Victor Halperin, 1932
Finally, a movie I can qualify as "good," if only just. Given that this pre-dates Romero, the zombies are of the voodoo variety, which is a not my favorite iteration. Still, there's nothing inherently wrong with the voodoo-style zombie, and White Zombie manages to wring some impressive creepiness out of them. There's also a surprising amount of visual inventiveness, with some multiple exposures that reminded me of Murnau's work in Sunrise, and a relatively sophisticated sound design (especially when you consider how crude the outcome was). Unfortunately, the end becomes kind of silly, and the final line is really painful. Also, the movie was sadly lost for several decades and, as a result, the surviving version is in pretty rough shape - little to no shadow detail, lots of jump cuts due to missing bits of footage, and sound that is so muddy it's unintelligible at times. It's a shame, really, because I think a lot more of the atmosphere would come through were it not so damaged.
5.5/10
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