Review of Revolt of the Zombies (1936) by Brian S — 09 Mar 2011

Directed by Victor Halperin of "White Zombie" fame, this follow-up to his better-known film is even worse. It's hard to tell whether no effort was made to transition from scene to scene or if there is material missing from the version now available, but either way what we have is a disjointed flick that left me saying, "Next scene!" every time the screen faded to black. The acting tempts one to think that the cast themselves were the zombies!

A team of archaeologists is in Cambodia during WWI. They captured a local priest who is the last man alive who knows the secret of making zombies, a labor force previously tapped to construct the temple complex at Angkor through the auspices of the three-eyed god Siva. As the French general proclaims loudly, however, "This secret could be a threat to the entire white race!" The priest ends up and and a nerdy archeologist instead rediscovers the secret, using it to get revenge against the woman who scorns him and the other members of the expedition when he gets fired. Before you know it (because it's not shown how it happens in the movie), the nerdy archeologist has assembled an army of Cambodian zombies and has everyone else under his control. He's about to conquer the world... but, well, this was made in the 1930's and, as we all know, love conquered all up to about 1939.

The zombies here are just people who've been hypnotized. Nothing even vaguely scary ever happens, and there's never a zombie revolt. There's a reason that you've never heard of this flick! Watch it for the examples of early 20th century racism and sexism with which it is laced, but not so much for horror entertainment.