Zombie films will hold a special place in my heart. When I was eight I popped in a legendary game into my PS1 called Resident Evil. Scared the living shit out of me and I had nightmares for weeks afterward. What's funny is that just recently, because Resident Evil 5 is coming out March 13th (oh yeah!!!!), I started playing the RE series over again and began thinking, "why is this so scary?" It wasn't until this movie that I realized what the scare factor was..
Review:
Let me talk about the acting and directing aspects of this film. Bela Lugosi is simply stunning in his performance as Legendre. I know I'll get some flack on this one but I think this is better than his performance in Dracula. The creepy factor of his eyes and eye brows multiplied with the way he drifts into the room, divided by his smooth yet emotionless voice makes him the perfect equation (you see what I did) for a villain. All horror movie villains should be like this guy, human and monstrous at the same time.
Like all good actors, Lugosi made his fellow actors come alive. I am a firm believer that if Harrison Ford didn't play Han Solo, Star Wars would have sucked. Actors like Ford and Lugosi aren't amazing actors like Marlon Brando or Tom Hanks, but they contain that "IT" factor that myjacknthebox spoke about in one of her comments. The "IT" factor is an electrifying presence on screen that makes your cast members and the audience act with much more passion.
Directing wise, these camera angles were amazing. I really enjoyed watching Legendre walk down the stairs through one of the club cutouts on the stairwell. It's refreshing to see some strange and all around abstract camera angles from someone other than Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez. The very cheesy "star wipe" and super imposed lovers scenes were hilarious in my opinion but didn't detract from the enjoyment of the movie.
The political undertones of this movie are numerous. I'll only focus on one: Lugosi's eyes. Every time they appeared I was posed to think about the eye of Sauron from The Lord of the Rings. The eye looks over all, watches all... and in comparison the United States was "colonizing" the Haitians during the time of White Zombie, watching over them and keeping them safe from European colonization all according to the Monroe Doctrine. Creepy huh? Now I pose the question, in academic terms what does Sauron's eye symbolize? Films are suppose to reflect the times they were made in so what does that eye stand for in our society?
Yet this movie will always hold a special place in my heart because of how creepy the film was. The lighting in this movie was superb simply because it exacerbated how scary some of the scenes could be. Take for instance the first time we see Lugosi, walking down the hill and gazing into the stagecoach. In modern films this scene would have been shot in glorious high definition with color and would have just been silly. Yet in grainy black and white everything seemed just a little more scary.
Closing Statements:
This is my second viewing of White Zombie and the ranking will always remain the same; 8.5 stars out of 10, detractions coming from the all around cheesiness of the film. This film was in my archive as one of my top four zombie flicks, with Evil Dead II at number one, 28 Days Later at number two, Land of the Dead at number three, and White Zombie at number four. Watch em' all if you haven't already.
I completely agree that Bela Lugosi was perfect for this role. He was one of the main reasons why I liked this film so much. The fact that you touched on his voice, describing it as "smooth and emotionless" was, in my opinion, a great way of putting it. I also agree that the directing and shot choices for this film were extraordinary.
ReplyDeleteI found your comparison to the eye of Sauron intriguing. It seems like such a perfect parallel and yet I never would've made the connection. As far as what that "eye" symbolizes, it seems a little tricky to me. From watching the films and studying the history of the books, Tolkien was very much influenced by the first World War. While serving, Tolkien wrote passages that would later be included in and become the inspiration for The Lord Of The Rings. With this in mind, the eye of Sauron could represent world domination, something that could also very closely be tied to Hitler and the second World War as well as the ideas of colonialsim expressed in White Zombie. But if this was the case for the books, I wonder if Peter Jackson had anything else in mind while creating the film or if it was strictly connected to Tolkien's beliefs. What does everybody else think???
Anyway, I really liked the connections that you made once again. Also, I too believe that Evil Dead 2 is one of the best horror films ever made. Genius!
I agree that Lugosi did a decent job playing the role of Legendre. He has a creepy quality about him that was probably the main reason he was cast as both Dracula and as Legendre. However, I wish the scenes with his intense eyes and hand gestures hadn't been so cheesy. Perhaps they would have been more effective to me if they hadn't made me laugh.
ReplyDeleteI am also personally glad that White Zombie was really nothing like Resident Evil because those games and movies gross me out.
I love your point about scenes being creepy because of the static and black and white shots, its true. When I look back at other black and white Horror films I remember the static "silence" that accompanied many of the intense moments...that static was like an emotional buildup causing the viewer to tense up in anticipation and fear.
ReplyDeleteThere is definitely something about the way Lugosi acts in this one, that's both cheesy and really effective at the same time.
ReplyDeleteI really, really do like your writing style, and the energy of your reviews. Your blog, in general, could definitely become one of those resources that people go to when they want opinions about movies.
Take it a step further! What is White Zombie ultimately about, do you think?