Amazon.com

Bela Lugosi followed up his star-making role in Dracula with this ambitious low-budget horror film from the Halperin brothers, who effectively transplanted the misty gothic mood of the Universal horror films to their poverty-row studio. White Zombie drips with atmosphere from the opening, as eerie chanting accompanies the credits and Madeleine (Madge Bellamy) arrives at midnight to witness a mysterious burial before coming face to face with the satanic looking Murder Legendre (Lugosi with goatee and searing eyes), a hypnotist and voodoo master who has been supplying the local mills with an army of zombie laborers. Madeleine's nightmare is just beginning. Having landed in a world of almost perpetual night, where hollow-eyed zombies lumber through the sugar mill and the ghostly town is eerily bereft of living souls, she becomes the object of desire for Legendre, whose plan to possess her involves her initiation to the world of the undead. This first zombie movie is also one of the best, with Lugosi's archly sinister performance dominating the film (thankfully obscuring a lot of overacting by supporting players), and astounding sets and gorgeous matte paintings creating a wondrous sense of poetic doom. --Sean Axmaker ... Read more

Reviews (39)

One of Lugosi's better films as another master of the undead
In many ways "White Zombie" is not only the first zombie movie it is also the last film in the baroque horror tradition of the silent films. This 1932 film directed by Victor Halperin was made for practically nothing even though is starred Bela Lugosi as "Murder" Legendre, in his first big role after the gigantic success of "Dracula," as the master of a different type of undead down in Haiti (Note: Lugosi apparently directed some of the retakes as well).

In "White Zombie," Monsieur Beaumont (Robert Frazer) convinces a young couple, Madeleine Short (Madge Bellamy) and Neil Parker (John Harron) to get married on his Haitian plantation. Amazingly enough, he does this so that he can convince Madeline to run away with him. Needing help, Beaumont turns to Legendre, who runs his mill with zombie workers. Legendre carves a voodoo doll and with Madeline's scarf turn her into a zombie as well. Neil thinks that his wife is dead and gets depressed, sinking into a world of hallucinations and fevered dreams, while Beaumont quickly discovers that he is dissatisfied with Madeline's soulless husk and wants her turned back (even though this will undoubtedly do nothing to improve their relationship). Instead, the fiendish Legendre turns Beaumont into a zombie as well, which actually makes the couple compatible for the first time in the film. Meanwhile, Neil is convinced by a local priest that maybe he is not a widow after all and he goes off to play the hero.

"White Zombie" never really frightens its audience, but instead sustains a high level of downright eeriness throughout, achieving its effect by taking such simple objects as the scarf used to wrap a voodoo doll or a rose containing poison and making them important elements in Lugosi's evil machinations. This film might be a talkie, but its sensibilities are those of the silent era, which actually works in its favor, even with Lugosi's distinctive accented voice. The result is a rather creepy film that ends up being an above average effort in Lugosi's career that I would put in his top five films.

Bela Lugosi in the world's first zombie horror movie
In many ways this first zombie movie is the last film in the baroque horror tradition of the silent films. This 1932 film directed by Victor Halperin was made for practically nothing even though is starred Bela Lugosi as "Murder" Legendre, in his first big role after "Dracula," as the master of a different type of undead down in Haiti (Lugosi apparently directed some of the retakes as well). In "White Zombie," Monsieur Beaumont (Robert Frazer) convinces a young couple, Madeleine Short (Madge Bellamy) and Neil Parker (John Harron) to get married on his Haitian plantation. Amazingly enough, he does this so that he can convince Madeline to run away with him. Needing help, Beaumont turns to Legendre, who runs his mill with zombie workers. Legendre carves a voodoo doll and with Madeline's scarf turn her into a zombie as well. Neil thinks that his wife is dead and gets depressed, sinking into a world of hallucinations and fevered dreams, while Beaumont quickly discovers that he is dissatisfied with Madeline's soulless husk and wants her turned back (even though this will undoubtedly do nothing to improve their relationship). Instead, the fiendish Legendre turns Beaumont into a zombie as well, which actually makes the couple compatible for the first time in the film. Meanwhile, Neil is convinced by a local priest that maybe he is not a widow after all and he goes off to play the hero. "White Zombie" never really frightens its audience, but instead sustains a high level of downright eeriness throughout, achieving its effect by taking such simple objects as the scarf used to wrap a voodoo doll or a rose containing poison and making them important elements in Lugosi's evil machinations. This film might be a talkie, but its sensibilities are those of the silent era, which actually works in its favor, even with Lugosi's distinctive accented voice. The result is a rather creepy film that ends up being an above average effort in Lugosi's career.

". . . we may uncover sins the devil would be ashamed of."
So warns the Christian missionary to Haiti who helps a young banker save his bride from voodoo-induced thralldom to a plantation owner who has kidnapped her.

In White Zombie the sins were brought to Haiti by European colonizers.

White Zombie (1932) is Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1927) transposed from an industrial society to the third world. The Haitian zombies slaving in Legendre's sugar mill are waiting for a Che Guevara, not a Lenin.

In Metropolis a worker in the underground factory below the city continually moves the hands on a giant round clock, a task that doesn't seem to have any purpose.

In White Zombie the undead go round and round in a circle, turning a mill to grind up sugar cane for Legendre, the mill owner who has simplified his labor relations by transforming his workforce into zombies. One zombie falls from his spot into a vat where he is ground up with the cane. None of his fellow workers notice; he doesn't even try to save himself as he falls.

Legendre has taken economic and political control of the island by enslaving its elite (the head of the gendarmerie and politicians), in addition to the unskilled peasants who make his sugar.

Legendre gets the living betray their own kind. Once Madeleine has become a zombie she is tended by maids who obey their master rather than be turned into undead creatures themselves.

Unfortunately for the Haitians, while Madeleine is saved from an eternity of playing Chopin on the piano with a glazed expression, the natives grinding the sugar cane are forgotten at the end.

But once Legendre is out of the way, who will take care of the zombie mill workers and export the sugar?

Maybe Madeleine's husband, the banker, can take over the mill. Everything will work out.

Voodoo spell
The reviewers who refer to the surreal poetry of this movie are (forgive me) dead on. This movie is creepy. It's not scary, but it captures the essense of Caribbean creepiness well. You can almost smell the decay of the rotting vegetation and flesh.
Lugosi plays the villain well and gives a performance that makes necromancy seem believable (coffee works a similar magic for me in the mornings. Come to think of it, the zombies' undead shuffle is strangely familiar as well.) This movie is not for the average film viewer, but should be in every horror fans collection for its own merits and for its historic perspective as the first zombie movie.

Kindly necromancer gives relationship advice
Hardworking, professional necromancer employs hundreds of economically disadvantaged zombies in small business startup. He helps three young people caught in a love triangle sort out their feelings through dynamic tension exercises. Naive man comes to Bela for help to win girl's heart, but as wise Bela points out... "She can love, but that doesn't mean she can love you." Later when the rejected man reaches out to grasp Bela's hand, Bela smiles and says, "Now we understand each other a little better."

Kenneth Web, author of a play similar to this movie, sued the movie makers and lost. Movie was plagued by many other legal disputes which resulted in loss of original footage. Loss of original footage makes full restoration difficult. This DVD is probably the best attempt we will ever have. ... Read more

Reviews (39)

One of Lugosi's better films as another master of the undead
In many ways "White Zombie" is not only the first zombie movie it is also the last film in the baroque horror tradition of the silent films. This 1932 film directed by Victor Halperin was made for practically nothing even though is starred Bela Lugosi as "Murder" Legendre, in his first big role after the gigantic success of "Dracula," as the master of a different type of undead down in Haiti (Note: Lugosi apparently directed some of the retakes as well).

In "White Zombie," Monsieur Beaumont (Robert Frazer) convinces a young couple, Madeleine Short (Madge Bellamy) and Neil Parker (John Harron) to get married on his Haitian plantation. Amazingly enough, he does this so that he can convince Madeline to run away with him. Needing help, Beaumont turns to Legendre, who runs his mill with zombie workers. Legendre carves a voodoo doll and with Madeline's scarf turn her into a zombie as well. Neil thinks that his wife is dead and gets depressed, sinking into a world of hallucinations and fevered dreams, while Beaumont quickly discovers that he is dissatisfied with Madeline's soulless husk and wants her turned back (even though this will undoubtedly do nothing to improve their relationship). Instead, the fiendish Legendre turns Beaumont into a zombie as well, which actually makes the couple compatible for the first time in the film. Meanwhile, Neil is convinced by a local priest that maybe he is not a widow after all and he goes off to play the hero.

"White Zombie" never really frightens its audience, but instead sustains a high level of downright eeriness throughout, achieving its effect by taking such simple objects as the scarf used to wrap a voodoo doll or a rose containing poison and making them important elements in Lugosi's evil machinations. This film might be a talkie, but its sensibilities are those of the silent era, which actually works in its favor, even with Lugosi's distinctive accented voice. The result is a rather creepy film that ends up being an above average effort in Lugosi's career that I would put in his top five films.

Bela Lugosi in the world's first zombie horror movie
In many ways this first zombie movie is the last film in the baroque horror tradition of the silent films. This 1932 film directed by Victor Halperin was made for practically nothing even though is starred Bela Lugosi as "Murder" Legendre, in his first big role after "Dracula," as the master of a different type of undead down in Haiti (Lugosi apparently directed some of the retakes as well). In "White Zombie," Monsieur Beaumont (Robert Frazer) convinces a young couple, Madeleine Short (Madge Bellamy) and Neil Parker (John Harron) to get married on his Haitian plantation. Amazingly enough, he does this so that he can convince Madeline to run away with him. Needing help, Beaumont turns to Legendre, who runs his mill with zombie workers. Legendre carves a voodoo doll and with Madeline's scarf turn her into a zombie as well. Neil thinks that his wife is dead and gets depressed, sinking into a world of hallucinations and fevered dreams, while Beaumont quickly discovers that he is dissatisfied with Madeline's soulless husk and wants her turned back (even though this will undoubtedly do nothing to improve their relationship). Instead, the fiendish Legendre turns Beaumont into a zombie as well, which actually makes the couple compatible for the first time in the film. Meanwhile, Neil is convinced by a local priest that maybe he is not a widow after all and he goes off to play the hero. "White Zombie" never really frightens its audience, but instead sustains a high level of downright eeriness throughout, achieving its effect by taking such simple objects as the scarf used to wrap a voodoo doll or a rose containing poison and making them important elements in Lugosi's evil machinations. This film might be a talkie, but its sensibilities are those of the silent era, which actually works in its favor, even with Lugosi's distinctive accented voice. The result is a rather creepy film that ends up being an above average effort in Lugosi's career.

". . . we may uncover sins the devil would be ashamed of."
So warns the Christian missionary to Haiti who helps a young banker save his bride from voodoo-induced thralldom to a plantation owner who has kidnapped her.

In White Zombie the sins were brought to Haiti by European colonizers.

White Zombie (1932) is Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1927) transposed from an industrial society to the third world. The Haitian zombies slaving in Legendre's sugar mill are waiting for a Che Guevara, not a Lenin.

In Metropolis a worker in the underground factory below the city continually moves the hands on a giant round clock, a task that doesn't seem to have any purpose.

In White Zombie the undead go round and round in a circle, turning a mill to grind up sugar cane for Legendre, the mill owner who has simplified his labor relations by transforming his workforce into zombies. One zombie falls from his spot into a vat where he is ground up with the cane. None of his fellow workers notice; he doesn't even try to save himself as he falls.

Legendre has taken economic and political control of the island by enslaving its elite (the head of the gendarmerie and politicians), in addition to the unskilled peasants who make his sugar.

Legendre gets the living betray their own kind. Once Madeleine has become a zombie she is tended by maids who obey their master rather than be turned into undead creatures themselves.

Unfortunately for the Haitians, while Madeleine is saved from an eternity of playing Chopin on the piano with a glazed expression, the natives grinding the sugar cane are forgotten at the end.

But once Legendre is out of the way, who will take care of the zombie mill workers and export the sugar?

Maybe Madeleine's husband, the banker, can take over the mill. Everything will work out.

Voodoo spell
The reviewers who refer to the surreal poetry of this movie are (forgive me) dead on. This movie is creepy. It's not scary, but it captures the essense of Caribbean creepiness well. You can almost smell the decay of the rotting vegetation and flesh.
Lugosi plays the villain well and gives a performance that makes necromancy seem believable (coffee works a similar magic for me in the mornings. Come to think of it, the zombies' undead shuffle is strangely familiar as well.) This movie is not for the average film viewer, but should be in every horror fans collection for its own merits and for its historic perspective as the first zombie movie.

Kindly necromancer gives relationship advice
Hardworking, professional necromancer employs hundreds of economically disadvantaged zombies in small business startup. He helps three young people caught in a love triangle sort out their feelings through dynamic tension exercises. Naive man comes to Bela for help to win girl's heart, but as wise Bela points out... "She can love, but that doesn't mean she can love you." Later when the rejected man reaches out to grasp Bela's hand, Bela smiles and says, "Now we understand each other a little better."

Kenneth Web, author of a play similar to this movie, sued the movie makers and lost. Movie was plagued by many other legal disputes which resulted in loss of original footage. Loss of original footage makes full restoration difficult. This DVD is probably the best attempt we will ever have. ... Read more

Reviews (39)

One of Lugosi's better films as another master of the undead
In many ways "White Zombie" is not only the first zombie movie it is also the last film in the baroque horror tradition of the silent films. This 1932 film directed by Victor Halperin was made for practically nothing even though is starred Bela Lugosi as "Murder" Legendre, in his first big role after the gigantic success of "Dracula," as the master of a different type of undead down in Haiti (Note: Lugosi apparently directed some of the retakes as well).

In "White Zombie," Monsieur Beaumont (Robert Frazer) convinces a young couple, Madeleine Short (Madge Bellamy) and Neil Parker (John Harron) to get married on his Haitian plantation. Amazingly enough, he does this so that he can convince Madeline to run away with him. Needing help, Beaumont turns to Legendre, who runs his mill with zombie workers. Legendre carves a voodoo doll and with Madeline's scarf turn her into a zombie as well. Neil thinks that his wife is dead and gets depressed, sinking into a world of hallucinations and fevered dreams, while Beaumont quickly discovers that he is dissatisfied with Madeline's soulless husk and wants her turned back (even though this will undoubtedly do nothing to improve their relationship). Instead, the fiendish Legendre turns Beaumont into a zombie as well, which actually makes the couple compatible for the first time in the film. Meanwhile, Neil is convinced by a local priest that maybe he is not a widow after all and he goes off to play the hero.

"White Zombie" never really frightens its audience, but instead sustains a high level of downright eeriness throughout, achieving its effect by taking such simple objects as the scarf used to wrap a voodoo doll or a rose containing poison and making them important elements in Lugosi's evil machinations. This film might be a talkie, but its sensibilities are those of the silent era, which actually works in its favor, even with Lugosi's distinctive accented voice. The result is a rather creepy film that ends up being an above average effort in Lugosi's career that I would put in his top five films.

Bela Lugosi in the world's first zombie horror movie
In many ways this first zombie movie is the last film in the baroque horror tradition of the silent films. This 1932 film directed by Victor Halperin was made for practically nothing even though is starred Bela Lugosi as "Murder" Legendre, in his first big role after "Dracula," as the master of a different type of undead down in Haiti (Lugosi apparently directed some of the retakes as well). In "White Zombie," Monsieur Beaumont (Robert Frazer) convinces a young couple, Madeleine Short (Madge Bellamy) and Neil Parker (John Harron) to get married on his Haitian plantation. Amazingly enough, he does this so that he can convince Madeline to run away with him. Needing help, Beaumont turns to Legendre, who runs his mill with zombie workers. Legendre carves a voodoo doll and with Madeline's scarf turn her into a zombie as well. Neil thinks that his wife is dead and gets depressed, sinking into a world of hallucinations and fevered dreams, while Beaumont quickly discovers that he is dissatisfied with Madeline's soulless husk and wants her turned back (even though this will undoubtedly do nothing to improve their relationship). Instead, the fiendish Legendre turns Beaumont into a zombie as well, which actually makes the couple compatible for the first time in the film. Meanwhile, Neil is convinced by a local priest that maybe he is not a widow after all and he goes off to play the hero. "White Zombie" never really frightens its audience, but instead sustains a high level of downright eeriness throughout, achieving its effect by taking such simple objects as the scarf used to wrap a voodoo doll or a rose containing poison and making them important elements in Lugosi's evil machinations. This film might be a talkie, but its sensibilities are those of the silent era, which actually works in its favor, even with Lugosi's distinctive accented voice. The result is a rather creepy film that ends up being an above average effort in Lugosi's career.

". . . we may uncover sins the devil would be ashamed of."
So warns the Christian missionary to Haiti who helps a young banker save his bride from voodoo-induced thralldom to a plantation owner who has kidnapped her.

In White Zombie the sins were brought to Haiti by European colonizers.

White Zombie (1932) is Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1927) transposed from an industrial society to the third world. The Haitian zombies slaving in Legendre's sugar mill are waiting for a Che Guevara, not a Lenin.

In Metropolis a worker in the underground factory below the city continually moves the hands on a giant round clock, a task that doesn't seem to have any purpose.

In White Zombie the undead go round and round in a circle, turning a mill to grind up sugar cane for Legendre, the mill owner who has simplified his labor relations by transforming his workforce into zombies. One zombie falls from his spot into a vat where he is ground up with the cane. None of his fellow workers notice; he doesn't even try to save himself as he falls.

Legendre has taken economic and political control of the island by enslaving its elite (the head of the gendarmerie and politicians), in addition to the unskilled peasants who make his sugar.

Legendre gets the living betray their own kind. Once Madeleine has become a zombie she is tended by maids who obey their master rather than be turned into undead creatures themselves.

Unfortunately for the Haitians, while Madeleine is saved from an eternity of playing Chopin on the piano with a glazed expression, the natives grinding the sugar cane are forgotten at the end.

But once Legendre is out of the way, who will take care of the zombie mill workers and export the sugar?

Maybe Madeleine's husband, the banker, can take over the mill. Everything will work out.

Voodoo spell
The reviewers who refer to the surreal poetry of this movie are (forgive me) dead on. This movie is creepy. It's not scary, but it captures the essense of Caribbean creepiness well. You can almost smell the decay of the rotting vegetation and flesh.
Lugosi plays the villain well and gives a performance that makes necromancy seem believable (coffee works a similar magic for me in the mornings. Come to think of it, the zombies' undead shuffle is strangely familiar as well.) This movie is not for the average film viewer, but should be in every horror fans collection for its own merits and for its historic perspective as the first zombie movie.

Kindly necromancer gives relationship advice
Hardworking, professional necromancer employs hundreds of economically disadvantaged zombies in small business startup. He helps three young people caught in a love triangle sort out their feelings through dynamic tension exercises. Naive man comes to Bela for help to win girl's heart, but as wise Bela points out... "She can love, but that doesn't mean she can love you." Later when the rejected man reaches out to grasp Bela's hand, Bela smiles and says, "Now we understand each other a little better."

Kenneth Web, author of a play similar to this movie, sued the movie makers and lost. Movie was plagued by many other legal disputes which resulted in loss of original footage. Loss of original footage makes full restoration difficult. This DVD is probably the best attempt we will ever have. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Primarily Guilty of Not Being as Good as White Zombie.
Three and a half stars. Not as bad as some would have you believe, but when it is compared to White Zombie (as it must be), it is found lacking.

The Good:
A lot is right about this movie. Halperin does another good job with a low budget and an exotic setting. While I doubt the crew ever went to SE Asia, the film does an admirable job of transporting the audience to the mysterious time and place of what would be Viet Nam in the years World War One.
In the plot, a meek British soldier in love with a girl who loves his friend discovers the secret to controlling minds. The doomed romance angle explored in Revolt is intelligent, even interesting, building as it does on some of the themes present in White.
It just isn't handled in a very thrilling manner. Which leads me to...

The Bad:
There is not much action in this movie. There is quite a lot of talk. A predictable outcome. Uneven performances. No Lugosi. And only two or three brief scenes possessing the surreal horror which infused White with such atmospheric, dreamlike menace.
Too much of the film is taken up by the young lovers, making this less like White Zombie and more like White Christmas.

The Ugly:
Plus, the audience is left with no one to root for. Certainly you can't root for the guy turning men into murdering zombies. But I can't find it in my heart to root for his callous "friends," either, who drove him to such lengths by toying with his heartstrings. But maybe that's just me, the romantic monster film fan.

The Extras:
The extras on the disc are spare but amusing, including a trivia game. For correct answers you are treated to footage of a zombie being bludgeoned in Night of the Living Dead. For wrong answers you are mocked with a clip of this movie's villain laughing in your face. Nice. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Classic Lugosi
I think this is a great example of Lugosi's work both in good films and bad. I was a little disappointed as this collection does not include "Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla", with the infamous Martin-Lewis impersonators. It actually has a different flick by the name of "The Gorilla", made in 1939 and features the Ritz Brothers. Great restoration, a few classic interviews, a must for Lugosi fans. ... Read more

Amazon.com

A tepid follow-up to White Zombie, Revolt has Dean Jagger discovering the secret of turning men into zombies, from the "robot army" that built the city of Angkor. Most scenes are static and dialogue heavy, and the story is plodding. There is hardly anything here of interest, even to a cinematic archaeologist, much less seekers of late-night diversion. You might be tempted to excuse this one as an artifact of 1930s cinema.But 1936 was a fair ways into the sound era, and saw the release of such disparate specimens of moving pictures as Hitchcock's Secret Agent, Chaplin's Modern Times, Capra's Mr. Deed Goes to Town, and Astaire and Rogers in Swing Time.Revolt is an oddity at best.It's also packaged as a Fright Night Horror Classic along with Night of the Living Dead and Francis Ford Coppola's debut feature, Dementia 13. --Jim Gay ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Primarily Guilty of Not Being as Good as White Zombie.
Three and a half stars. Not as bad as some would have you believe, but when it is compared to White Zombie (as it must be), it is found lacking.

The Good:
A lot is right about this movie. Halperin does another good job with a low budget and an exotic setting. While I doubt the crew ever went to SE Asia, the film does an admirable job of transporting the audience to the mysterious time and place of what would be Viet Nam in the years World War One.
In the plot, a meek British soldier in love with a girl who loves his friend discovers the secret to controlling minds. The doomed romance angle explored in Revolt is intelligent, even interesting, building as it does on some of the themes present in White.
It just isn't handled in a very thrilling manner. Which leads me to...

The Bad:
There is not much action in this movie. There is quite a lot of talk. A predictable outcome. Uneven performances. No Lugosi. And only two or three brief scenes possessing the surreal horror which infused White with such atmospheric, dreamlike menace.
Too much of the film is taken up by the young lovers, making this less like White Zombie and more like White Christmas.

The Ugly:
Plus, the audience is left with no one to root for. Certainly you can't root for the guy turning men into murdering zombies. But I can't find it in my heart to root for his callous "friends," either, who drove him to such lengths by toying with his heartstrings. But maybe that's just me, the romantic monster film fan.

The Extras:
The extras on the disc are spare but amusing, including a trivia game. For correct answers you are treated to footage of a zombie being bludgeoned in Night of the Living Dead. For wrong answers you are mocked with a clip of this movie's villain laughing in your face. Nice. ... Read more