Hot Picks

- Ready for My Close Up 2019

- Talk of the Dead 2016

- Tower Rats 2020

- Script of the Dead 2024

- The Bell Affair 2023

- Easter Bloody Easter 2024

- Velma 2022

- Everwinter Night 2023

- Main Character Energy 2023

- Stupid Games 2024

- Bittertooth 2023

- 4 Minutes of Terror: Night Slasher 2024

- Apart 2024

- The Abandoned 2006

- Becky 2024

- The Evil Fairy Queen 2024

- The Black Guelph 2022

- Followers 2024

- Silence of the Prey 2024

- Battle for the Western Front 2024

- Beware the Boogeyman 2024

- Subject 101 2022

- Driftwood 2023

- The Legend of Lake Hollow 2024

- Black Mass 2023

- Skinwalkers: American Werewolves 2 2023

- The Manifestation 2024

- Spirit Riser 2024

- Garden of Souls 2019

- It's a Wonderful Slice 2024

- Caleb & Sarah 2024

- The Thousand Steps 2020

- The Desiring 2021

- When a Stranger Knocks 2024

- Quint-essentially Irish 2024

- Son of Gacy 2024

- Saltville 2024

- The True Story of the Christ's Return 2024

- Whenever I'm Alone with You 2023

- Jurassic Triangle 2024

- Midnight Peepshow 2022

- Offworld: Alien Planet 2024

- The Swiss Conspiracy 1976

- Sex-Positive 2024

- Here for Blood 2022

- All Over Again 2024

- The Color Yellow 2023

- Des Töchterleins Leid 2024

- I Am a Channel 2024

- The Hermits 2023

- Murdaritaville 2024

- Inheritance 2024

- The Devil's Partner 1960

- First Impressions Can Kill 2017

- A Killer Conversation 2014

- Star Crash 1979

- Strangler of the Swamp 1946

I Walked with a Zombie

USA 1943
produced by
Val Lewton for RKO
directed by Jacques Tourneur
starring James Ellison, Frances Dee, Tom Conway, Edith Barrett, James Bell, Christine Gordon, Theresa Harris, Sir Lancelot, Darby Jones, Jeni Le Gon, Richard Abrams, Vivian Dandridge, Doris Ake, Rita Christiani, Alan Edmiston, Kathleen Hartsfield, Norman Mayes, Jieno Moxzer, Arthur Walker, Martin Wilkins, Clinton Rosemond
written by Curt Siodmak, Ardel Wray, based on the story by Inez Wallace, music by Roy Webb

review by
Mike Haberfelner

Available on DVD!

To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned)

Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!



With her next job, nurse Betsy (Frances Dee) seems to have hit the jackpot, as it finally affords her with a chance to leave cold Ottawa for the island paradise of San Sebastian to look after ailing Jessica Holland (James Bell) - but of course, nobody has told what Mrs Holland is ailing on as she's in a state of complete apathy, as if she had no emotions and no will of her own ... so of course it's an easy enough job, but she's eerie to be around as she seems to be of the living dead, or as they're called in this part of the world, a zombie. Betsy however is well cared for by Jessica's husband Paul (Tom Conway), a distinguished gentleman if there ever was one, Paul's borderline alcoholic half brother Wesley (James Ellison), and Wesley's mother Mrs Rand (Edith Barrett), who runs the local clinic with Dr. Maxwell (James Bell). Still, the island, beautiful as it is, is creepy, as one seems to be reminded that its predominantly black populace was brought here as slaves back when, and these locals practise voodoo - which eerie as it might seem isn't essentially a bad thing.

Before long, Betsy falls in love with Paul, but seeing that Paul belongs to Jessica, Betsy does everything in her power to restore her to her former state, even suggests a possible cure to Dr. Maxwell - which is promising but fails to show results. Out of options when it comes to Western medicine, Betsy asks maid Alma (Theresa Harris) to take her to a voodoo ritual to see if voodoo magic - which is often medicine in disguise - can do the trick for Jessica. At the ritual, Betsy learns to her greatest surprise that Mrs Rand is actually posing as voodoo God Damballa behind the scenes - a benevolent deceipt really as she just tries to get the locals on the right path in regards to medicine, hygenie and the like, using their religion (which in hindsight is ethically questionable of course, but the intentions were good). Mrs Rand tells them there is no cure for Jessica. Unfortunately, the locals have now found out that Jessica's a zombie and now want to claim her as theirs, using their drums to lure her. That, paired with a drought, soon has the island in unrest, also witnessed when a zombie (Darby Jones) enters Betsy's room.

In the finale, Mrs Rand confesses to have zombified Jessica when Jessica wanted to elope with Wesley, which would have torn the family apart. Then Jessica follows the lures of the drums again, but Wesley's also put under their spell and eventually stabs Jessica, killing her for good, then goes into the water with her as a suicide out of love ...

 

I Walked with a Zombie is not a movie of spectacle - quite the contrary, despite its rather sensationalist title this is a mood piece that moves along deliberately slow and derives its creepiness from what's not said/can be read between the lines rather than spoonfeeding its story to the audience. Plus, despite the film being shot at the RKO studios, it really does a great job to transmit the feel of the island in question (not in a realist but a metaphorical manner of speaking), with all macabre implications. And restrained performances from all the involved only add to the atmosphere, ultimately making this a well-deserving genre classic.

 

Quick Links

Abbott & Costello

The Addams Family

Alice in Wonderland

Arsène Lupin

Batman

Bigfoot

Black Emanuelle

Bomba the Jungle Boy

Bowery Boys

Bulldog Drummond

Captain America

Charlie Chan

Cinderella

Deerslayer

Dick Tracy

Dr. Mabuse

Dr. Orloff

Doctor Who

Dracula

Edgar Wallace made in Germany

Elizabeth Bathory

Emmanuelle

Fantomas

Flash Gordon

Frankenstein

Frankie & Annette Beach Party movies

Freddy Krueger

Fu Manchu

Fuzzy

Gamera

Godzilla

Hercules

El Hombre Lobo

Incredible Hulk

Jack the Ripper

James Bond

Jekyll and Hyde

Jerry Cotton

Jungle Jim

Justine

Kekko Kamen

King Kong

Laurel and Hardy

Lemmy Caution

Lobo

Lone Wolf and Cub

Lupin III

Maciste

Marx Brothers

Miss Marple

Mr. Moto

Mister Wong

Mothra

The Munsters

Nick Carter

OSS 117

Phantom of the Opera

Philip Marlowe

Philo Vance

Quatermass

Robin Hood

The Saint

Santa Claus

El Santo

Schoolgirl Report

The Shadow

Sherlock Holmes

Spider-Man

Star Trek

Sukeban Deka

Superman

Tarzan

Three Mesquiteers

Three Musketeers

Three Stooges

Three Supermen

Winnetou

Wizard of Oz

Wolf Man

Wonder Woman

Yojimbo

Zatoichi

Zorro

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

Feeling lucky?
Want to
search
any of my partnershops yourself
for more, better results?
(commissions earned)

The links below
will take you
just there!!!

Find I Walked with a Zombie
at the amazons ...

USA  amazon.com

Great Britain (a.k.a. the United Kingdom)  amazon.co.uk

Germany (East AND West)  amazon.de

Looking for imports?
Find I Walked with a Zombie here ...

Thailand  eThaiCD.com
Your shop for all things Thai

Something naughty?
(Must be over 18 to go there!)

x-rated  find I Walked with a Zombie at adultvideouniverse.com


Thanks for watching !!!

 

 

In times of uncertainty of a possible zombie outbreak, a woman has to decide between two men - only one of them's one of the undead.

 

There's No Such Thing as Zombies
starring
Luana Ribeira, Rudy Barrow and Rami Hilmi
special appearances by
Debra Lamb and Lynn Lowry

 

directed by
Eddie Bammeke

written by
Michael Haberfelner

produced by
Michael Haberfelner, Luana Ribeira and Eddie Bammeke

 

now streaming at

Amazon

Amazon UK

Vimeo

 

 

 

Robots and rats,
demons and potholes,
cuddly toys and
shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

is all of that.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to
-
a collection of short stories and mini-plays
ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic
to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle, all thought up by
the twisted mind of
screenwriter and film reviewer
Michael Haberfelner.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

the new anthology by
Michael Haberfelner

 

Out now from
Amazon!!!