Movies can be educational as well as entertaining. Did you know that the Angkor Wat temples were built by zombies? Now you do. Another thing I learned tonight was that no one should be subjected to watching "Revolt of the Zombies" (1936). It was the longest hour I've sat through in some time. This was a sequel of sorts to director Victor Haperin's, earlier, better, film "White Zombie" (1932), and was also supposed to star Bela Lugosi, though footage of Lugosi's eyes from the earlier movie does appear throughout. Bela Lugosi was often criticized for taking roles in crappy movies. I think that whatever caused him to steer clear of this mess exonerates any other lapses in judgment he might have had.
The zombies in this movie aren't even zombies. They're hypnotised men carrying out the will of a master. Even though there's footage of Cambodian "zombie" soldiers being shot and not slowing down, they apparently are all alive, not reanimated dead. They are also only in the movie for a few minutes at the beginning, and a few minutes at the end. The rest of the movie is full of uninteresting characters played by amateurish actors participating in an archeological expedition to discover the secret of making zombies, while two men and a girl form a love triangle, which leads to misuse of the zombie inducing powers. The romantic dialogue, and the performances that deliver it, elevate similar scenes in "Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith" to a performance of "Romeo and Juliet" by the Royal Shakespeare Company. This movie isn't even in the it's so bad it's good category. Except for some interesting walking in place in front of a rear projection screen, meant to show men wading through water, I was not amused.
I liked "White Zombie" quite a bit. This movie was practically torture to sit through. I now understand what they mean in so many horror movies when they say that there are some things man is not meant to know. They were talking about this movie. Stay away at all costs.
Great poster though.
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