REVIEW: White Zombie
I always found it funny that I would see myself as a true zombie film aficionado but yet I never saw any zombie film before Night of the Living Dead. This always embarrassed me because it was one of my many flaws. However, I can finally put some of that to rest because I finally made my way into watching White Zombie. The story is quite simple: a young rich couple travel to Haiti to get married (sort of an exotic marriage) but Murder, the local witch doctor, kidnaps the bride and turns her into a zombie so that she could do all his dirty deeds.
Rather than boring you with detail on how this film was monumental I would rather express my opinions on the film and why I thought it was okay. I mean, I didn’t fall in love with it (probably because I saw it at such a late time) but I found it to be very refreshing. Here, the zombies are created by Voodoo like the ones in I Walked With A Zombie and they are being resurrected so that they can provide labor for Murder’s twisted pleasure. In their own sense, it’s actually quite grim and sort of terrifying to know that because of this mad Voodoo priest, your body will never be laid to rest… it will continue to work long after you are dead referencing the time in which this film came out.
It’s also important to note that the film, much like the old Universal monster pictures, came out right after the silent era so there are a lot of scenes that don’t have a soundtrack but have great sound effects. The scene in which we see the zombies turning and grinding gears is awe-inspiring in the most hypnotic and grim ways. You can hear the old, corroded and rotting wood turn on the factory floor; it’s like you are right there when it’s happening. That’s another aspect of the film that I love: everything is so dark and moody that it makes you feel like you are in the movie.
Even Lugosi himself is darker and more threatening than he is in Dracula. He perfectly fits in with the film’s dark, German expression-like atmosphere. Murder, Lugosi’s character, is a primitive and very commanding voodoo priest. I find it rather disturbing that he would kidnap a poor helpless American woman only to turn her into a zombie so that she can obey his needs. Here is where the film gets a little deeper. What are his needs? The woman is dressed in a virginal white evening gown and she is possessed by a primitive cult. You can see it as a sexually deviant film that has a hint of necrophilia. As for Lugosi, he is a scary character. He is a lot more abusive and wild than Dracula and the best part is… he still retains those amazing eyes.
Overall, if you are a zombie film fan than I would recommend this film for it’s moody atmosphere and Lugosi’s performance. It’s one of the first non epidemic zombie flicks and it aged well however, don’t overhype yourself into thinking that this is one of the greatest zombie movies ever but just take into account of what it did for the zombie sub-culture.
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