I Walked with a Zombie (1943)
★★½ — I Walked with a Zombie (1943)
Produced by Val Lewton for RKO Radio Pictures in 1943, this modest but atmospheric horror picture was the second collaboration between Lewton and director Jacques Tourneur, following their breakthrough together on Cat People (1942). Tourneur was a Paris-born filmmaker who had spent years directing short subjects and B-pictures before Lewton gave him the material to work with properly. The film draws loosely on Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, transplanting its gothic structure to the Caribbean and folding in genuine research into Haitian voodoo practice, something relatively unusual for Hollywood at the time. Shot quickly and cheaply on RKO's backlot, it sits within a run of Lewton productions that prioritised psychological unease over explicit horror, a deliberate response to Universal's more monster-forward output.
I Walked with a Zombie (1943) opens with tremendous promise. A haunting, atmospheric gothic tale set on a Caribbean island where a nurse arrives to care for her employer's catatonic wife, only to find herself entangled in voodoo rituals and buried secrets. Val Lewton's production, made under RKO's B-movie constraints, conjures remarkable mood from minimal resources: shadow-drenched corridors, the mournful sound of steel drums, and that unforgettable midnight walk to the houmfort. The premise alone (a delicate blend of psychological horror, colonial unease, and supernatural ambiguity) is masterfully established, and it's easy to see why this became a touchstone for decades of undead cinema that followed. Yet despite its compact runtime, the film loses momentum midway. The pacing slackens as it drifts into melodrama and cryptic symbolism, and the payoff (when it finally arrives) feels underwhelming, more whispered than earned. What begins as eerie and suggestive gradually becomes opaque, leaving too much unresolved or unexplored. It's a film of beautiful moments rather than a cohesive whole. A historically significant piece of horror craftsmanship that casts a long shadow, even if its own light flickers.
Rating: ★★½ | Year: 1943 | Watched: 2026-03-30
Where to watch (UK)
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Related on Movies With Macca
More from Jacques Tourneur: Cat People (1942)
More from the 1940s: Louisiana Story (1948) · The Ox-Bow Incident (1943) · Men Without Wings (1946) · The Bank Dick (1940)
More mystery: Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (2024) · Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II - The Ashes of Rage (2025) · Carnival of Souls (1962) · One Way or Another (1975)
More horror: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) · Viy (1967) · Nightmare City (1980) · Angst (1983)
