I Walked With a Zombie (1943): Tourneur and otherness

This chapter positions I Walked With A Zombie within the context of its creation, both historically and industrially. Analysis centres ideas of Otherness and their representation through a range of visual and narrative strategies that diverge starkly from contemporary practice in Hollywood zombie films and narrative cinema more generally. Key figures involved in the film, such as its producer, Val Lewton, its director, Jacques Tourneur, and its screenwriter, Ardel Wray, are considered critically. A series of oppositions underpinning the film are delineated, then analysis of those shows how, through structure, sensitive direction, and the understated performances associated with a Tourneur film, I Walked With A Zombie subjects the historical and cinematic past and present to a searching critique.

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