The 1940s were an odd time in the annals of horror history. Of course, this has a lot to do with WWII and the fact that people were facing real horrors in their world, but it was a transitional period as well. Universal's golden age was over. While they were still churning out the movies, they were mostly second rate sequels featuring the same monsters over and over. There was really very little else going on in the horror genre. Film noir and the suspense thriller ruled the box offices and it was no surprise, then, that those genres crept their way into the horror film in the works of Val Lewton at RKO, who took the crown away from Universal and carried it into the next decade, starting with classics like CAT PEOPLE and I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE.
I have always found my personal opinion of Lewton's movies to be lower than those of the horror community, who tend to worship at his feet. By no means am I going to sit here and tell you that these are not great films, but they are not "my style". Further, I would argue that it was Jacques Tourner (as director) who made the early Lewton produced movies so great and once he moved on to other things, RKO was not able to match that early success. But alas, I am getting far too much into my horror geek history lessons and away from the actual movie itself.
Our film begins with a young woman who has learned that her sister has disappeared. She leaves school to go to the big city and find her sister. What occurs from there is an odd web of story lines that don't always make a lot of sense. We learn that her sister, Jacqueline, was an odd death-obsessed young woman (goth far before goth was cool). She has just sold her cosmetics empire to her partner. One of the first people that our heroine meets turns out to be her sister's husband. Though married to Jacqueline, he seems to know almost nothing about her personal life, doesn't appear to live with his wife and falls for the young sister in no time, at all.
We have poet who hangs around an Italian restaurant. He has stopped writing for a reason that's never truly explains, seems to be the love interest for our heroine, though that story line is cast aside. He joins our other main characters on the quest for a woman he's never met to help some people he just met a few days ago. Now, throw in a psychiatrist, who stopped practicing. He's the only one that knows where Jacqueline is and mainly serves to throw in lines that are supposed to be introspective. We get some odd side characters, as well, such as a private investigator who seems to be here to make one scene work, then disappears just as quickly.
Of course, all of this revolves around some devil worshipers. Don't get excited, though. These are not anything close to the cultists you might find in ROSEMARY'S BABY or THE DEVIL RIDES OUT or any of the other late 60s/ early 70s Satanic panic movies. It's basically a bridge club, full of wealthy types, who never actually discuss anything occultist at all, but seem hellbent on preserving their anonymity for some never explained reason.
As I'm writing this, I'm actually surprised at the tone that I'm taking because I never intended for this review to bash the movie. In fact, I do enjoy it, but it's occurring to me how silly the plot may be, but that's really beside the point. Like all of the movies produced by Lewton, this movie is all about images, suggestions, fear and shadows. The film carries a pervading fear of death, while at the same time being fascinated by death. Jacqueline (the missing girl) kept a noose in her apartment as a reminder that death was always a step away. An investigator is killed and we learn of many other deaths in the lives of both the occult and our main characters. Death, almost, becomes a character in itself, lurking over the shoulders of everyone involved.
None of Lewton's movies were ever really about monsters, or horrors presented cheaply for the audience. Settings and scenarios were created where the audience implanted the horror in their own minds. Some would tell you that this is the best sort of horror. I see this as one of the first examples of something audiences had never even really heard of in 1943, the psychological horror film. This is a movie that's not about monsters in the shadows, or blood on the killer's hand, but about the horrors that lie inside each of our heads and our own innate fears of death.
I have always found my personal opinion of Lewton's movies to be lower than those of the horror community, who tend to worship at his feet. By no means am I going to sit here and tell you that these are not great films, but they are not "my style". Further, I would argue that it was Jacques Tourner (as director) who made the early Lewton produced movies so great and once he moved on to other things, RKO was not able to match that early success. But alas, I am getting far too much into my horror geek history lessons and away from the actual movie itself.
Our film begins with a young woman who has learned that her sister has disappeared. She leaves school to go to the big city and find her sister. What occurs from there is an odd web of story lines that don't always make a lot of sense. We learn that her sister, Jacqueline, was an odd death-obsessed young woman (goth far before goth was cool). She has just sold her cosmetics empire to her partner. One of the first people that our heroine meets turns out to be her sister's husband. Though married to Jacqueline, he seems to know almost nothing about her personal life, doesn't appear to live with his wife and falls for the young sister in no time, at all.
We have poet who hangs around an Italian restaurant. He has stopped writing for a reason that's never truly explains, seems to be the love interest for our heroine, though that story line is cast aside. He joins our other main characters on the quest for a woman he's never met to help some people he just met a few days ago. Now, throw in a psychiatrist, who stopped practicing. He's the only one that knows where Jacqueline is and mainly serves to throw in lines that are supposed to be introspective. We get some odd side characters, as well, such as a private investigator who seems to be here to make one scene work, then disappears just as quickly.
Of course, all of this revolves around some devil worshipers. Don't get excited, though. These are not anything close to the cultists you might find in ROSEMARY'S BABY or THE DEVIL RIDES OUT or any of the other late 60s/ early 70s Satanic panic movies. It's basically a bridge club, full of wealthy types, who never actually discuss anything occultist at all, but seem hellbent on preserving their anonymity for some never explained reason.
As I'm writing this, I'm actually surprised at the tone that I'm taking because I never intended for this review to bash the movie. In fact, I do enjoy it, but it's occurring to me how silly the plot may be, but that's really beside the point. Like all of the movies produced by Lewton, this movie is all about images, suggestions, fear and shadows. The film carries a pervading fear of death, while at the same time being fascinated by death. Jacqueline (the missing girl) kept a noose in her apartment as a reminder that death was always a step away. An investigator is killed and we learn of many other deaths in the lives of both the occult and our main characters. Death, almost, becomes a character in itself, lurking over the shoulders of everyone involved.
None of Lewton's movies were ever really about monsters, or horrors presented cheaply for the audience. Settings and scenarios were created where the audience implanted the horror in their own minds. Some would tell you that this is the best sort of horror. I see this as one of the first examples of something audiences had never even really heard of in 1943, the psychological horror film. This is a movie that's not about monsters in the shadows, or blood on the killer's hand, but about the horrors that lie inside each of our heads and our own innate fears of death.