Episode 101: White Zombie and Herd

The Undead Symphony

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This week, to start the new season, Michael and I are comparing old to new. Fair? Maybe not, but it is our show and it seemed a reasonable enough premise. And so a real-time game of Virus or Voodoo as we watch the 1932 Bela Lagosi "classic" White Zombie and the 2023 Herd.
Back in the black and white days of cinema men were real men, women were real women, and zombies were almost entirely created by voodoo. Bela Legosi was the star of the time, Dracula in his caped finery and he plays Haitian voodoo priest Legendre, hired by jealous aristo Beaumont to turn blonde bombshell Madeleine into a zombie who loves him. Did we like it? It was very dated. It is a classic and should be afforded the status as such, but slow and obvious, it was never a game changer, it was just one of the first. If it didn't have Legosi in the lead would it even be classed as a classic? Probably not. And thus we can only score it 4/10. And a generous 4/10 in that.
Coming out this summer we have Herd, virus not voodoo, and stars Ellen Adair, heading out with here partner on a camping in canoeing trip to repair their relationship. Does it work? Well, do we care? We kinda do after a while as both Jamie and Alex are well played. After a canoeing accident that was telegraphed they try to head to town to find help only to discover the zombie apocalypse under way. It has some very very good scenes, clever shots, but is let down by awful action sequences, red necks and paramilitary types who can't shoot for shit and the heavy overtones of a dead mother, abusive drunk father and an intolerant community. Still, most of it was shot well, and we scored it an above average 5.5/10.