Review of King of the Zombies (1941) by Scott W — 06 Feb 2013

So I really really liked this film. It feels as if it is no way shape or form a horror production at all and revolves around the ignorance and humor of Jeff the films racist model. The film has a great campy atmosphere, and does not at all take itself to serious.

It gently rolls everything along and constantly tosses humor at you. The whole plot is that two men and their servant Jeff; who I honestly thought stole the show as he is so lovable. But these two men hear a distress call in their plane and attempt to land to investigate but wind up crashing on a strange island inhabited by voodoo magic.

The plot doesn't really make much sense as the film progresses, but it really is strong with that cheese factor and all that campy goodness. The character Jeff is what this film is really about, to me its as if I child so innocent was in a big guys body, he doesn't really know how to act to well, and his eyes are always bulging out of his head, but he's innocent and pure and just having a good time.

However the end of the movie just feels rushed and slapped together just to tie the end of the movie in. There's a nice little happy ending and everything works out in the end even. This movie just touched me on a very basic level, I love movies that don't take themselves to seriously, have a good comedic relief element and a flare of the great unknown and mysterious.

Its good old fashioned family racism in my opinion, in a sense that you are well aware that they are stereotyping someone but its not completely in a negative way and it helps the film flow along. A few points off for needless scenes and at times it felt the film was dragging on a bit, but that was mainly at the end.

I really do recommend this film for any horror classic film, its definitely worth a watch although I must say its hard to call it a horror classic.. more like a horror/comedy classic...with more emphasis on comedy, but gives you that much sought after feel good feeling.

Check it out, again its public domain so youtube it!