The film has been praised for the shadowy camera work by Nicholas Musuraca, which prefigured much film noir imagery, including possibly the shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. However, the film was initially criticized in reviews for having too many characters and a storyline that doesn't always make sense. Most controversially, the film resolves with the suicide of one of the main characters (contrary to the spirit if not the letter of the Production Code), and is possibly the only film score of the period to end in a minor key. The story goes that Lewton was warned not to make a film with a message, and he replied that this film did have a message: "Death is good."
- Wikipedia