Shadows in the Dark: The Val Lewton Legacy

Serviceable rather than outstanding documentary (close to one hour in length) about Val Lewton, the celebrated producer of a series of nine classic - and highly influential - horror films made at RKO in the 1940s; it's part of Warner's 5-Disc THE VAL LEWTON COLLECTION Box Set (included as a double-feature with THE SEVENTH VICTIM [1943]).

Apart from the films themselves (which are dealt with in more detail - though not all of them! - in the individual Audio Commentaries on their respective discs), it touches upon his entire life and career. Therefore, I was somewhat disappointed to find that CAT PEOPLE (1942) takes up a lot of the running-time - having been the first film in the series - while THE GHOST SHIP (1943) and ISLE OF THE DEAD (1945) are once again overlooked; in fact, the three Boris Karloff films are discussed simultaneously - with, for instance, BEDLAM (1946) cited as being Lewton's best film but with no proper context provided to back up such a statement (with which many would argue to begin with, myself included)!

Still, all the participants - including film-makers such as Joe Dante, William Friedkin, John Landis, George A. Romero and Robert Wise (at the time, the sole surviving member of Lewton's "Snake Pit" unit), as well as the critics/writers who contributed to the various Audio Commentaries (it was especially nice to be able to see the face behind the voice) - are clearly well-informed, enthusiastic and reverential about their subject, so that, in the end, the documentary proves well worth viewing (if not the penetrating look at the man himself - what really made him tick, essentially - one would have wished for).

When there's something I enjoy as much as the Val Lewton movies, I simply cannot get enough information. Shadows in the Dark: The Val Lewton Legacy is a fascinating look at the man and his work. The documentary covers everything from Lewton's arrival in America as a child to his early work for David O. Selznick to the nine horror films he made for RKO. The stories and details of Lewton's life and films are presented through a series of interviews with experts on cinema, directors and screenwriters working today, and Lewton's son. The documentary obviously focuses and spends most of its runtime on the RKO period. The film makes it clear that what I've come to know as the "Lewton Look" was as much a budgetary issue as a conscious decision on his part. The only complaint I have is that it wasn't longer.

Legendary producer Val Lewton who made some of the scariest horror films of all time finally gets a documentary about his life and the movies. It quickly (but fully) covers his early life and explains how he got to work for RKO Pictures and produce "The Cat People", "I Walked With a Zombie", "Bedlam", "The Body Snatcher", "The Leopard Man", "Isle of the Dead", the long unseen "Ghost Ship" and "The Seventh Victim". "Curse of the Cat People" is pretty much ignored but that's understandable--it's not really a horror film despite the title. They talk to coworkers, relatives, friends, other horror directors and film historians who get into how he made the films and why they're so important. What I find most interesting is that the studios GAVE him the titles and told him to make a story out of the title! It's incredible what classics he made with no money and just a title to work on. If you're a fan of his horror films (like me) you'll find this absolutely riveting. At 53 minutes it also doesn't wear out its welcome. Just fascinating. A 10 all the way.

Documentary about the great 1940s horror movie producer Val Lewton, featured on the 2005 DVD release "The Val Lewton Horror Collection."

You will learn how Lewton saved RKO by making successful B-movies between 1942 and 1946. How he opposed the idea of "Gone With the Wind", which was a mistake on Lewton's part. How he inspired Richard Matheson to write Lewton a letter, and thus change the history of horror cinema... no Matheson, no great horror of the 1960s!

John Landis calls Cat People's ethics "demented" and sees a lot of sexuality in the plot. Was it there? Maybe. Others have commented on the sexuality and homosexuality of Lewton's films, including "Cat People" and "The Seventh Victim". Was he a more clever script writer than already given credit for?

With a collection of Hollywood horror big guns talking about the films they love, this documentary on the life and career of Val Lewton is bound to make make you want to dive into his best known horror films.

Focusing on the nine horror films that Letwton made for RKO this film is as much about what is scary and the horror film's changing face as it is about its subject. Lewton, he produced the films and had input on the scripts, pretty much changed the face of horror as we know it. Gone were the monsters we could see, killed mostly due to budgetary considerations, and in their place we were given monsters of the mind, with horrors we never saw, only imagined. The films ended up being scarier as a result because the monster could be what ever we imagined it to be and not a man in a suit. Lewton's work foreshadowed the films of the 1960's including Hitchcock's Psycho.

This is a breezy 53 minutes that really only suffers in that you don't want it to end. Packaged as part of a DVD box set of the films, I'm hard pressed as when to say you should watch the film, before you dive into the films or after. I don't think it matters so long as you see it.