History Film / WhiteZombie

''White Zombie'' is a 1932 horror film directed by Victor Halperin and starring Creator/BelaLugosi. Based on the 1929 novel ''The Magic Island'' by William Seabrook, this was the very first film to bring zombies to the silver screen, predating ''[[Film/NightOfTheLivingDead1968 Night of the Living Dead]]'' by 36 years.

The film is in the public domain, which means it can easily be found either online or as part of almost any home video release containing public domain movies, though the versions found through said methods are of questionable quality. It was released on DVD and Blu-ray by Kino (their release contains both a [[DigitalDestruction heavily DNR-ladened version]] of the movie and an uncleaned version) and by VCI Entertainment (their release has a version which falls in between).

* AmbiguousSituation: The carriage driver implies the zombies are the corpses of men who Murder killed and reanimated from the grave. The missionary implies that Murder's victims are alive, just having lost their minds, and that he gave them the illusion of death so he could kidnap them. Madeline ''seems'' to be the latter [[spoiler: as Murder's death and possibly ThePowerOfLove are enough to make her come to her senses]]. [[spoiler: This also seems to be the case with Beaumont.]]

''White Zombie'' is a 1932 horror film directed by Victor Halperin and starring Creator/BelaLugosi. Based on the 1929 novel ''The Magic Island'' by William Seabrook, this was the first film to bring zombies into the silver screen, predating ''[[Film/NightOfTheLivingDead1968 Night of the Living Dead]]'' by 36 years.

Unhappy that Madeline (Madge Bellamy), the woman he loves, is marrying someone else, Haitian plantation owner Charles Beaumont (Robert Fraser) turns to a local WitchDoctor named Legendre (Lugosi) to have things his way. Legendre uses his skills to turn the woman into a zombie, who is mistaken to be properly dead. After she is whisked away from her grave, her husband Neil Parker (John Harron) learns the truth about her condition and sets out to rescue her.

Unhappy that Madeline (Madge Bellamy), the woman he loves, is marrying someone else, Haitian plantation owner Charles Beaumont (Robert Fraser) turns to a local witch doctor named Legendre (Lugosi) to have things his way. Legendre uses his skills to turn the woman into a zombie, who is mistaken to be properly dead. After she is whisked away from her grave, her husband Neil Parker (John Harron) learns the truth about her condition and sets out to rescue her.

-->'''Legendre:''' ''For the futurrrrre, monsieur!''

** The missionary implies that all of Legendre's victims are this, and that the idea of them being living corpses is superstitious nonsense.

* VoodooZombie: Legendre's slaves. They are classic voodoo zombies--either living people or reanimated corpses who have been enslaved by voodoo magic to serve a master. The later idea of zombies as monsters out to eat people was basically invented by Creator/GeorgeARomero in ''Film/NightOfTheLivingDead1968'' over thirty years after this movie.

Creator/JamesRolfe highlighted the movie on ''Monster Madness 2009'', and eventually did a three-part commentary on it with Mike Mattei.

In 1936, it was followed by a loose sequel, ''Revolt of the Zombies''.

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/white_zombie.jpg]]

Not happy that Madeline (Madge Bellamy), the woman he loves, is marrying someone else, Haitian plantation owner Charles Beaumont (Robert Fraser) turns to a local witch doctor named Legendre (Lugosi) to have things his way. Legendre uses his skills to turn the woman into a zombie, who is mistaken to be properly dead. After she is whisked away from her grave, her husband Neil Parker (John Harron) learns the truth about her condition and sets out to rescue her.

The film is in the public domain, which means one can easily find it either online or as part of almost any movie box set containing public domain movies, though the versions found through said methods are of questionable quality. It was released on Blu-Ray and DVD by Kino (their release contains both a [[DigitalDestruction heavily DNR-ladened version]] of the movie and an uncleaned version) and VCI Entertainment (their release has a version which falls in between).

* BodyHorror: Much of this movie doesn't age well, but this trope is used for a thoroughly chilling moment. While Madeleine fell directly into her non-death after taking a full dose of Legendre's potion, Beaumont realizes what's up after taking only a sip of the poisoned wine. The result for him is even worse--he changes into a zombie ''slowly'', while being awake and aware the whole time, but unable to talk. The scene where a twitching, wild-eyed Beaumont just manages to extend a hand in supplication to Legendre, only for Legendre to brusquely brush it away, is
quite disturbing.

* CriticalResearchFailure: The black Haitians being referred to as "natives," who brought their magic over from Africa, possibly Egypt. If they are from another continent, they are not natives. In real life, the black Haitians are descended from self-liberated Africans and most of the Taino natives died out years ago.
** Also, why is there a Christian missionary in a Catholic country like Haiti?

* BodyHorror: Much of this movie doesn't age well, but this trope is used for a thoroughly chilling moment. While Madeleine fell directly into her non-death after taking a full dose of Legendre's potion, Beaumont realizes what's up after taking only a sip of the poisoned wine. The result for him is even worse--he changes into a zombie ''slowly'', while being awake and aware the whole time, but unable to talk. The scene where a twitching, wild-eyed Beaumont just manages to extend a hand in supplication to Legendre, only for Legendre to brusquely brush it away, is quite disturbing.

Not to be confused with the band Music/WhiteZombie, though this is where they got the name from.

%%* VillainousVidowsPeak: Legendre.

* HollywoodVoodoo

* OurZombiesAreDifferent: See Voodoo Zombie below.

-->''For the futurrrrre, monsieur!''
* VillainousVidowsPeak: Legendre.

''White Zombie'' is a 1932 horror film starring Creator/BelaLugosi. It was the first film to bring zombies into the silver screen, predating ''[[Film/NightOfTheLivingDead1968 Night of the Living Dead]]'' by 36 years.

Not happy that Madeline, the woman he loves is marrying someone else, Charles Beaumont turns to local witch doctor named Legendre to have things his way. Legendre uses his skills to turn the woman into a zombie, who is mistaken to be properly dead. After she is whisked away from her grave, her husband Neil Parker learns the truth about her condition and sets out to rescue her.

Creator/JamesRolfe highlighted the movie on Monster Madness 2009, and eventually did a three-part commentary on it with Mike Mattei.

''White Zombie'' is a 1932 horror film starring Creator/BelaLugosi. It was the first film to bring zombies into the silver screen, predating ''Film/NightOfTheLivingDead1968'' by 36 years.

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/white_zombie.jpg]]

'''''White Zombie''''' is a 1932 horror film starring Creator/BelaLugosi. It was the first film to bring zombies into the silver screen, predating ''Film/NightOfTheLivingDead1968'' by 36 years.

'''''White Zombie''''' is a 1932 horror film starring Creator/BelaLugosi. It was the first film to bring zombies into the silver screen, predating ''[[Film/NightOfTheLivingDead|1968]]'' by 36 years.

'''''White Zombie''''' is a 1932 horror film starring Creator/BelaLugosi. It was the first film to bring zombies into the silver screen, predating ''Film/NightOfTheLivingDead1968'' by 36 years.

* VoodooZombie: Legendre's slaves. They are classic voodoo zombies--either living people or reanimated corpses who have been enslaved by voodoo magic to serve a master. The later idea of zombies as monsters out to eat people was basically invented by George Romero in ''Film/NightOfTheLivingDead1968'' over thirty years after this movie.

[[quoteright:313:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/aaaaz7_5541.jpg]]