I Walked with a Zombie (1943): James Ellison, Frances Dee and Tom Conway. Directed by Jacques Tourneur, Screenplay by Curt Siodmak and Ardel Wray, based on a story by Inez Wallace.

No, I personally, did not. This is the first post in a series called "31 Days of Horror", or 31 horror films you should rush out and rent as soon as you can, whether you have seen them or not. For the film fan, it will certainly help make October a little less gloomy.

Long before the time when zombies were decaying creatures gnawing at human flesh (purely a creation of George A. Romero and his friends, but we'll get to that in a later post), Producer Val Lewton and director Jacques Tourneur crafted this spooky, atmospheric tale, set in the Caribbean. This was their follow-up to 1942's "The Cat People" which cemented the team as masters of horror-noir. Lewton-Tourneur films stand out starkly against other B-movies of the era. There is just something of an otherworldly elegance to them, the same way the literary works of H.P. Lovecraft pale in comparison to other horror stories.

The story follows a Canadian nurse (I mention her nationality only because it's fairly rare to find Canadian characters in films) to Saint Sebastian where she is to care for a plantation owner's wife who is suffering from some undisclosed catatonic illness. As the moody story progresses, we begin to realize that the undisclosed illness may in fact be a voodoo curse and that the woman has become a zombie.

More of a supernatural drama than a horror thriller, the film does not have any monsters, but is still unsettling. The story is partially inspired by "Jane Eyre", but brings a modern flavor, dense emotional and historical elements and a sensitive representation of native people that was unheard of at the time. On the horror side, it's all about what's lurking in the shadows that you can't see (very much like "The Cat People" and "The Leopard Man") rather than what's jumping out at you.

The film deals with the clash of Western and Voodoo cultures and works incredibly well because it is a credible film dealing with the incredible. Later films, such as "The Exorcist" would approach their subject matter in the same manner; the film draws you in (almost hypnotically), lays out the facts and has you base your own conclusions as the story unfolds.

"Haunting" is the best word to describe this film, in which, large stretches go without dialogue, just chanting or wind effects. The mood is the real star, and carries you on the kind of unsettling journey that's only hinted-at in the similarly-themed 1940's films of Hitchcock.

"I Walked with a Zombie" is a nice starting point to the works for two horror masters and the perfect compliment to a dark October evening.

Get it at Amazon.com:
I Walked with a Zombie / The Body Snatcher