I have watched _White Zombie_ many times, yet I keep forgetting just how boring it is. The only reason I originally wanted to see it was because one of my favorite metal bands shares the same name, so I thought "how bad can it be?" Pretty bad, turns out.
So, first off, this is barely a horror movie. Sure, there are "zombies," but not in the _Night of the Living Dead_ sense; we're talking voodoo magic. The story is more a dark romance with horror shoved in.
Is there anything good about this? Obviously Bela Lugosi knocks this out of the park - the man was a horror icon. Madge Bellamy is also a highlight - I don't know if she was technically considered a vamp, but she had that classic beauty found in some of the women from that era.
Beyond that, the movie offers nothing. The acting is pretty bad, and in the way would have fit with the overacting needed for a silent film. In fact, would this have been silent, I think it would be vastly better.
I honestly believe there's a good story in here somewhere, but when you consider what _White Zombie_ is actually about, is gets creepy fast: a guy wants a girl, but he can't have her, so he gets Legendre to drug her to the point of being a walking vegetable.
Even if the film did everything else correct, it's completely undercut by the final line. I absolutely hate when humor is shoved into horror, and no era was more guilty of that than the 1930s.
Anyway, the movie is a must watch for fans of Lugosi, but only once.