Director: Steve Sekely
Year: 1943
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Zombie
Plot:
Traveling through the bayou, a group intending to investigate the strange causes surrounding his sisters' death stumbles onto a plot by her Nazi-scientist husband to create an army of zombies for the Third Reich and tries to stop him before it's too late
Review:
This here gets very little right. One of the few rather enjoyable elements present here is the fact that this one actually manages to spark off one of the earliest attempts ever at integrating the ideas of feminism in a horror film, with the concept of the reanimated wife refusing to follow orders given to her. After being given the backstory about her being of sound mind and relentless free spirit, these characteristics are carried over into her zombified state which exists despite his experimentation and formulas sparks a strong state of free will and individualism that's made all the more important due to the idea of it being his wife as a subject for his work that it manages to turn the film into a thinly-veiled allegory about marriage. There's a lot stated here about how their relationship works, and the influx of zombism at the end gives a nice gloss-over into this working order.
This is then further enhanced with the voodoo and chemical experimentations working against him. Aside from this, though, there isn't much else to this one other than a few decent action scenes involving the zombies at work. The opening is easily its best, as it starts with the creepy silhouettes walking in the dark, all the way through to the creature emerging from a coffin in a long, slow, and creepy shot. This one works wonders for both its mystery and great imagery. Likewise, the last big positive is the really fun ending that feels reminiscent of so many Universal attempts by throwing the real action scenes in one spot, from the shifting alliances and full actualization of its premise all the way to the chase out into the swamps where it really gets some fun to give it's only real positives.
This one here only has a couple of flaws, but they are major ones. The first one is the film's major boredom from inactivity due to the tendency to do everything with talking rather than anything else, to the point where almost nothing happens in here. There are only intermittent scenes relegated to the zombies, yet there's nothing here that devotes any action to the film. This one simply doesn't have any action, and that's what hurts the film. It rarely generates scenes that keep the interest going, and at times, this makes it feel a lot longer than it really is. The last flaw in the film are it's pathetic excuses for zombies. Those used to more modern fare will have a hard time getting any fear out of these creatures, and they really only serve several scenes. This here doesn't treat the zombies as threats, making them even less frightening. Little screentime, nonthreatening nature, and un-modern behavior from these zombies really destroys this one. These are what really hurt the film.
Overview: **/5
A rather weak if somewhat enjoyable zombie effort, this one manages to get some likable factors with it that do get wiped out quite a bit by the series of drawbacks throughout here. Those with an appreciation for this era of the genre or who are fans of the creative crew will have a lot to like here, while most others out there should heed caution.
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