Excellent, smart action film.

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Val Lewton and Jacque Tourneur are the forces behind this movie. When we think of zombies, we have a picture in our minds of the characters in "The Night of the Living Dead" and numerous movies and TV shows following it, including "The Walking Dead." This was made when the zombie was better known as a drink than as a character. This is quite different than what we are used to. A young woman gets a job as a nurse on an island where voodoo is practiced. Her job is to watch after a woman who is pretty much catatonic, who seems to sleepwalk, in a house where there are mysterious circumstances. On the island is a subculture that beats drums and holds meetings doing that voodoo stuff. The woman who is the center of all this has been affected in some way by these people and her husband is also involved in some way. Like many of the Lewton films, it's very low key with incredible atmosphere. I've been wanting to see this film for years and finally had the opportunity.

This is a clever take on Jayne Eyre by a great producer-director team Val Lewton and Jacques Tourneur who made several films for a stick of gum in the early forties and obtained 90 per cent of their effects by allowing the viewers imagination to stand in for cgi which was still decades in the future. Tom Conway may have only had a voice and suavity in common with his brother George Sanders but he makes a half-decent fist of the Rochester role and it's a great chance to catch the elusive Frances Dee as the Jane Eyre figure. She married Joel McCrea in the early thirties and didn't work nearly enough post-nuptials despite being a talented actress and a looker with it. Decent B-picture.

There are a lot of terrific elements in this movie. It is moody and atmospheric, subtly ominous, and like many Lewton movies leaves its supernatural elements ambiguous.But the most unusual thing aspect from a 1940s movie is how it treats black. First off, note that the West Indies natives don't speak in either the "yass ma'am" or "ooga booga" styles that represented the entire spectrum of black portrayals in the U.S. at the time. They talk in slightly accented, but perfectly normal English. Also, the movie specifically mentions the slave industry at least twice. There is a wonderful scene near the beginning in which the main character discusses the island's history with her driver. He mentioned they were brought here in chains, she says, well at least they brought you to a beautiful place, and he says, very politely "if you say so."That is such an awesome exchange. He is a servant and he's not going to argue with her, but he also won't kowtow. It is a conversation you can actually believe will happen.The movie also shows surprising respect for the Voodoo aspects. The natives believe in it, but they aren't mocked for it, and in the ceremony they do actual African dance, instead of some weird Hollywood fakery. The movie, again typical of Lewton, has a lovely complexity to it. Characters are more than they appear to be, and their motives are not simple. It's not a perfect movie. Some of the acting is less than stellar and I suspect some explanatory scenes were cut, as it sometimes feels rushed and slightly disconnected. But it is not to be missed.

The Canadian nurse Betsy Connell (Frances Dee) is hired to travel to St. Sebastian, in West Indies, to work at Fort Holland nursing Jessica Holland (Christine Gordon), the wife of the sugar plantation owner Paul Holland (Tom Conway). Betsy meets Paul in the ship and is welcomed by Paul's estranged half-brother Wesley "Wes" Rand (James Ellison) in the farmhouse. During the night, she overhears a woman crying and she believes that might be Jessica and goes to her room. She finds a creepy mute woman and she learns that Jessica had a mental paralysis after a severe tropical fever and is a hopeless case, unable to speak or have power. Soon Betsy falls in love with Paul and she decides to help Jessica to be cured to make Paul happier. She suggests an experimental treatment with shock to Dr. Maxwell (James Bell) but it fails. While talking to the maid Alma (Theresa Harris), she discovers that another woman was cured in a voodoo ceremony by a voodoo priest and she decides to use witchcraft to cure Jessica. However the natives believe that Jessica is a zombie that cannot be cured. When Betsy meets Paul and Wesley's mother Mrs. Rand (Edith Barrett), she finds that Jessica was the pivot of a fight between Paul and Wes and she believes that her daughter-in-law is a zombie."I Walked with a Zombie" is an ambiguous zombie movie directed by Jacques Tourneur. The plot is a family drama and the zombies in this movie are not like in George Romero's trilogy or "The Walking Dead", but related to voodoo in a Caribbean Island. There is a creepy atmosphere with a beautiful cinematography, the non-stop voodoo drums and the native Carrefour, but no gore, violent death or scream. The conclusion is ambiguous after the revelation of Mrs. Rand. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "A Morta-Viva" ("The Living Dead")