Search - The Val Lewton Horror Collection with Martin Scorsese Presents Val Lewton Documentary on DVD

Frightening without the supernatural

Sarasotan | Florida | 12/03/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"A film in which "entertainment" at a party is provided by inmates from the local insane asylum, so the nobility at the party can laugh at them and ridicule their, of course, pathetic performances, and then a beautiful, perfectly sane woman is sent to the asylum for punitive reasons by the nobility - I found that more frightening than a story about an invasion of vampires or battles between werewolves and zombies, etc. The insane asylum story is the plot in "Bedlam", set in 18th century Britain, and one of the 9 Val Lewton films in this set.



Maybe the only one that really has a strong supernatural aspect is "Cat People", but even in that the supernatural element is very low key. In these movies, the "horror" is primarily based on the eerie things that some people do and the strangeness that can lurk within the human mind. The scariness lies in the weird subject matter and Val's outstanding knowledge of the tricks of cinema for producing fear.



Another way these are different than your standard horror films is the extent of the character development. Lewton always works to present these people as real and to go to lengths to show their real lives, jobs, and such.



The lack of relation of the title of some of these films to their actual story is hilarious. The titles were imposed on Lewton by the studio, and he would be told to make a movie to fit the title, but he stretched it to the max. The studio went along because they were getting good box office. They were very profitable, so the studio gave him leeway.



"The Curse of the Cat People" was the sequel to "Cat People", but has nothing to do with either a curse or cat people. It's about a little girl who sees a picture of her father's deceased wife (who was the cat woman in "Cat People") and develops her as an imaginary friend. It's a psychological study of imaginary friends and has been used in college psychology classes.



"I Walked With A Zombie". Yes there a couple of zombies, but they are not your traditional sorts of zombies. They weren't brought back from the dead, but were voodoo-created from living people. The strength of the story is in the witty script and the character development, not some outrageous science fiction about zombies.



"The Body Snatcher", "Isle Of The Dead", and "Bedlam" all star Boris Karloff, who gives surprisingly good performances. You can see he was really a very good actor. "Body snatcher" is a story of a doctor who relies on the Karloff character to dig up bodies from graves so his medical students can have cadavers to dissect. This is arguably Karloff's best performance ever. He is outstanding in "Bedlam" as well. "Island of the Dead" involves a group quarrantined on a little island because they have been exposed to the plague. Superstitious beliefs by some aggravate the tensions, but in the end that's all they are - superstitions, with no basis I reality.



"The 7th Victim" is about a young woman who gets caught up in a group of devil worshippers in Greenwich Village. You have to laugh when you see these devil worshippers - strictly high class, middle aged, well-dressed folks who look like the cream of society. Not at all the way devil worshippers are portrayed today.



"Leopard Man" is not about a man who changes into a leopard. It's about a small town living in fear of an escaped leopard. A few people have been killed, apparently by the cat, but was it in fact the cat that did it?



"The Ghost Ship" is not about ghosts in any way. It's about a mad ship captain who has strange ideas about leading.



In addition to the 9 movies, the set contains two documentaries about Val Lewton and these movies. These are: "Shadows In The Dark" and "Martin Scorsese Presents Val Lewton, The Man In The Shadows". The latter is on a separate disc and contains good commentary from Scorsese, but in fact it was written and directed by Kent Jones.



I'll want to watch these many times, so for me it's a great set to own."