White Zombie

White Zombie

White zombie is an interesting movie to me because it marks the debut of a monster that is quite popular today. Though the zombies in the movie don’t act the way the ones in the movies do today, they are an important part of what made the creatures that we know today.

The movie starts off with a couple, set to be married, settling in to a large castle, where they will be staying the night before the wedding. Apparently the setting was supposed to be Haiti, which I think is kind of odd because there is a castle there. Perhaps there are castles in Haiti, but it’s not the first place I would imagine having one. Reguardless, on the way to the castle, the couple runs into a voodoo doctor who is using the zombies as servants for a sugar mill. When they arrive at the castle, the owner secretly disappears and speaks to “Murder,”(Bela Lugosi)  voodoo man. He gives the man a potion to transform her and he slips her the potion.

At this point her mind goes blank and the owner, Charles, begins to regret his decision. Neil, the girl’s soon to be husband, saves the day, breaks the curse, and kills both Murder and Charles, via a cliff near the ocean. My favorite character had to be Murder. Bela Lugosi brought a way of acting to the table that was spooky, intriguing, and sadly dismissed these days.

Most of the conflict was between Charles and his decision to transform Madeleine. This is a bit odd, since he is a villain, technically. You don’t normally see antagonists at the receiving end of conflict for the whole movie. Ultimately his decision leads to his death, when he realizes that he has to stop Murder from transforming more people.