{"id":12517,"date":"2010-09-16T10:08:27","date_gmt":"2010-09-16T17:08:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=12517"},"modified":"2020-12-22T21:02:32","modified_gmt":"2020-12-23T04:02:32","slug":"white-zombie-1932","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=12517","title":{"rendered":"White Zombie (1932)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;You don&#8217;t seem to realize what this girl means to me. Why, I&#8217;d sacrifice anything in the world for her!&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/White-Zombie-Poster.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/White-Zombie-Poster-196x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"196\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-59158\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/White-Zombie-Poster-196x300.png 196w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/White-Zombie-Poster-671x1024.png 671w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/White-Zombie-Poster-84x128.png 84w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/White-Zombie-Poster-177x270.png 177w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/White-Zombie-Poster.png 691w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 196px) 100vw, 196px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nA covetous plantation owner (Robert Frazer) in Haiti seeks the help of a voodoo practitioner (Bela Lugosi) in wooing the newlywed bride (Madge Bellamy) of his friend (John Harron) into his clutches.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Bela Lugosi Films<\/li>\n<li>Horror Films<\/li>\n<li>Mind Control and Hypnosis<\/li>\n<li>Newlyweds<\/li>\n<li>Plantations<\/li>\n<li>Voodoo and Black Magic<\/li>\n<li>Zombies<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Response to Peary&#8217;s Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nPeary accurately notes that this &#8220;impressive early sound shocker&#8221; has &#8220;marvelous visuals, some that are extremely poetic&#8221; &#8212; much &#8220;like something from a classic silent horror film&#8221;. Indeed, director Victor Halperin employs an astonishing array of creative visual techniques in his telling of this spooky &#8220;fairytale&#8221;, which possesses thematic parallels with &#8220;Snow White&#8221;: just as &#8220;Snow White tasted the poisoned apple, Bellamy falls victim to a poisoned rose&#8221;, and must be &#8220;roused&#8221; awake by her lover. There are many &#8220;lengthy non-verbal passages in which the emphasis is on character movement, set design, creating atmosphere through light and shadow, and music (there&#8217;s a fine, varied score)&#8221;; in general, if there&#8217;s a way to frame a scene creatively, Halperin does so. Lugosi &#8212; with truly wicked eyebrows and goatee &#8212; is note perfect in the lead role as evil Murder Legendre (that name!); watching him carve voodoo dolls of his victims out of candles is truly chilling. As Peary notes, while &#8220;some scenes are static, [and] others silly&#8221;, this &#8220;&#8216;sleeper&#8217; is guaranteed to please the true-blue horror fan&#8221; &#8212; and, I would argue, most all-purpose film fanatics as well. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Note:<\/strong> A number of classic horror fans have pointed out this film&#8217;s historical relevance as the first appearance of zombies on film &#8212; and it&#8217;s certainly an atmospheric precursor to Val Lewton&#8217;s RKO horror classics as well. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Bela Lugosi as Murder Legendre<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/white-zombie-lugosi2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/white-zombie-lugosi2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"400\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12522\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Truly atmospheric sets, cinematography, special effects, and framing<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/white-zombie-still4.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/white-zombie-still4.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"400\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12523\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/white-zombie-still2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/white-zombie-still2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"400\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12524\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/white-zombie-lugosi3.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/white-zombie-lugosi3.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"400\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12525\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/white-zombie-sugar-mill.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/white-zombie-sugar-mill.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"400\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12528\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nYes, as an historically relevant and most enjoyable early horror film. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Categories<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Good Show<\/li>\n<li>Historically Relevant<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0023694\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/classic-horror.com\/reviews\/white_zombie_1932\">Classic Horror Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tcm.com\/tcmdb\/title\/95704\/white-zombie#articles-reviews?articleId=549\">TCM Article<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/movies\/white-zombie\">Time Out Capsule Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;You don&#8217;t seem to realize what this girl means to me. Why, I&#8217;d sacrifice anything in the world for her!&#8221; Synopsis: A covetous plantation owner (Robert Frazer) in Haiti seeks the help of a voodoo practitioner (Bela Lugosi) in wooing the newlywed bride (Madge Bellamy) of his friend (John Harron) into his clutches. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Bela Lugosi Films Horror Films Mind Control and Hypnosis Newlyweds Plantations Voodoo and Black Magic Zombies Response to Peary&#8217;s Review: Peary accurately&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=12517\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-responses-to-peary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12517"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12517\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59161,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12517\/revisions\/59161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}