic." – Richard Scheib
• "In [I Walked with a Zombie] belief in the supernatural is but one of many faults in the human character. The script never confirms the reality of Voodoo even when it is clear that the Voodoo masters are controlling the zombie Carre-Four. It's worth noting that Wesley 'falls under the voodoo spell' only after despairing of the hopeless state of affairs at the Hammond house, and sinking into a deep depression. [...] Lewton's theme is that human nature creates Evil -- that unresolved guilt and suspicions from the past dominate the Hammond family's present. Better natures are stifled, starting a chain of human misery that leads to tragedy. The result -- wasted lives and blighted vitality -- is as pervasive as the creeping Voodoo beliefs themselves. " – Glenn Erickson

In 2007, Stylus Magazine named it the fifth best Zombie movie of all time.

In popular culture

Books

• This film was referenced in the novel Kiss of the Spider Woman by Argentine novelist Manuel Puig. In the book, two inmates pass the time by discussing the films one of them has seen. Though I Walked With A Zombie is not specifically mentioned, it is hinted at, as is Cat People, a previous Lewton-Tourneur film.

Film

• The Tales from the Crypt film Ritual (2001) is a loose remake of I Walked with a Zombie.
• In 2007 it was announced the makers of the Saw series would be remaking the film for release before 2010.

Music

• Singer-songwriter Roky Erickson, pioneer of the psychedelic rock genre and member of the 13th Floor Elevators, wrote a song titled "I Walked with a Zombie", which appeared on his 1981 album The Evil One. Since then, the bands R.E.M., U.K. Subs, Alice Donut and Elf Power have covered this song.

• Dance collective Transglobal Underground sampled some of the voodoo chanting from the soundtrack of I Walked with a Zombie for the track "Zombie'ites" from their 1993 album Dream of 100 Nations.

• Wednesday 13's album Transylvania 90210: Songs of Death, Dying, and the Dead (2005) contains the track "I Walked With A Zombie", inspired by this film. The song's video depicts band members edited into another zombie classic, George A. Romero's Night Of The Living Dead.

External links

• I Walked with a Zombie at the Internet Movie Database
• I Walked with a Zombie at the TCM Movie Database
• I Walked with a Zombie at AllRovi
• I Walked with a Zombie at Rotten Tomatoes