Voodoo intrigue in the dark jungles of Haiti. This is widely recognized as the first zombie movie, but don’t go expecting Night of the Living Dead here. This is nothing like that. This is pre-flesh eater. These zombies are based on the original West African voodoo legends of mindless walking corpses under the hypnotic command of a witch doctor. The plot is about how the loser in a love triangle (Robert Frazer) tries to get his way by poisoning the woman (Madge Bellamy) and turning her into his very own undead companion. Plantation owner Bela Lugosi, whose entire crew consists of zombie labor, supplies the voodoo potion, the villainy, and the freaky fake eyebrows.
If this entertaining low budget independent film gives you deja vu, it’s for good reason. Producer Edward Halperin and director Victor Halperin shot this on space rented from Universal Studios and they reused prominent sets and props from Dracula, Frankenstein, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Cat and the Canary.