With croaking frogs, jungle drumming and the mysterious presence of one Murder Legendre, a man whose name alone should’ve raised a few eyebrows (especially if they belong to Bela Lugosi), White Zombie paints quite a picture.
We’re on a Haitian plantation and Neil and Maddy are about to celebrate their nuptials. The only thing standing in their way is a cockblocking presence of Beaumont, so taken with the female half of the couple who he met on a cross-Atlantic ship, that he’s willing to go to great lengths to have her to himself.
This includes turning to the dark arts, in the form of Lugosi’s Murder character, hatching a plan to kill Maddy and revivify her as…well, a white zombie.
That means concocting a fakakta powder and basically roofying her, while creating a wax effigy, maybe as a curse backup.
This pre-Code flick is cited as the first full-length zombie film and remains polarizing, with ardent defenders and critics (especially upon release, as despite its box office success, White Zombie was the subject of derision).
One unkind appraisal of the 1932 flick dubbed Lugosi a “comic imbecile,” but it’s undeniable to these eyes that the man oozed charisma and his performance is measured, precise and charming-as-hell.
*** (out of 5)
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