I Walked with a Zombie

Directed by Jacques Tourneur, I Walked with a Zombie follows Canadian nurse Betsy Connell (Frances Dee) as she’s sent to the Caribbean to care for the ailing wife of a sugar plantation owner.  Filmmaker Tourneur delivers an atmospheric yet predominantly tedious drama that contains few, if any, elements designed to capture and sustain the viewer’s interest, with the arms-length vibe compounded by an often egregiously deliberate pace and total lack of engaging, three-dimensional characters. (Far more problematic, ultimately, is the picture’s relentless emphasis on expository dialogue, to the point where its removal would cut down the already-short-yet-not-short-enough running time drastically.) And although Tourneur, along with cinematographer J. Roy Hunt, has peppered the proceedings with a series of striking images and sequences – there is, for example, a tense interlude wherein Betsy travels to a remote voodoo ceremony – I Walked with a Zombie builds towards an entirely anticlimactic final stretch that does, in the end, cement its place as a woefully half-baked (and thoroughly forgettable) piece of work.

*1/2 out of ****