Revolt Of The Zombies

A Review by Steve Miller

Revolt of the Zombies (1936)
Starring: Dean Jagger and Dorothy Stone
Director: Victor Halperin
Revenant Rating: Three of Ten Hungry Zombies

At the height of World War I, a French officer (Jagger) brings to his
generals the ultimate weapon: the secret to creating impervious zombie
soldiers! Unfortunately, before the Cambodian monk can be made to share
this secret with the Europeans, he is murdered by a sinister enemy agent. A
military expedition is sent to the darkest heart of Cambodias jungles to
see if the secret can be recovered.

"Revolt of the Zombies" actually has a really interesting plot at its
heart. Too bad the filmmakers completely botched this movie, with awful
dialogue and pacing that is at once too slow and too fast--important events
happen off-screen and are then relayed to the viewers by the characters in
boring exposition. Worse, the movie ultimately chickens out in regards to
both its use of zombies in the story AND in regards to what seemed to have
been its message about the negative impact of European colonialism with an
"absoulte power corrupts absolutely." What's more... there ain't no damn
zombie revolt in the film (but that's because there aren't any real
zombies, either).

While I am more than used to seeing crappy low-budget horror movies--every
decade has produced its share, and I have a talent for picking those crappy
ones to watch--I was particuarly dissapointed and frustrated by this film
being as bad as it is. It was made as a follow-up to the 1932 movie "White
Zombie", a true classic that introduced zombies into the landscape of
popular culture. It was every bit as low-budget as "Revolt, yet the level
of quality between the two movies is so extreme that you'd never guess that
some of the same creators were involved with both movies.

Read more reviews by Steve Miller at
http://rottentomatoes.com/vine/j/SteveMiller