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Victor Halperin's
horror film White Zombie (1932), written by Garnett Weston, introduced Hollywood to zombies.
A young white couple, Neil and Madeleine, arrive in Haiti and witness a funeral in
which people indulge in sinister dances. Along the road to their destination,
the coachman is scared when he sees strange-looking humans whom he calls
"zombies".
They finally reach the mansion of their host, Charles, a plantation owner.
The coachman leaves in a hurry arguing that there are zombies on the hills
nearby. Charles has invited them to get married in his house, but he confides
to his servant that he actually plans to seduce Madeleine and marry her himself.
He asks the help of voodoo master "Murder" Legendre (Bela Lugosi)
who runs a factory where the workers are zombies with no feelings.
Right after the wedding, Legendre makes the woman fall in a cataleptic state
that looks like death. She is buried, but one night the desperate groom finds
out that someone opened the grave and stole the corpse. The priest who married
them convinces him that she might be alive. She in fact is: she has become
a zombie, who plays the piano for Charles without any feeling. Charles is
as desperate as the groom, because he can't get any emotion out of her.
He begs Legendre to bring her back to real life, but Legendre reveals that
he is more interested in using her for a project of his.
The priest and the groom set out to find Madeleine and finally reach
Legendre's castle, where they have to battle an army of zombies. Eventually
they send Legendre flying down the castle and Madeleine returns to real life
thanks to her beau's love.
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