HALLOWEENTOWN, N.C. (828newsNOW) — Every day this month, resident horror movie enthusiast and 828newsNOW staff reporter Pruett Norris is recommending a Halloween film for your macabre amusement.
Whether they be monster movies or fearsome family films, demonic possessions or slasher sensations, this exercise hopes to encourage spooky seasonal “scream”ings at home or in cinemas.
As the old saying goes, “trick or treat, trick or treat, give me something good to…watch.”
Day 22: I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE (1943, 69 min., directed by Jacques Torneur)
For day one of a two day classic zombie movie series, consider “I Walked with a Zombie,” a 1943 horror film directed by Jacques Torneur and produced by transgressive film visionary Val Lewton.
“I Walked with a Zombie” is woefully underseen for how powerful the film is. The proto-zombie movie is afield from the shuffling spectres of George Romero’s work, instead opting for a medical definition: vegetative, blank-staring zombies. However, there remains a supernatural element to the film in an exploration of Caribbean voudou.
The film, similar to “Night of the Living Dead,” features Black actors with character and agency in an exploration of racial relations against the backdrop of a horror narrative. The movie’s white characters are exploiters, arrogant and alcoholic, of both the Caribbean island and its people.
Torneur and Lewton conducted deep research into voudou cultural practices in an attempt to genuinely capture the religion and the authenticity refracts through the shadowy fronds on the screen. The film is scary, yes, but not because voudou is depicted that way, in a refreshing and surprising change of pace for 1943.
The film is just over an hour, but prepare to spend far more time than that chewing over its themes and images.
“I Walked with a Zombie” is available to stream on Tubi.
Looking for more October movie recommendations? Read the rest of the 828boosNOW archive:
DAY 1: BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE
DAY 3: A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3: DREAM WARRIORS
DAY 5: SCOOBY-DOO! AND THE WITCH’S GHOST
DAY 7: THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT
DAY 8: THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS
DAY 14: KIKI’S DELIVERY SERVICE