I Walked with a Zombie (1943)

From celebrated director-producer duo Jacques Tourneur and Val Lewton (whose iconic Cat People was released a year prior) comes the story of a nurse hired to care for a powerful landowner’s wife on a remote Caribbean island. Taking unlikely inspiration from Jane Eyre, this visually atmospheric (if culturally problematic) mix of Haitian folklore and racial commentary is a much classier affair than its exploitation title might imply.