Supernatural (Not That TV Show)

Supernatural (1933)

Runtime: 65 minutes

Directed by: Victor Halperin

Starring: Carole Lombard, Alan Dinehart, Randolph Scott, Vivienne Osborne, H.B. Warner

From: Paramount

Here is an obscure movie I heard about a few days ago and via less than ethical means I was able to see this. I explain it all below in my Letterboxd review:

This is yet another movie I found out about via a messageboard post. In this case, someone posted the poster for this movie (not the one listed here on Letterboxd) and noted that it was awesome, which I can't disagree with. I looked up the film's details and I was intrigued by this being the only horror movie of a famous actress, in this case Carole Lombard. In addition, the main people who made this film previously made the famous Pre-Code horror shocker known as White Zombie. I was able to track this down... nevermind how.

The plot to this Pre-Code thriller is the spirit of an executed woman-she was a killer so it's not like it was an unjust execution-entering the body of innocent Carole Lombard after a séance gone wrong. This was after an opening which listed quotes from Confucius, Mohammed, and the Old Testament. At least most of their bases were covered... this also includes such things as a phony psychic, a dead twin brother and a world where people rather easily believe that after death a spirit can easily enter an innocent person's body and take over.

For a movie that is only 65 minutes long, it does take awhile to really get going, and the actual possession is not as lengthy as you might expect. At times things do seem confused, so I wonder if this was edited down so it could be a proper second feature on a double bill with another Paramount movie; it does seem like a few scenes are missing or at least truncated. At least the movie is still watchable, there are some creepy moments, the disses against charlatans who engage in spiritualism made me laugh-as I agree-and Lombard did a swell job as a character who acts drastically different before and after possession. The ending is also deliciously macabre.

It's just that when some of the people involved made White Zombie, you hope for more and I can only rate this as about average.