It's hard to believe that zombies existed before George Romero's Night of the Living Dead hit the cinemas in 1968, but they did. That movie may have rocked everyone's undead world and brought the horrors of zombies to the mainstream movie-goer, but it wasn't the first zombie film ever. Romero's film paved the way for the subgenre by providing us with gory special effects and socially relevant themes, but more than three decades before his release, another developed the blueprint. Hollywood's resident and forever Dracula, Bela Lugosi, starred in the first-ever zombie film called White Zombie.
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What Is 'White Zombie' About?
Directed by Victor Halperin,White Zombie (1932) is based on the 1929 book The Magic Island by William Seabrook. The film follows a woman named Madeline (Madge Bellamy) who is traveling to Haiti where she falls under a spell set by voodoo master Murder Legendre, played by Lugosi. Legendre runs a sugar mill that is entirely staffed by what we eventually come to learn are the undead or zombies. He is hired by Monsieur Beaumont (Robert Frazer), who wishes to take Madeline away from her husband, Neil (John Harron), so they can run away and be together. In a very enchanting and hypnotic manner, Legendre casts a spell on an unsuspecting Madeline (it's giving Dracula, Lugosi). Beaumont gets his wish, but he doesn't love the results. Madeline is emotionless and a shell of a human, so Beaumont demands Legendre change her back, but he has other plans. Legendre uses the same spell to make Beaumont a zombie and uses both of them to add to his collection of zombies. Neil is grieving in the background but is convinced Madeline is still alive and attempts to find her.
Where Did the Word 'Zombie' Originate From?
According to linguistic scholar Maximilian Schele de Vere, as cited in NPR, a "zombi" (commonly spelled without the E until White Zombie was released) is "a phantom or a ghost, not infrequently heard in the Southern States in nurseries and among the servants." By the mid 1800s, a "zombi" was thought of as closely connected to African tradition and culture. When Seabrook traveled to Haiti, he saw voodoo cults and referred to what he saw as zombies. In the chapter "Dead Men Working in the Cane Fields" of his book, Seabrook describes the zombie as "a soulless human corpse, still dead, but taken from the grave and endowed by sorcery with a mechanical semblance of life." This book and description became the basis for White Zombie, but instead of the zombies being of Haitian descent, white tourists became the zombies.
'White Zombie' Created the Original Tropes
Along with the 1914 film Voodoo, White Zombie set the basis for zombie movie tropes. (Many of those tropes changed after Night of the Living Dead though.) Voodoo didn't specifically feature zombies, but it did center around a Caribbean Island and featured voodoo practices, which trace back to those same roots of creating a devoid human known as the zombie. These two films combined created the specific rules for a zombie film: it will be set in a tropical climate surrounded by voodoo-conscious natives, there will be an evil overlord who wants to control others, the villain will use a drug to make his victims the undead, and then he will use those mindless corpses to do his bidding. These tropes have vastly changed over the years. Zombies now are associated with lots of brain-eating and have very little to do with tropical climates; however, the emotionless and easily controlled narrative is still alive and kicking. White Zombie also set the precedent that the zombies won't stop until they have been completely eviscerated. The appearance that Halperin created for his zombies is an inspiration for other creatures as well. The ghastly white skin and bug eyes with no life behind them are more directly used as inspiration for movies like Carnival of Souls.
Bela Lugosi and Hal Horne Created the Zombie Hype
White Zombie was also one of the first films to use creative marketing tactics to draw audiences in to watch the film. Hal Horne was in charge of the public relations for the film and used sounds and visuals to draw them in. Horne really wanted to find new ways to make the film successful. White Zombie was already receiving some notice because of Lugosi. He was fresh off his defining role as Dracula in 1931, so it's likely that audiences would already be rolling in to see how he could provide the creep factor. However, Horne still commanded audiences to hit the Rivoli Theater in New York by placing nine zombies above the theater marquee. In addition to that, he played zombie-esque sounds through the loudspeaker. The soothing sounds of screeching vultures, the sounds of sugar mills, and the ominous beating of a tom-tom drum echoed through the streets and during the movie to make audiences fully immersed in the scare zone. White Zombie ended up being a success at the box office, which allowed Halperin to receive a contract from Paramount Pictures. White Zombie created a cult following and enjoyed life after theater death by becoming a midnight showing where the audience would participate in the film, much like we see nowadays with classics such as Rocky Horror Picture Show. Lugosi's character leaned really hard into the attributes that made Dracula a success. Lugosi could command a room with his hypnotic stare and his entrances. They're stronger than The Undertaker emerging from the smoke on WWE and walking to the ring to put his opponent in a grave.
White Zombie also inspired Rob Zombie. Zombie, whose real name is Robert Cummings, made his stage name Rob Zombie and his band name White Zombie to pay homage to the film. So White Zombie may not be the most popular or scariest zombie film out there, but it is the first and deserves more credit for creating the genre as we know it today. Halperin and Lugosi's zombies meandered slowly so that Romero's and Zack Snyder's could trudge just as slowly. White Zombie can be streamed on Tubi or Prime Video.
