White Zombie

This week we’re taking a deep dive into the early days of film with 1932s White Zombie. As I mentioned in my first post, I wanted to cover a variety of horror from different sub-genres, time periods, and countries and I knew I wanted to cover a pre-Code film early on. I found this film in a book I own called 101 Horror Movies Must You See Before You Die (an off-shoot of the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die series) and felt it would be a good place to start.

White Zombie was written by Garnett Weston and directed by Victor Halperin; it was inspired by the novel The Magic Island by William Seabrook and was released on July 28th, 1932. White Zombie had a budget of approximately $50,000 and was reasonably successful at the Box Office, though exact figures are hard to come by. Reviews upon release were highly negative, with critics focusing on poor acting, dialogue, and story. The film saw a slight resurgence in popularity and became a cult classic after being released on VHS and Betamax in the 80s.

White Zombie follows Charles Beaumont (Robert W. Frazer) a plantation owner in Haiti who falls in love with Madeleine Short (Madge Bellamy). Madeleine is engaged to Neil Parker (John Harron) so Charles enlists the help of Murder Legendre (Bela Lugosi), a local voodoo master who commands a workforce of zombies. Murder provides him with a potion that will turn Madeleine into a zombie, completely under his control. When Madeleine is turned into a zombie after their wedding, Neil must confront Charles and Murder in order to free her from the curse.

I was excited to visit White Zombie. I’ve been working my way through the 101 Horror Movies… book and have enjoyed most of the pre-Code horror films I’ve seen. However, I came away from it extremely disappointed.

I wish I had some positives to say, but I really don’t. Despite a runtime of 67 minutes, this film felt much longer with it’s glacier-like pacing. The acting veers from ludicrously over the top to dull and lifeless depending on the scene, Bela Lugosi fares the best among the cast but even he’s not meeting the standards one may expect from him. While the premise of the story had potential, the script lacks real nuance very little actually happens even considering the short runtime while the dialogue is blunt and on the nose.

White Zombie does hold a place in horror history, being considered by many to be the first feature-length zombie film, but it’s ultimately dull and uninspired. If I’m being honest, I’m having trouble finding ways to fill out this review other than just saying “this movie sucked”. If you have an interest in the history of horror (or if you’re obsessed with watching all the films a book tells you to, like me), it’s worth a mercifully short watch but otherwise I wouldn’t bother.

Rating: 1 zombie potion out of 5

Other Observations

• Does the Dog Die? No dogs (or animals of any kind) are killed in this film, so that’s nice.

• Harrison’s Favorite Scare: I legitimately don’t have one.

• Rob Zombie’s band White Zombie gets its name from this film.

• It’s worth noting that this film features zombies as originally conceived: reanimated corpses that follow the orders of their master. The modern idea of zombies became popularized by Romero’s Night of the Living Dead (which I will certainly be covering at some point).

• Next Week: We’re going abroad and checking out Ju-On.