1236 I Walked with a Zombie / The Seventh Victim: Produced by Val Lewton

[Finch]

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 critic and historian Imogen Sara Smith
Audio essays from Adam Roche’s podcast The Secret History of Hollywood
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; author Neil Gaiman; actor Sara Karloff; and others
Trailers
English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
PLUS: Essays by critics Chris Fujiwara and Lucy Sante

New illustration by Katherine Lam

[ryannichols7]

much like the Browning set last year - feels really worth the wait and the extras, despite mostly being archival, are basically as comprehensive as Criterion get nowadays. looks like a knockout edition, excited to own!

[TechnicolorAcid]

Not to mention the utter shock at this being a 4K release of both films. When I tell I am excited I really mean it and I hope that this is finally the push for someone to release Apache Drums on Blu-Ray finally here in America.

[ryannichols7]

Not to mention the utter shock at this being a 4K release of both films. When I tell I am excited I really mean it and I hope that this is finally the push for someone to release Apache Drums on Blu-Ray finally here in America.

they've honestly done very good on giving us a lot of these long awaited titles in 4K and not just BD when they do show up. Freaks was an exception but thinking of Werckmeister, Soy Cuba, and Concubine as a few examples. I really hope Petulia will get a 4K when it finally appears, that'll make all waits extremely worth it

[Finch]

Their 50% sale better not kick off until this thing is released! (I suppose I could go with B&N in November too but I prefer stacking my points to get the $50 gift card from Criterion direct)

[Maltic]

much like the Browning set last year - feels really worth the wait and the extras, despite mostly being archival, are basically as comprehensive as Criterion get nowadays. looks like a knockout edition, excited to own!

In short, it's "a WAC release but with UHD," like The Roaring Twenties.

Which is fine... we get two of the most awaited films.

[colinr0380]

Fantastic! These are the two absolute best Lewton horrors all about modern culture coming up against more irrational forces of superstition, with one film dealing with voodoo and the other with witchcraft. Both gorgeously fatalistic. I wrote I Walked With A Zombie up in more detail here, but The Seventh Victim may be one of the existentially bleakest of all horror films, with the only happy ending (which plays just like a slow developing 'coming to the Big City' Hollywood romancer) coming in the form of obliviously turning a blind eye to some of the more upsetting things occurring in the world. I have a suspicion that Argento was particularly influenced by this (and especially the Irving August section of the heroine somewhat calculatedly sacrificing a supporting cast member in her place) in his bleakest horror film, 1980's Inferno.

(And the boarding school opening of The Seventh Victim has the other 'RKO getting their money's worth out of expensive sets' re-usage of the staircase from The Magnificent Ambersons to go together with the journey up to Irena's apartment in Cat People!)

[onedimension]

A shame all the Lewtons are scattered across multiple labels, but this is a great release. And UHD!

[Peacock]

Fantastic! They sure took their time but it was worth the wait as it means I Walked With a Zombie in 4K! Tourneur’s first 4K of one of his very best pictures (out of an incredible bunch). I can’t wait.

The extras are a major disappointment but I wouldn’t expect anything more from CC these days.

[reaky]

Fingers crossed for a UK release. We’ve had Roaring Twenties and All That Money Can Buy recently, so that’s promising.

[ryannichols7]

much like the Browning set last year - feels really worth the wait and the extras, despite mostly being archival, are basically as comprehensive as Criterion get nowadays. looks like a knockout edition, excited to own!

In short, it's "a WAC release but with UHD," like The Roaring Twenties.

Which is fine... we get two of the most awaited films.

indeed, though it's impressive as this will mark Newman/Jones' commentary debut from Criterion, even though it's a port. literally every other label out there as seemingly hired Newman in particular, and Criterion has in the past for some things, but never a track. much like The Roaring Twenties we do get a new Criterion interview (I'm assuming the ISS interview is new) at least, the Giddens one on Walsh's movie was good

Criterion have at least done okay about keeping most archival extras. there are certainly exceptions (anything BBC related) but if nothing else, they will load those on. I just wish they'd create new stuff, but I'll save that for the other thread

[andyli]

I'm just glad any new stuff is not recorded off Zoom meetings any more.

[Orlac]

Funnily enough, there is an I Walked With A Zombie remake...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdRtbfY ... ONICbrdcst

[domino harvey]

That’s fine since it was already a remake of Jane Eyre

[Orlac]

That’s fine since it was already a remake of Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre could have used more Crypt Keeper.

[knives]

MichaelB’s been great at this with his booklets and commentaries, though I suppose it helps you have to assume people need cultural context for most of the films he covers.

[reaky]

Audio commentary on The Seventh Victim featuring film historian Steve Haberman

Steve Haberman the... magician? the author? I don't believe I've heard any commentaries by him before, though I watched all these Lewtons when the DVD set was released lo so many decades ago. My memory fails me.

Haberman has a regrettable fondness for doing impressions of actors when quoting them. He’s particularly proud of his Bela Lugosi.

[colinr0380]

That’s fine since it was already a remake of Jane Eyre

I particularly like Kim Newman's suggestion in the commentary that I Walked With A Zombie strangely anticipates Jean Rhys' 1966 'prequel' novel to Jane Eyre, Wide Sargasso Sea, which gets into the backstory of Mr Rochester's first wife before she ended up in that attic, and tries to flesh her out more.

[Orlac]

Audio commentary on The Seventh Victim featuring film historian Steve Haberman

Steve Haberman the... magician? the author? I don't believe I've heard any commentaries by him before, though I watched all these Lewtons when the DVD set was released lo so many decades ago. My memory fails me.

The guy who wrote Dracula: Dead and Loving It.

[reaky]

I particularly like Kim Newman's suggestion in the commentary that I Walked With A Zombie strangely anticipates Jean Rhys' 1966 'prequel' novel to Jane Eyre, Wide Sargasso Sea, which gets into the backstory of Mr Rochester's first wife before she ended up in that attic, and tries to flesh her out more.

It’s not necessarily a strange anticipation: Rhys briefly trained as an actress at RADA and worked as a chorus girl, and often referred to the cinema in her work. To quote Lisa Stead’s book Off to the Pictures: “Across Rhys's quartette of early novels, cinema is used recurrently, offering both sanctuary and troubling space of exposure for her wandering, outsider heroines.” So there’s every chance Rhys had seen I Walked with a Zombie (it certainly would have resonated, given her background).

[yoloswegmaster]

New extra added:

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

[domino harvey]

That’s a digital series funded by PBS. Licensing YouTube content is exactly where this label is now, huh

[TechnicolorAcid]

That’s a digital series funded by PBS. Licensing YouTube content is exactly where this label is now, huh

I don’t know about that, it’s stated that this was shown on the PBS TV channel in the intro and even if it was just digital content I thought it provided enough context for the film’s Zombie and the culture surrounding it that it would make sense to include it with this release.

[domino harvey]

It’s a digital only series. PBS has a whole slew of titles produced for online audiences via their digital studios offshoot (I know this because I watch another one, Two Cents)

[knives]

Here’s the whole thing from its official channel. I’m not necessarily a Criterion doomsayer, but this is unquestionably a low.