
The Plague of the Zombies
1966

Stranger things are happening than you ever dreamed of!
A wealthy landowner living in Haiti convinces a sorcerer to lure the woman he has fallen for away from her fiancé. The madman later betrays their agreement by keeping the woman for himself…as a zombie.

A wealthy landowner living in Haiti convinces a sorcerer to lure the woman he has fallen for away from her fiancé. The madman later betrays their agreement by keeping the woman for himself…as a zombie.
Bela LugosiLegendre
Madge BellamyMadeleine Short Parker
John HarronNeil Parker
Robert FrazerCharles Beaumont
Joseph CawthornDr. Bruner
Frederick PetersChauvin, a zombie
Brandon HurstSilver
Clarence MuseCoach Driver
Dan CrimminsPierre, the friendly witch doctor

















This is quite a decent little Zombie mystery with a wonderfully evocative opening few scenes as the couple drive to the eerie plantation home of "Beaumont" (Robert Frazer). Now I'm sure Haiti would be a beautiful place to marry in 2020, but back in the 1930s it was an island awash with voodoo and coffin lids that go bump in the night, so when "Beaumont" takes a shine to Madge Bellamy "Madeline" he turns to the local witch doctor "Legendre" (Lugosi) to help him lure her away from her dashing fiancée "Neil" (John Harron). It's got all the usual flaws: (really) poor writing; Bellamy is as theatrical as she can possibly be, but Lugosi is much less like a dodgy Austrian Archduke and the paucity of lighting actually helps to create a suspenseful atmosphere. It's certainly at the better end of the scale for these cheap and cheerful horror stories and well worth an hour of your time, late at night, after a wee cognac or three...
The first on-screen use of the word 'zombie'! A must watch if you are interested in the history of the horror genre, and although it is interesting, it's not the most entertaining. Robert Frazer was good as Beaumont and Lugosi was great as always, also has some nice matte painting work, but other than the historical significance, it's a pretty bog-standard early B-movie. 2/5







Availability for your region. Streaming data provided by JustWatch.

1966

2025

2015

1959

1975

2016

2018

2015

1977

1948

2002

1992

1964

2025

1957

1985

1972

2020

1975

1974