White Zombie (1932)

Diving into a new project can be daunting and this is going to be a big undertaking but I think its off to a great start. I remember having to watch 13 Ghosts in pieces because I was too scared to watch it all at once.  I do this a lot with horror films.  However, this was not one of those movies.  White Zombie was comparable to a Simpson's halloween episode but for me this means I have to look away from the tv when the story starts to get intense (its a phobia...don't judge).  This is the first in a line of over 300 zombie movies so I don't mind if we don't jump right into the frightening stuff. 

The movie itself was fairly entertaining. The zombies were the classic voodoo slaves brought back to life by Bela Lugosi's character, Murder Legendre.  The story is set in Haiti and the style of zombie is based on the Haitian myth zombies.  Most of the zombies through the 50's were based on Haitian myth until space travel changed them forever; more on that when we get to Plan 9 from Outer Space, another of Bela Lugosi's classics.  There is one scene where the zombies become violent but this is because they are commanded to do so.  Most of the time they just stand around with wide eyes looking very creepy in black and white.

What makes this movie relevant to its time?  Victor Halperin, the director, may have read William Seabrook's 1929 book "Magic Island" which was based on his travels to Haiti and experiences with voodoo. He may have had an interest in making a horror film about the same subject because horror films were a huge hit at the time.  This movie didn't take long to film and reused the set and props from the original "Dracula" and "Frankenstein" which had both recently been made.  Maybe he just wanted to get his feet wet in the horror genre.  Whatever the reason, and even though the movie didn't end up being a hit, I say thank you Mr. Halperin for starting it all!  I look forward to watching the sequel in a couple of weeks.

So far so good, I know there are a lot of really BAD movies to get through before moving on to Night of the Living Dead, eat your brains, zombies but stick with me, it'll be a lot of fun.

Stats for White Zombie...
Style of zombie: voodoo servant
Threat to humans: no, only when commanded to be violent
Dead or alive: dead
How they become zombies: voodoo spells awaken dead bodies
Other: they're able to be turned back into humans if their souls return to them
How to kill them: this can only be done by the voodoo master or if the voodoo master dies