Monday 18 May 2020

Val Lewton’s World Of Darkness

The BBC have put a chunk of their library of classic RKO films on iPlayer. Citizen Kane! King Kong! Cary Grant! Fred and Ginger!

The Val Lewton produced horror films represented by Cat People, Curse Of The Cat People and I Walked With A Zombie was already available but well worth mentioning. They’re much more low-key than their Universal rivals, particularly by the 40s when they’d gone for the crossover monster rallies.

They may be of particular interest to World Of Darkness types - particularly Cat People and The Seventh Victim, not included - for their portrayal of very human monsters in a noirish modern world.

The run is particularly impressive because the films famously started with titles handed down from the studio and Lewton and crew left to make something that fit! A skill I greatly admire, as you may know.

Cat People director Jacques Tourneur went on to make Night Of The Demon, a fantastic adaptation of M.R. James’s Casting The Runes which complicates cross-Googling Lewton and the World Of Darkness as the term appears in its opening narration.

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