White Zombie (1932)

Director: Victor Halperin

Starring: Bela Lugosi, Madge Bellamy, John Harron, Robert Frazer, Joseph Cawthorn

More info: IMDB

Tagline: The Dead Walk Among Us!

Plot: A young man turns to a witch doctor to lure the woman he loves away from her fiance, but instead turns her into a zombie slave.

My rating: 6/10

Will I watch it again? Not likely


I tried watching this late at night a few months ago and, having just re-watched it, I can see why I fell asleep the first time. It's slow. For a film from '32, it's got a lot of music in it which is rare. Just a year earlier Lugosi starred in DRACULA and it had maybe 1-2 minutes of music which was only at the beginning and the end. Anyway, WZ has some fantastic imagery and sets (with some great matte paintings).


Probably my favorite scene is where we are introduced to Lugosi at his sugar mill. His employees are all zombies which he controls. There's no music, just the ambiance of the mill, the creaking of the wooden turnstiles. Nice.


What keeps this 69 minute creepfest from being a home run is some of the performances (Harron was the worst culprit) and the incredible amount of downtime. Imagine someone being filmed walking slowly from one side of the room to the other and then back again before speaking. That's what we're dealing with here.


The impressive imagery is not enough to save this picture. Lugosi's presence helps but his often static performance detracts from it. It's definitely worth seeing for fans of classic horror but be warned if you start into it if you know sleep is on the horizon.