Review by Steve D. Stones
To the younger generation of today, White Zombie refers to a
1990s heavy metal band founded by singer Rob Zombie, and inspired by low-budget
B-movies of the past. To the much older generation, White Zombie is a low-budget
1930s forgotten B-movie starring the legendary Bela Lugosi, shortly after his
success in the 1931 universal studios film – Dracula. Victor and Edward
Halperin produced and directed the film.
In White Zombie, Lugosi
plays a sinister West Indies witch doctor named Murder Legendre who is in
control of an army of mindless zombies. The zombies are in a trance to do his
bidding at a sugar mill. Charles
Beaumont is the sugar plantation owner who invites a young couple to the
plantation to be married. He becomes obsessed with the beautiful young
bride-to-be named Madeline, and employs Legendre to pull her away from her
fiancé. Legendre stages a plot to put
the young bride in a trance at the wedding alter to make her appear dead. The
plan works, and the locals soon stage a funeral and bury Madeline.
Legendre revives Madeline in her crypt, and she is taken to
a castle by the sea. Beaumont wants to love Madeline, but finds she has no
human emotions because she too, like Legendre’s zombies, is in a zombified
trance. Madeline’s fiancé discovers she is still alive and arrives at the
castle to rescue her.
By all appearances, White Zombie has many interesting
elements similar to the silent era horror films that preceded it. There are
long, drawn out sequences of no sound but the crackling of the film itself. One particular instance of this is in an
opening shot where a stagecoach carries the young couple to the plantation. The
coach stops as Legendre walks up to the opening of the coach and stares
longingly at Madeline to pull a scarf from around her neck. This helps to build
some creepy tension early on in the film. The scarf is used in a later scene to
place a trance on Madeline.
The film is full of many memorable creepy scenes. Another
sequence in the film shows a group of zombies in the sugar mill slowly turning
a grinder as they walk in a circle. The zombies wear hooded cloaks and have
dark circles around their eyes. A zombie falls into the grinder as the
remaining zombies continue to turn the grinder and show no sympathy for the
fallen zombie.
A number of scenes show close ups of Lugosi’s eyes, which
would later be used in lesser classics like the unwatchable 1936 film - Revolt of
The Zombies, also produced and directed by the Halperin brothers. The 1931 Dracula also has a number of shots
showing close ups of Lugosi’s eyes.
White Zombie is certainly an exercise in creating a
genuinely frightening Hollywood film on a shoe string budget. Some accounts
suggest that the film was shot in two weeks and only cost around $62,000.
Lugosi was said to have only been paid $500 for his role. The Halperin brothers wanted to keep the
dialogue of the film to a minimum by trimming over 100 pages of the script. The
minimum sound and dialogue also gives the film a quality reminiscent of earlier
silent era films.
For further information about White Zombie and other classic
horror films of the voodoo genre, refer to Bryan Senn’s excellent book published
in 1999 - “Drum’s O’ Terror – Voodoo In The Cinema.” Be sure to include White
Zombie on your list of horror films to watch this Halloween Season. Happy
Halloween!
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