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Film Details
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Cast and Creators
Suffused with ritual, mysticism, and the occult, this pair of mesmerizingly moody horror milestones from Val Lewton brought a new sophistication to the genre and turned our fears of the unseen into haunting excursions into existential dread.
Starring: Frances Dee, James Ellison, Tom Conway, Jean Brooks, Kim Hunter
UPC: 715515303514
Rated: NR
Genre: Horror
Theme: Zombie
Release Date: 10/8/2024
Product ID: CCIN3606BR
Original Language: ENG
Original Year: 1943
Run Time: 140 minutes
I Walked with a Zombie
1943
Producer Val Lewton and director Jacques Tourneur elevated the horror film to new heights of poetic abstraction with this entrancing journey into the realm between life and death. When she takes a job caring for a comatose woman on a Caribbean island, a young nurse (Frances Dee) finds herself plunged into a mysterious world where the ghosts of slavery haunt the present and Vodou priests have the power to summon the living dead. Sugarcane swaying in a moonlit field, the hypnotic beat of ceremonial drums, the relentless pull toward death—the otherworldly atmosphere of this bold reimagining of Jane Eyre is as close as studio-era Hollywood ever came to pure dream-state surrealism.
The Seventh Victim
1943
“Death is good” is how producer Val Lewton summarized the message of his films, a credo that received its most explicit expression in this strikingly nihilistic shocker, the first film directed by regular Lewton editor Mark Robson. Kim Hunter makes her film debut as a young boarding-school student who, in search of her missing sister (proto-goth icon Jean Brooks), travels to New York’s bohemian Greenwich Village, where she uncovers a sinister shadow world of devil-worshippers and murder. And what about that mysterious room furnished with nothing but a chair and a hangman’s noose? With its daring treatment of depression and queerness, The Seventh Victim has haunted the margins of cinema for decades, its radical bleakness undiminished by time.
Special Features
- New 4K digital restorations of both films, with uncompressed monaural soundtracks on the 4K UHD and Blu-ray editions
- In the 4K UHD edition: One 4K UHD disc of the films and one Blu-ray with the films and special features
- Audio commentary on I Walked with a Zombie featuring authors Kim Newman and Stephen Jones
- Audio commentary on The Seventh Victim featuring film historian Steve Haberman
- Interview with film historian Imogen Sara Smith
- Audio essays from Adam Roche’s podcast The Secret History of Hollywood featuring stories about the casts, crews, and productions of both films
- Shadows in the Dark: The Val Lewton Legacy (2005), a documentary featuring Newman; Val E. Lewton, son of producer Val Lewton; filmmakers William Friedkin, Guillermo del Toro, George A. Romero, John Landis, and Robert Wise; actor Sara Karloff; and others
- Excerpts from “The Origins of the Zombie, from Haiti to the U.S.,” an episode of the PBS series Monstrum, hosted by scholar Emily Zarka
- Trailers
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: Essays by critics Chris Fujiwara and Lucy Sante
New illustration by Katherine Lam
The Criterion Collection has released a 4K UHD/Blu-ray box set featuring Val Lewton's horror films "I Walked with a Zombie" and "The Seventh Victim," known for their atmospheric and psychological horror, rather than relying on jump scares.
Here's a more detailed look:
"I Walked with a Zombie" (1943):
Directed by Jacques Tourneur, this film follows a nurse who travels to a Caribbean island to care for a comatose woman, where she becomes entangled in the island's mysterious voodoo practices and the ghosts of slavery.
The film is known for its atmospheric and surreal elements, drawing inspiration from "Jane Eyre".
It's a character-driven story steeped in mystery and atmosphere, with the haunting sound of distant drums adding to the suspense.
"The Seventh Victim" (1943):
Directed by Mark Robson, this film is a psychological thriller set in New York City, where a young woman is pursued by a mysterious killer.
It's known for its daring treatment of depression and queerness, and its radical bleakness.
The Criterion Collection Box Set:
This box set includes new 4K digital restorations of both films with uncompressed monaural soundtracks.
It features audio commentaries, interviews, audio essays, and documentaries about Val Lewton and the films, as well as essays by critics.
The set also includes trailers and English subtitles.
Val Lewton's Horror:
Lewton, as head of RKO's B-horror-movie unit, brought a new sophistication to the genre, focusing on brooding atmosphere, suggestion, and psychosexual unease rather than relying on conventional monsters.
His films are known for their poetic and hypnotic quality, and their exploration of existential dread.
