title: Val Lewton’s Naturalism and Historical Trauma: No Bed of Her Own, Cat People, The Seventh Victim, and I Walked with a Zombie
abstract: Val Lewton’s Naturalism and Historical TraumaNo Bed of Her Own, Cat People, The Seventh Victim, and I Walked with a Zombie Donna M. Campbell (bio) In December 1942, American movie audiences saw a startling title card introducing what they thought would be a low budget “B” picture from RKO studios: “‘Even as fog continues to lie in the valleys, so does ancient sin cling to the low places, the depressions in the world consciousness.’ The Anatomy of Atavism— Dr. Louis Judd” (Cat People). Off-brand 
journal: Studies in American naturalism