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RKO Pictures’ horror films had three mandates: runtimes would be less than 80 minutes, the budgets would be under $150,000, and the studio would choose a title, and the director would go make that movie. Jacques Tourneur’s I Walked with a Zombie certainly has that titular line, but it’s followed by a giggle in narration—because the resulting movie is not really about zombies, it’s about guilt from colonialism. The “zombie” is a sleepwalking woman on an island that practices voodoo; the family of colonialists believe she’s been put under a spell by the natives due to their family history—but that’s a continual denial that their family history could disillusion their very family.
The horror tropes are shadows, drums, and pounding flames surrounding a lengthy séance and Tourneur is delicate with the voodoo filming, not making the natives out to be monsters but choosing long respectful takes of the ceremony. The resulting film is great and though it makes fantastic use of shadows, you might giggle too if you turned this into RKO saying, “here’s your zombie movie!” Because Tourneur’s film has more in common with the works of the Bronte Sisters and gothic romance than anything RKO would’ve thought they commissioned. It’s pure art. Makes you wonder what type of great films filmmakers could make now if studios were that hands off and just wanted a title for a movie poster.
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