Sayonara Cinema

As horror films continue to push the limits in suspense and gore, film viewers become all the more jaded and numb to what they witness on screen. What was once innovative and boundary breaking in now boring. The slow build-up of suspense and atmosphere that once dominated the silver screen has been replaced (for the most part) by flashy murder sequences, shallow character development to the point of stereotyped cliche and the dreaded MTV-style editing to hide a director or cinematographers lack of talent.

Although there are still many excellent horror films coming out both in the US and around the world, the production cycle has once again returned to the photocopy and mimic movie mill where films are churned out in a rapid succession to capitalize on the latest “it” theme.

It is in these desperate times that reflection on past cinematic achievements must be made, to remember what made cinema so frightening to moviegoers years ago, and learn from these classics. In these films atmosphere, lighting, music, direction, camera shots, editing and acting were all looked at with respect and used as tools to the best of their ability. Given the limitations of filmmaking back then, the strengths of one were used to mask the weaknesses of another to great affect.

In this look back on horror from the past, the first submitted is WHITE ZOMBIE, a somewhat-overlooked classic that was once thought to be lost forever.

WHITE ZOMBIE (1932) A soon-to-be-married couple are invited to have their ceremony on the Haitian estate of Mr. Beaumont. But his invitation is but a trick, for he has turned to Murder Legendre (Bela Lugosi) who holds the power to control the dead, for a way to make the woman his. Legendre uses his potion to turn Madeleine into a walking corpse for Beaumont, who quickly realizes the error of his ways. When he attempts to free Madeleine, Legendre sends his legion of zombies after Beaumont, and plans to make Madeleine his instead.

Lugosi here is at the top of his game, having just come off of DRACULA before making this movie. The film’s story uses the Haitian walking corpse mythology to bring the undead creatures to the screen. It is filled with classic horror atmosphere, a haunting music score, and what must have been shocking images at the time of its release of the soulless dead working the sugar cane fields and submitting to every command of the zombie master. Before zombies became Romero-ified, this is how the dead rose from the Earth.