I Walked With a Zombie

A recent foray into the classics section at our local video store turned up some interesting finds in the horror genre. 1970's horror is the oldest Zombie or I had ever really given a chance so we decided to go back, way back to the 1940s with "I Walked With a Zombie" and "The Body Snatcher" a Val Lewton horror double feature.

"I Walked With a Zombie" has, according to the back of the box, "the gothic romance of Jane Eyre reset in the West Indies...and the overriding terror of the living dead." I agree with the first part of that statement but "terror" it lacked. Even given the early date of the film it was decidedly un-scary.

The movie focuses on a young Canadian nurse (Betsy) who comes to the West Indies to care for Jessica, the wife of a plantation manager (Paul Holland). Jessica seems to be suffering from a kind of mental paralysis as a result of fever. When she falls in love with Paul, Betsy determines to cure Jessica even if she needs to use a voodoo ceremony, to give Paul what she thinks he wants. Gradually we find that things are not quite right in the family as it becomes apparent over the course of the movie that Paul and his half-brother Wesley had both been in love with Jessica and she had set them against one another. Wesley blames Paul for Jessica's odd state, Wesley drinks too much and their mother, Mrs. Rand, a missionary widow is pretending to practice voodoo in order to get the natives to boil their water and take medicine. A local minstrel sings a song about "shame and sorrow in the family" in front of Wesley in a rather funny scene.

A trip to the voodoo home fort does nothing for Jessica other than prove to the natives and us that she is in fact, dead (or at least bloodless) when she is stabbed in a ceremony and does not bleed.

This event stirs up both an official inquest into Jessica's condition by the local government and calls from the natives that Jessica be returned to them for "ritual testing."

Eventually Mom confesses that she was angry at Jessica for breaking up her family and one night while playing voodoo she went too far and actually believed in and felt the spirits and asked them to curse Jessica. The doctor tells her that this is impossible because Jessica was never dead, only very sick but he doesn't know that she was unconscious as one point. Wesley believes that Jessica is dead and as she is lured toward the fort by a dancing Sabreur with a voodoo doll (for purposes seemingly sinister but unknown to us) Wesley, in an attempt to free her from her state, open the gate and lets her shuffle off towards the beach. Then — perhaps prompted by the Sabreur, although this is never made clear — Wesley pulls an arrow from a statue and follows her. As the Sabreur stabs the doll with a pin, Wesley thrusts the arrow into Jessica. He then carries her into the sea as the bug-eyed native Zombie Carre-Four follows, staring blindly into the night.

Later, the natives discover the bodies of Jessica and Wesley floating in the surf and carry them back to the plantation

Though certainly not a traditional "zombie" movie in the sense of the flesh-eating, decaying corpses we all know and love, "I Walked with a Zombie" was first rate in other ways an is probably a more accurate idea of the Voodoo Zombie as someone who has had their mind-erased, unfeeling, unthinking and unresponsive except to commands.

Most importantly for me it is a beautiful film. Low-key acting, quick and smart dialogue, fantastic lighting and lovely costumes make for an atmospheric and erie movie that I would more rightly call mystery than horror. Poetic, spooky and suggestive, as the doctor says as one point "she makes a beautiful zombie."

The movie is often and rightfully praised for the mostly accurate, complex and un-stereotyped way in which the native are portrayed, a rarity even in later film making. The name of the native zombie Carre-Four means crossroads and is the name of a real voodoo loa or spirit.

Ambiguity is central to the film, as we are never entirely sure if the voodoo is real or only a strong power of suggestion. Personally I think it is the Sabreurs voodoo that lures Jessica and Wesley to their deaths but it is not obvious or certain.

Two final notes: look for the tongue-in-cheek warning that reads "The characters and events depicted in this photoplay are fictional. Any similarity to actual persons, living, dead, orpossessed, is purely coincidental."

A song of the same name was written by The 13th Floor Elevators and covered by Athens natives REM, if you'd like to sing along the words are "I walked with a zombie, last night" repeat for 3:13!

Final Word: Don't let the silly name fool you this is a smart movie worth seeing especially at only 69 minutes.