Horror Movie discussion: ZOMBIES

[zombie67]

As promised here are some takes on the zombie film that are different from our beloved brain-eating shamblers:

WHITE ZOMBIE



The image above is one of many available to buy on Amazon as the film is available as a public domain film, which means anybody could legally release the film. Be careful as there are some really awful quality versions out there.

Amazon.com:

Quote:Madeleine (Madge Bellamy) arrives at midnight to witness a mysterious burial before coming face to face with the satanic looking Murder Legendre (Lugosi with goatee and searing eyes) a hypnotist and voodoo master who has been supplying the local mills with an army of zombie laborers. Madeleine's nightmare is just beginning. Having landed in a world of almost perpetual night where hollow-eyed zombies lumber through the sugar mill and the ghostly town is eerily bereft of living souls she becomes the object of desire for Legendre whose plan to possess her involves her initiation to the world of the undead.

"Murder Legendre" has to be one of the greatest horror movie names of all time and the film uses Lugosi's hypnotic stare even better than Dracula.



I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE



The above is a double-bill with the great Karloff vehicle The Body Snatcher. If you can afford it I really recommend the great Val Lewton Boxset, which includes the above along with films like Cat People, Bedlam, Isle of the Dead and more. A truly excellent boxset of classic horror films!

IMDB:

Quote:A young Canadian nurse (Betsy) comes to the West Indies to care for Jessica, the wife of a plantation manager (Paul Holland). Jessica seems to be suffering from a kind of mental paralysis as a result of fever. When she falls in love with Paul, Betsy determines to cure Jessica even if she needs to use a voodoo ceremony, to give Paul what she thinks he wants.

As I mentioned on another thread this is actually a take on Jane Eyre but set in the West Indies with voodoo.



THE PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES



One of the great Hammer Horror films!

IMDB:

Quote:Young workers are dying because of a mysterious epidemic in a little village in Cornwall. Doctor Thompson is helpless and asks professor James Forbes for help. The professor and his daughter Sylvia travel to Thomson. Terrible things happen soon, beyond imagination or reality. Dead people are seen near an old, unused mine. Late people seem to live suddenly. Professor Forbes presumes that black magic is involved and someone has extraordinary power. He doesn't know how close he is: the dead become alive because of a magic voodoo-ritual, and so they must serve their master as mindless zombies...

I once had the pleasure of watching this film in a cold cave in Cornwall with dripping water everywhere. Very atmospheric and rather appropriate!



DEAD & BURIED



IMDB:

Quote:Potters Bluff, Rhode Island. may seem to be a sleepy little town. At least for the casual visitor and the local sheriff, Daniel Gillis. However, all of a sudden, there are a lot of strange murders where strangers or people passing through are killed by mobs of townspeople. Only Sheriff Gillis has no clue to what's going on. Fortunately, the town has an excellent undertaker, William G. Dobbs, who is happy to take care of this sudden death-wave which is good for his business. Gillis soon discovers clues that lead to many of the local inhabitants involved in the killings, including his own wife Janet

I really recommend this film as a great alternative zombie film and watch out for Jack Albertson, Grandpa Joe from Willie Wonka (1971), as the undertaker.



and to round off another OTT zombie comedy and this one stars Joe Piscopo

DEAD HEAT



IMDB:

Quote:Roger Mortis and Doug Bigelow are cops that are chasing crooks that are dead serious about crime. Or should I say they are chasing dead crooks perpetrating serious crimes? Seems some nutcase has learned how to bring back the dead and is sending them on crime sprees. Now these indestructable goons are in the way of officers Mortis and Bigelow. To even things up, when Mortis is killed (in the line of duty, of course) he gets a jump start from the Resurrection machine and takes the fight to the zombie bad guys.

"Roger Mortis"....see what they did there.

This might not be to everyone's taste but I like it and it has Vincent Price and Darren McGavin in it, what more could you want.