Protraph Lack of good storyline.

PlatinumRead Just so...so bad

Supelice Dreadfully Boring

Dirtylogy It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Alex da Silva Frances Dee (Betsy) is appointed as a nurse to care for Christine Gordon (Jessica) on a Caribbean island. Gordon has a mysterious condition. Can it be attributed to voodoo or more natural causes? Whatever the condition, it is weird! The rest of the cast include her plantation-owner husband Tom Conway (Paul), his half-brother James Ellison (Wesley), their mother Edith Barrett, and a community of voodoo worshippers. They all have their own theories as to what has happened to Jessica. So, can nurse Frances get to the truth? This film is way better than its title suggests. It's atmospheric, spooky, nicely shot and very unexpected as well as original in its setting. There are quite a few memorable set pieces in this fairly short film. In fact, it's all pretty memorable and keeps you watching. If you try to anticipate what is coming next, I guarantee you will get it wrong. I got things wrong every time I thought I knew what was going to happen. It's a very good film in that respect. So, just watch the story unfurl.The actors are fine – I wasn't too enamoured with James Ellison given that he had the top credit. I don't think he deserved it. I'd have put him around 4th on the cast list. There are also several story threads left open and not fully explained but it doesn't matter, it adds to the mystery. I recommend this one - a different kind of zombie in this film. It's scary and sad.

LeonLouisRicci For a Quick and Crash Course in Horror Films, here is a Succinct and Workable Formula. For the 1930's, Universal...For the 1940's, Val Lewton...For the 1950's, Hammer. That's it. These were the Films that Defined the Genre Before the 1960's, where Starting with Psycho (1960), the Roger Corman Poe Films, and then Later, After the Code Breakdown, All Hell Broke Loose.This is One of those Val Lewton Movies. Along with Cat People (1942) and The Seventh Victim (1943), Often Sighted as the Best. A Dreamlike, Hypnotic, Melancholic Movie, it is Quite Different and Distinctive, and as a Side Note, the Black Cast is Given a Straightforward Respect that was Unheard of in the Forties.There are Many Scenes and Set-Pieces that Make this a Gem. The Relentless Downbeat Tone is Ominous and Oppressive. Things Move and Dialog is Spoken Almost at Half-Speed as the Film is Forever in a Nether World of Sleepwalking Superstition with Characters that All have a Dark Side.It is a Film Out of its Time. So Decidedly Different and Haunting that when Viewed Today, can be Unsettling Despite the Absence of Gore that has Become Synonymous with the Zombie Genre. This is Not Logical or Rational, in Fact just the Opposite and Therein Lies the Appeal.It is Interesting to Note an Outrage by the New York Times Critic of the Day...Released in the Middle of WWII it Made the Reviewer Lose All Sense of Proportion and in the Paper's Coverage of the Movie when it was Released Said This…Quoting the The New York Times…1943"But to this spectator, at least, it proved to be a dull, disgusting exaggeration of an unhealthy, abnormal concept of life. If the Hays office feels it has a duty to protect the morals of movie-goers by protesting the use of such expressions as "hell" and "damn" in purposeful dramas like "In Which We Serve" and "We Are the Marines," then how much more important is its duty to safeguard the youth of the land from the sort of stuff and nonsense that their minds will absorb from viewing "I Walked With a Zombie"? ? ?"

oscar-35 *Spoiler/plot- I walked with a zombie, 1943. A Canadian pretty nurse arrives in the West Indies island St. Sebastian to care for the wife of wealthy sugar plantation owner. The young nurse thinks she seems to be living in paradise, despite plantation owner's dim view of his surroundings. His half-brother is much cheerier. When the nurse finally meets the plantation owner's wife, she finds the wife walking in the garden late at night. The wife is in a trance state. The family doctor explains that the wife has a severe tropical fever that burned out portions of her spine, leaving her in a zombie-like state. It's recommended to try insulin shock treatment. The nurse also begins to wonder if local native voodoo might be able to cure the wife.*Special Stars- James Ellison, Frances Dee, Tom Conway, Edith Barret, James Bell, Sir Lancelot. Dir- Jacques Tourneur.*Theme- The occult is dangerous.*Trivia/location/goofs- American, RKO studios. Val Lewton did not like the article "I Walked With A Zombie" by Inez Wallace that had been optioned so he adapted the story to fit the novel "Jane Eyre" because he felt the article's plot was too clichéd. The two figures seen walking along the beach during the opening credits are Frances Dee and Darby Jones. *Emotion- A horror noir film from this period in film history. In this film; less is more. The audience gets a chance to be involved in the film's action and goes along for a fun intriguing ride. *Based On- Jane Eyre book and West Indies island zombie myths.

utgard14 Betsy Conwell (Frances Dee) takes a job on a West Indies island as the private nurse to the wife of plantation owner Paul Holland (Tom Conway). Paul's wife Jessica lives in a waking comatose state, believed to be caused by some tropical disease. Betsy begins to fall for Paul and tries to help him by finding a cure for Jessica with the native witch doctors.I Walked with a Zombie is the second of producer Val Lewton's classic psychological horror films. Although this is a mix of horror with the romance and mystery genres. The story is based off of the Charlotte Bronte novel "Jane Eyre," where the governess falls in love with the master of a large house who harbors a secret about his ill wife.I love this film. I love the ambiance, the sets, the unsettling mystery. There's an eerie atmosphere that permeates it. Jacques Tourneur, who also directed the amazing Cat People for Lewton, does a fantastic job here at creating this dream-like mood throughout the picture. Curt Siodmak and Ardel Wray provide an excellent script. As with other Lewton films, a sense of ambiguity lingers over the plot. Is Jessica really physically ill or has she been affected somehow by voodoo?It's a great cast. In addition to Tom Conway and Frances Dee, there's Edith Barrett as Paul's mother who believes she knows what caused Jessica's condition. James Ellison plays his brother who is in love with Jessica. Lovely Christine Gordon plays Jessica, and though she has no lines, gives a memorable performance I believe. This film also has a fine black supporting cast, with some great work from Theresa Harris, Sir Lancelot as an ominous calypso singer, and Darby Jones as the alarmingly bug-eyed Carre-Four. As with most of the Lewton RKO films, it's a truly great movie that everybody should see.