I Walked with a Zombie (1943)

• Year: 1943
• Released: 30 Apr 1943
• Country: United States
• Adwords: 3 nominations
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036027/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/i_walked_with_a_zombie
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: English
• MPA Rating: Approved
• Genre: Drama, Fantasy, Horror
• Runtime: 69 min
• Writer: Curt Siodmak, Ardel Wray, Inez Wallace
• Director: Jacques Tourneur
• Cast: Frances Dee, Tom Conway, James Ellison
• Keywords: zombie, island, doctor, jealousy, love triangle,

	7.0/10
	85% – Critics
	73% – Audience

I Walked with a Zombie Storyline

Nurse Betsy Connell is hired to travel to St. Sebastian, in West Indies, to work at Fort Holland nursing Jessica Holland, the wife of the sugar plantation owner Paul Holland. Betsy meets Paul onboard the ship. During the night, she overhears a woman crying and she believes it might be Jessica and goes to her room. She finds a mute woman and learns that Jessica had a mental breakdown after tropical fever and is hopeless. She suggests an experimental treatment; shock therapy, to Dr. Maxwell but it fails. After talking to the maid, she discovers another woman was cured in a voodoo ceremony and decides to use witchcraft to cure Jessica. But the natives believe Jessica’s a zombie who can’t be cured.

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I Walked with a Zombie Movie Reviews

Not your usual brain-eating corpses…and that’s a good thing!

First of all: PLEASE don’t let the misleading, rather silly sounding title discourage you! I walked with a Zombie is another brilliant result of the collaborations between producer Val Lewton and director Jacques Tourneur. Released one year after the simply astonishing movie ‘Cat People’, this is yet another intelligently elaborated and genuinely original genre-masterpiece. The solid screenplay contains a rarely seen before amount of eeriness and handles about a young ambitious nurse who goes to San Antonio in order to take care of Jessica. Jessica is the wife of plantation-owner Paul Holland and she suffers from a bizarre mental paralysis, supposedly caused by a tropical fever. She is – in fact – a zombie only not the type of walking corpse you usually expect in horror movies. Betsy, the nurse, is somehow convinced that Jessica may still be cured and turns to the Voodoo-community that is living on the island as well. Just like he pulled it off in Cat People, Tourneur manages to bring suspense in a subtle way. Without bloody images but with a unique photography and efficient set pieces! I walked with a Zombie contains great dialogs, intriguing characters and mind bending plot-twists. This is an intelligent and demanding film, especially made for people who take this genre serious! It ranks slightly under ‘Cat People’ but light-years above most other horror films. Check it out!

Ambiguous Zombie Movie

The Canadian nurse Betsy Connell (Frances Dee) is hired to travel to St. Sebastian, in West Indies, to work at Fort Holland nursing Jessica Holland (Christine Gordon), the wife of the sugar plantation owner Paul Holland (Tom Conway). Betsy meets Paul in the ship and is welcomed by Paul’s estranged half-brother Wesley “Wes” Rand (James Ellison) in the farmhouse. During the night, she overhears a woman crying and she believes that might be Jessica and goes to her room. She finds a creepy mute woman and she learns that Jessica had a mental paralysis after a severe tropical fever and is a hopeless case, unable to speak or have power. Soon Betsy falls in love with Paul and she decides to help Jessica to be cured to make Paul happier. She suggests an experimental treatment with shock to Dr. Maxwell (James Bell) but it fails. While talking to the maid Alma (Theresa Harris), she discovers that another woman was cured in a voodoo ceremony by a voodoo priest and she decides to use witchcraft to cure Jessica. However the natives believe that Jessica is a zombie that cannot be cured. When Betsy meets Paul and Wesley’s mother Mrs. Rand (Edith Barrett), she finds that Jessica was the pivot of a fight between Paul and Wes and she believes that her daughter-in-law is a zombie.

“I Walked with a Zombie” is an ambiguous zombie movie directed by Jacques Tourneur. The plot is a family drama and the zombies in this movie are not like in George Romero’s trilogy or “The Walking Dead”, but related to voodoo in a Caribbean Island. There is a creepy atmosphere with a beautiful cinematography, the non-stop voodoo drums and the native Carrefour, but no gore, violent death or scream. The conclusion is ambiguous after the revelation of Mrs. Rand. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): “A Morta-Viva” (“The Living Dead”)

Very good and moody reworking of Jane Eyre

This is a very strange movie in several ways–beyond just that fact that the producer and director wanted a “strange” film. The genre of film is very tough to determine for I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE. Despite the title and the zombies, this really isn’t a horror film–though there are definitely some scary elements. And, unlike the original, it isn’t exactly a romance. Sure, the nurse (Francis Dee) does become infatuated with the older brother (Tom Conway–the real life brother of George Sanders), but unlike the original Jane Eyre, this is not really fully developed in the film. And, in some ways, it’s a mystery film because HOW Conway’s wife became a zombie was a secret that is only revealed at the end. And, it’s a tragedy as the ending, in particular, is quite sad. So, in effect, it’s a horror-like romantic-suspense-mystery! Considering that the movie was a B-movie with a small budget and lesser name actors, they certainly had a very successful film that delivered a lot of “bang for the buck”. The acting was decent, the direction superb and the sets super-effective. While not a great film, it is quite entertaining and worth seeing. I was really torn on how to score this film–it’s more of a 7.5!