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An independent feature made during an era when that translated into poverty row technique and budgetary concerns, White Zombie is remembered as the first zombie horror film. That doesn’t make it a classic, and it certainly doesn’t make it very good, but there’s a certain charm to it to be fair.
Most of the this charm comes from Bela Lugosi, fresh off his star-making turn in Dracula and already misusing that cache to ham it up in atrocious vehicles. Here Lugosi gets to recycle his cracked gentleman shtick, but to lesser effect. His character is much darker, more obviously menacing than the undead count of that Universal Monsters classic. Granted, his character’s obsession with voodoo mysticism smacks of racism and a fundamental misunderstanding of the actual practice. Yet no image better microcosm’s colonialism than the sight of Lugosi’s white mad doctor lording over his brain-dead servants who are indifferent to the death of one of their ranks.
Pity than that despite appearing above the title, Lugosi is more of a supporting player in the ensemble than the leading role. The story concerns an engaged couple (John Harron and Madge Bellamy) who arrive in Haiti to be married, run into a friend (Robert Frazer) who has offered his plantation as their wedding venue. It’s no surprise that this friend has ulterior motives with his offer, and he wants Bellamy all to himself. He turns to Lugosi to turn her into his love slave.
The story indulges in some questionable, even ugly, story choices which are buried in some stylistic camera movements. There are a few stylistic flourishes which liven up the proceedings, but they can’t mask the indifference of most of the actors or the wooden dialog. I struggle to remember anything about Harron, but Bellamy is particularly awful in her recitations of dialog. Once her character goes mute, she blossoms. Effecting a doll-like stare and holding her face in a way that reads as a mask, Bellamy’s zombie love slave is a much better creation than her flesh-and-blood woman. Frazer’s regret and disgust with himself over doing this to Bellamy gives him a chance to emote, and he does fine, but his character doesn’t have much room for him to add color or texture.
There are only two reasons to watch White Zombie: Lugosi’s deliciously hammy turn and the film’s status as the first zombie film. Besides these two talking points, there’s nothing much to offer or satisfy. At only 67 minutes the pacing drags, don’t ask how this was managed, but they found a way. It’s not great, but, in some strange way, it’s worth a cursory look.
