I Walked With a Zombie

Last night I watched a film I recorded from television the previous night called I Walked With a Zombie, the film was made in 1943 and directed by Jacques Tourneur. The story involves a young Canadian nurse, who travels to the West Indies to take care of a plantation owner's catatonic wife. Shortly after her arrival she starts to learn the family secrets behind the tension between the plantation owner and his heavy-drinking brother, as well as the local voodoo religion. First off, anyone tuning into this film expecting a gruesome gore drenched Dawn of the Dead, Shaun of the Dead, 28 Days Later..., Zombie Flesh Eaters splatter-thon will be sorely disappointed. There is no violence or gore here. The zombies here are described as "sleepwalkers who never wake up". Director Jacques Tourneur and producer Val Lewton made a series of horror films in the 1940s, which adhered to Tourneur's belief that it was more often the things that you don't see that are scary, rather than what you do see. In these films fear is created through lighting and heavy shadows, and strange sounds. However, the problem is that viewed today, they are just not that scary. I Walked With a Zombie is really more of an old-fashioned romantic melodrama with vaguely supernatural touches.

Today was another dull day at work. After work I went out with my friend Joe for a few drinks at the New Yorker, where we spent a lot of the time criticising the work.