1943’s I Walked with a Zombie is movie I had some awareness of decades before actually seeing it for the first time, and that was because of R.E.M.’s cover of the same-named Roky Erickson track on the compilation Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye. Any mention or reference to film immediately has Michael Stipe singing those words in a manner that is…unique to his vocal stylings, but not his best effort.
The movie fares better. It is the kind of thing which seemed mediocre on first viewing, and has improved in my esteem with each of its subsequent two viewings. It isn’t a great horror film, and I suspect it never will reach that point for me, but it is distinctive and mandatory viewing for genre fans.
This is a very atmospheric work, with the zombies being of the traditional voodoo variety and not the flesh-eating kind. It also is more a work of minimalist sound design and shadows than it is the combination of script and the sum of the performances. The long thin slats of the light of the setting sun through venetian blinds foretell film noir. There are times wind is the only thing heard on the soundtrack, making atmospheric disturbance a character in itself.
That sound is especially noticeable as Frances Dee’s nurse leads her charge, the sleepwalking Christine Gordon through rows of sugar can stalks to the “Home Fort”, the local voodoo temple. Guarding the crossroads on the path there is Darby Jones as Carrefour, an impossibly tall and thin zombie himself. The women have a protective piece of fabric pinned to their garments so he will let them pass. There is a solid moment of suspense while we wait to see if he will allow them to do so.
This film takes an interesting approach to religion, having a fairly enlightened point of view regarding the practices of the descendants of slaves on this fictitious Caribbean island. It was also refreshing to see Black characters have personalities that are in complete deference to the wealthy white people who still live in the big plantation mansion. An interesting crossover of cultures is suggested by a mirror of that bit with the voodoo pass fabric, as Dee gifts a pin to the baby of a Black islander, fastening it to the blanket. It’s like there’s a signal being sent both ways, that you are accepted here.
Alas, Dee is rather oblivious to many other things. She clearly isn’t listening as her chauffer tells her of horrors of the slave ships that brought his ancestors there, with her responding only with what a beautiful place his people were brought to. She also doesn’t seem to be all that curious as to what exactly caused her ward to be completely uncommunicative, yet mysteriously ambulatory each night, wandering the island like a ghost.
Dee is at least somewhat more aware of the intentions of Tom Conway, the cynical husband of her patient, who has taken a strong romantic interest in her. He masks those feelings in a brusque manner that borders on hostility. Not that he is any nicer to his brother (James Ellison), who drowns his sorrows in alcohol as he watches Gordon, the secret love of his life, wander in a trance around the grounds at night.
Well aware of everything around him is Sir Lancelot, who shows up at a couple of unexpected moments with his guitar as he sings of suppressed and uncomfortable truths. He did a similar shtick in Brute Force, serving as a one-man Greek chorus there, sans guitar. I leave such a strong impression here that I wish he was in it more. On the other hand, more screentime may have diminished the impact of his brief time here.
Of the performers, the women fare the best, both because the story centers around them and the characters have more agency that typical of major studio fare of the time. Edith Barrett is especially good in a minor role as the family matriarch with a very interesting secret. Theresa Haris has the meatiest role of the Black cast, a servant is not subservient. Still, she takes pride in the work she does for to make the unresponsive Gordon as comfortable as possible: “Every day I dress as her beautifully as if she was well. It’s like dressing a doll.” An interesting mirror of that occurs in a later scene where an actual voodoo doll is dressed like Godon in an attempt to lure the woman to the Home Fort.
Gordon doesn’t have a single word to speak in I Walked with a Zombie, yet she still leaves quite an impression. I was curious to see her in a more robust appearance, so I scanned IMDB for films where she might actually have some dialogue. Her entire career appears to have been six films, and she is uncredited for those other five, which means she likely didn’t have any lines in those. So, we have a woman who was denied the chance to speak for own behalf in her most-known film appearance, only to possibly have the opportunity for speech denied through the entirety of her brief career.
Dir: Jacques Tourneur
Starring Frances Dee, Tom Conway, James Ellison, Edith Barrett, Christine Gordon
Watched on Criterion Collection blu-ray