Michael Draine's Twisted Vista
White Zombie
(Roan) DVD $14.98
Featuring Bela Lugosi at his most Mephis-
tophelean, the Halperin Brothers’ White
Zombie (1932) is one of the most visually
stylized horror films of the early sound era.
Prior to the Roan Group's 1995 laserdisc,
White Zombie languished in that netherworld
of public domain 16mm dupes. For the film’s
DVD debut, Roan has undertaken further
restoration of this pervasively macabre,
operatic drama. Though still rife with splices,
Roan’s White Zombie is nothing less than
a revelation. The improved transfer reveals
previously obscured textures and critical
details, such as the star-filter gleam in
Lugosi’s eye as he mesmerizes an
adversary, or the clover/cruciform pattern
on Madge Bellamy’s gown, which echoes the
stone lattice that vignettes her descent
down a staircase left over from Universal’s
Dracula. While the music is as tinny
as ever, the lower noise floor makes the
grinding sound effects in the “mill of the
damned” sequence all the more chilling.
The DVD possesses the considerable asset
of a commentary by Gary Don Rhodes,
(author of White Zombie: Anatomy of
of a Horror Film) which, while adhering
to on-screen action, strikes a deliberate
balance of production history and
and analysis. To revisit White Zombie
with such an informed and insightful		Music Review Index
guide is to experience it anew.
Published in Scarlet Street #40,
December, 2000
		Twisted Cinema