A new set from the Criterion Collection offers two 1943 films created under the aegis of noted horror producer Val Lewton. For the second of these, we go to The Seventh Victim.

Jacqueline Gibson (Jean Brooks) raised her teenaged sister Mary (Kim Hunter) and goes mysteriously absent. Mary leaves her private school to head to New York City so she can search for her older sibling and caregiver.

Before long, Mary meets Gregory Ward (Hugh Beaumont), her sister’s husband - and a brother-in-law she didn’t know she had – as well as psychiatrist Dr. Louis Judd (Tom Conway). As Mary investigates, she learns that Jacqueline got tangled up in a Satanic cult and that both Gregory and Dr. Judd may know more than they want to reveal.

Victim represents my third experience with a film produced by Lewton and directed by Mark Robson. I thought 1943’s The Ghost Ship came as a bit of a dud but 1946’s Bedlam turned into a satisfying thriller.

This leaves Victim as the tie-breaker. Where does it land?

Somewhere between those poles. Victim delivers a good experience much of its running time but it sputters as it progresses.

To be certain, Victim starts very well. It creates a good mystery and doesn’t rely on its potential supernatural/horror elements too soon.

Really, Victim feels more like film noir than the expected terror. It does gradually change its tone, especially after one character gets killed.

Whatever the genre, the first 43 minutes or so of Victim emerges at a gradual but involving pace. It sets up a lot of plot elements in a concise way and keeps us engaged.

And then… not so much. Around that 43-minute spot, we get a scene that provides clunky exposition and the film deteriorates.

This happens because the aforementioned sequence simply eliminates too much of the story’s tension. Suspense flies out the window because Victim tells us too much.

For the movie’s final 28 minutes, Victim becomes more silly than scary or creepy. The plot makes less and less sense and matters just derail.

Throw in a terribly anti-climactic finish and Victim ultimately disappoints. While very good for the initial 60 percent of its length, the feeble final 40 percent makes it a flawed ride.

The Seventh Victim appears in an aspect ratio of 1.37:1 on this 4K UHD Disc. Though not a visual showcase, the image usually seemed positive.

For the most part, sharpness appeared appealing. Occasional soft spots materialized, but the majority of the film exhibited solid delineation.

No issues with jaggies or shimmering appeared, and I saw no edge haloes. Grain felt reasonably natural, and I witnessed no print flaws.

Blacks appeared deep and shadows offered good clarity, though contrast could lean too bright at times. Ultimately, the movie looked fine despite a few exceptions.

As for the film’s LPCM monaural soundtrack, it replicated the original material with pleasing quality. Dialogue seemed fine for its era, and was relatively crisp and well-defined with no signs of edginess or problems related to intelligibility.

The movie featured a fairly spare score, but when we heard music, it was acceptably broad and clear. The material presented little low end but the dynamics were fine for a track of this vintage.

Though effects were similarly dated, they seemed adequately clean and realistic, and no aspects of the mix displayed signs of distortion. Background noise failed to become an issue. All in all, the audio worked fine for its age.

How did the 4K UHD compare to the Blu-ray version? Both came with identical audio.

Even without HDR, the 4K offered some improvements in terms of blacks, contrast and delineation, though these seemed modest. While I preferred the 4K, it didn’t top the Blu-ray by a substantial margin – indeed, the 4K made some of the image’s deficits more obvious.

As we shift to extras, we start with an audio commentary from film historian Steve Haberman. He provides a running, screen-specific view of story/characters, themes and subtext, cast and crew, and production notes.

Haberman starts very strong and delivers quality information for roughly the film’s first half. However, like the movie itself, he loses steam after that.

This means Haberman narrates the movie more than anything else during this stretch. While we still get some good insights across that span, expect the heavy lifting to occur in the flick’s opening half.

Under the banner of The Secret History of Hollywood, we get a second audio track that runs alongside the movie. This one offers excerpts from Adam Roche’s podcast and focuses on Seventh Victim.

Roche tells us how Val Lewton took over the RKO “B unit”, the movie’s roots and development, cast and crew, production domains, the flick’s reception and related anecdotes. I enjoyed his look at I Walked With a Zombie and this becomes another engaging and informative piece.

No other extras appear on the 4K UHD, but we get a bunch on the included Blu-ray disc. Because this version of Seventh Victim comes on the same disc as I Walked with a Zombie, they largely “share” the remaining extras. Imogen Sara Smith on Val Lewton offers a circa 2024 interview with author Smith.

In this 47-minute, piece, Smith covers the filmmakers and their approaches to projects as well as specifics about Walked and Victim. Smith delivers an informative summary.

From 2005, Shadows in the Dark delivers a 53-minute, 24-second documentary. Narrated by actor James Cromwell, it brings remarks from Newman, Jones, filmmakers William Friedkin, Guillermo del Toro, Joe Dante, George A. Romero, John Landis, Mick Garris, and Robert Wise, film historian Steve Haberman, filmmaker’s son Val E. Lewton, actor’s daughter Sara Karloff, film professors Dr. Drew Casper and Rick Jewell, and authors Harlan Ellison, Richard Matheson, Neil Gaiman and Ramsey Campbell.

“Shadows” looks at the life and career of Val Lewton. It brings us a deep and worthwhile summary.

Excerpts from a PBS Digital Studios series entitled Monstrum, The Origins of the Zombie, From Haiti to the US goes for 12 minutes, 42 seconds. It features Dr. Emily Zarka.

She examines the history of zombies in various cultures. Zarka delivers a pretty informative chat.

Also from Adam Roche’s Secret History of Hollywood, we get audio segments about actors Jean Brooks (53:14) and Tom Conway (1:09:53).

Both of these cover the actors’ careers in a way that relies on anecdotes and general themes. Like Roche’s “commentary” for the film, the two podcasts become highly enjoyable and educational.

The disc ends with two trailers. We find one for Walked and another for Seventh Victim.

The package concludes with a booklet that features art, credits and essays from critics Chris Fujiwara and Lucy Sante. It ends the set well.

For much of its running time, The Seventh Victim creates an involving ‘slow burn’ tale. Unfortunately, it loses its way after that. The 4K UHD comes with generally positive picture and audio as well as a strong selection of supplements. Victim winds up as an erratic movie.

To rate this film, visit the prior review of THE SEVENTH VICTIM