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White Zombie (1932) - Victor Halperin

So I am watching this horrible VHS copy of White Zombie that I bought at the Goodwill for a dollar. I think it was a dollar well spent even though the sound and picture are as questionable. I will try to power through it. 

The movie is about a girl and her fiancee who are due to be married upon arrival to an old plantation in Hati or someplace like that. They stumble  across a which doctor who serves as the antagonist for the rest of the film.  People are risen from the dead and they attack the living. That plot device crowns White Zombie as the first zombie movie ever made. What about Frankestein or the Mummy? Weren't they dead and resurrected too? Well this Zombie is made of Black Magic or Voodoo. Spell and enchantments are put on the bodies to make them rise. It is the first voodoo zombie film, I'll give it that. 

The acting in this movie is way off. I know it's an independent feature but it is really bad. It is a victim of it's own time and features white actors in black face too. It is pretty strange to look back and see that kind of thing. Anyway, from looking at it you could tell that they didn't have much in the way of money when they were making it. They had to get creative with the effects. I think this adds to the creepiness. 

I am still pretty early in the Bela Lugosi kinda stuff. I think that he is a phenomenal actor, he is just stuck with the Dracula persona so much that it looks to be affecting his roles. 

Surely you don't think she's alive, in the hands of natives
  • The movie got sued because, there was a play that came out the same year in New York called the same thing. The movie won.
  • Voodoo Zombies just in case you were wondering
  • The movie shows a great deal of black actors who are given really stereotyped roles.

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